Social and Genetic Ties Drive Skewed Cross-Border Media Coverage of Disasters

TL;DR

This study analyzes global media coverage of natural disasters, revealing biases towards certain events and highlighting the influence of social and genetic ties on cross-border reporting, which impacts global empathy and climate change response.

Contribution

It introduces a large-scale dataset and an event study framework to quantify cross-border media attention and its relation to social and genetic connections.

Findings

Media coverage is skewed towards earthquakes, accidents, and wildfires.

Disasters with higher death tolls attract more international media attention.

Social and genetic ties significantly influence cross-border disaster reporting.

Abstract

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of natural disasters worldwide. Media coverage of these events may be vital to generate empathy and mobilize global populations to address the common threat posed by climate change. Using a dataset of 466 news sources from 123 countries, covering 135 million news articles since 2016, we apply an event study framework to measure cross-border media activity following natural disasters. Our results shows that while media attention rises after disasters, it is heavily skewed towards certain events, notably earthquakes, accidents, and wildfires. In contrast, climatologically salient events such as floods, droughts, or extreme temperatures receive less coverage. This cross-border disaster reporting is strongly related to the number of deaths associated with the event, especially when the affected populations share strong social ties or genetic similarities with those in the reporting country. Achieving more balanced media coverage across different types of natural disasters may be essential to counteract skewed perceptions. Further, fostering closer social connections between countries may enhance empathy and mobilize the resources necessary to confront the global threat of climate change.