Testing the credibility of historical newspaper reporting of extreme climate and weather events

In recent years, newspaper research has been streamlined by digitisation and online hosting by PapersPast. This paper tests the reliability and credibility of reporting of extreme weather and climatic events through PapersPast to determine if newspaper research of past climate can be further streamlined. Searches were conducted through four early‐20th‐century Auckland newspapers, where counts of articles returned by key‐word searches for particular periods were compared against periods of known extremes. We find that blind searches have only limited potential in identifying extreme weather and climatic events and that they are no substitute for thorough analyses of documentary sources.     

基于报纸媒体内容分析和信息熵的广交会综合影响力时空分布

从报纸媒体的角度研究广交会作为重大事件的综合影响力的时空分布特点。以中国知网(http://www.cnki.net/) 所属“中国重要报纸全文数据库”(CCND) 2000-05-05 到2011-05-30 时间段内“广交会”为主题的4333 条新闻报道为研究文本, 通过传播学中的内容分析法建构分析类目, 统计类目包括新闻的时间、所属的届数与期数、报社所在城市、新闻版面、新闻字数等, 共由3 个编码员进行统计, 并对类目编码进行信度检测。在对新闻内容进行计量统计的基础上, 引进信息熵度量信息量, 利用信息熵和报道篇数构建广交会综合影响力指标, 进一步构建广交会空间综合影响力指数方程, 分析广交会综合影响力在全国的分布情况, 并检验综合影响力指标和经济指标的相关性。结果发现:① 从时间分布来看, 以新闻报道数量来衡量, 在事件(广交会) 进行时其综合影响力存在时间衰减现象, 各展期综合影响力的年际变化则呈现为周期性的年度重复现象。② 从空间分布来看, 广交会综合影响力空间分布与城市参展商数量、经济情况和距离有着密切的联系:受影响大的城市主要集中在沿海经济发达的省份, 受影响小的城市主要分布在西部和北部, 整体上综合影响力大小和城市分布的密度由东到西递减;综合影响力总体上存在显著的空间距离衰减, 但对于北京和上海这两个特殊城市而言, 空间距离已经不是广交会综合影响力的主要因素, 而在广交会举办地的“当地”(广东省内) 较短的距离内, 距离衰减并不显著, 当空间距离超出一定范围, 则存在明显的距离衰减现象。     

编发AB报农气部分应注意的一些问题

根据规范和实践工作经验,提出编发AB报农气部分应注意的问题,以利于台站编报人员正确编报,提高编报质量。     

“Playing With Fire” in a Pre-Election Period: Newspaper Coverage of 2007 Wildfires in Greece

Newspaper coverage of 2007 wildfires in Greece was examined within a pre-election period. Interpretative repertoires are presented that were employed by two newspapers, each aligned to one of the two leading parliamentary parties at that time. Media discourse was framed within the emergency character of the fire suppression paradigm, while fire was mistreated as unexpected and “unnatural,” namely, not integral to Mediterranean ecosystem dynamics. Depiction of the government focused on dealing with fire episodes and was marked by newspaper partisanship. This might have obscured the responsibility of political leadership to account for long-term rural socioeconomic trends, such as agricultural abandonment and rural depopulation, which might have added to fire hazard. Newspaper content was marked by the interpretative repertoire of “asymmetric threat,” launched by the government to shape wildfires as the result of a supposed conspiracy plan and, thereby, to overcome blame for its failures.