Media disaster coverage over time: Methodological issues and results

In 2000 disaster struck Enschede in The Netherlands. Due to explosions at a fireworks factory, 22 people were killed. This study aims to describe the developments in the media coverage of this disaster. Content analysis was performed on 4928 articles, derived from four distinct newspapers. After a period of intense coverage, media attention for the disaster declined. In this first month 772 articles were run (local paper 457, national papers 315). After three years this number is approximately 30 articles per month. This decline can be best described by an inverse function. This paper focuses on the changes in the amount of news coverage, and concentrates on some methodological issues researchers encounter when they try to analyse the news coverage of a disaster over time