The purpose of this paper is to explore the functions or dysfunctions of the various local media played at the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake , by analyzing the content of several major printed or handwritten media circulated in Kobe City from 17th January to 31th March, 1995, from quick response to the recovery period. This study was originally conducted with the research fund of the Ministry of Education ( in detail, see Mikami and Nakamura, 1998).

1.1 Media Environment in the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake

1.2 Information needs after the earthquake

1.2 Method of Content Analysis

Table 1.1 Information wanted by the residents a week after the Hanshin-Awaji

Main Categories Sub Categories and Illustrations

01 Store on business Various stores, bank, or gas stations available

02 Medical care Hospitals, clinics, and medicines available

03 Mental care Counselors or psychiatrists available

04 Job or labor Job available, labor insurance

05 Bath Public bathhouse or spa vailable

06 Free Food Service

07 Weather information

08 Volunteer Raising, entrusting volunteers

09 Personal safety Schools, groups, or individuals

10 Residence [Sub Categories] 01 Shelters

11 Consultation [Sub Categories]

12 Event Concert, Movie, other events

13 Laundromat (Coin Laundry)

14 Financing Loans, stipend, or moratorium

15 Funeral Funeral, keeping cremains

16 Wisdom of living [Sub Categories] 01 Clothing

17 Traffic Trains, buses, or ships available.

18 Education Schedule of Schools, Colleges and Universities

19 Lifeline [Sub Categories] 01 Electricity supply

20 Telephones Restoration, temporary phones, etc.

21 Information Service Broadcast, Fax Info, Voice Mail, etc.

22 Insurance

23 Tax

24 Economy & price

25 Contribution

26 Social Welfare Home relief, welfare for disabled, pension

27 Municipal service Registration, issuance of certificates,etc.

28 Debris clearance

29 Discount sale

30 Tourism

31 Pet

32 Restoration

33 Human stories

34 Free services

35 Laws

36 Other

One of the most prominent aspects of the disaster reportings at the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake was that both national and local newspapers featured "Daily Life Information" pages for the affected people. Updated news on housings, casualties, medical cares, transportation, education, commodities, bathhouses, consultations , and other information needed by the local affected residents were provided on the special pages everyday after the earthquake. We focused on these pages and conducted content analysis of the articles on the Kobe Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun Osakain in order to clarify the actual flows of the information needed by the residents. In this paper, we report the result of content analysis of the Kobe Shimbun.

2.1 Kobe Shimbun

2.2 Result of Content Analysis

Figure 2.1 shows the aggregate area of each category included in all articles of the Kobe Shimbun. The largest space was given to the information of "traffic or transportation". Next comes the "human story", followed by "housings(dwellings)" and "consultation".

Figure 2.1 Space measured by aggregated area of categories (Kobe Shimbun)

Figure 2.4 Space measured by subcategories of lifeline utilities (theKobe Shimbun)

‚R�D‚P Outline of MCM and Analytic method

MCM(Mini Communication Media) are defined here as magazines or newspapers distributed to a relatively small number of people. After the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, many MCM were published in the disaster-struck area. Table3.1 shows the list of major MCM. Almost all the MCM were leaflets of A3 or B4(or legal)size and were printed by copying machines.

Table3.1 MCM published after the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake 1/17/95-3/31/95

There are three kinds of MCM. (1)MCM published at the shelters(such as gymnasiums or schools).Victims or volunteers published them for people in the shelters. (2)MCM published by local volunteer groups which were active in cities or wards. (3)Newspaper Extra Edition published by newspaper companies. These were made, not by normal editing systems, but by the business department and by the customer center of the newspaper companies as a volunteer activity. this three-fold typology was the modified version of Maruyama's four typologies(Maruyama,1995).

Our analytic subjects were ten kinds of the MCM: "HINAN SHIMBUN", "ROKKOU STEP", "KOBE UNIV. NEWSPAPER EXTRA EDITION", "CHUO NANDEMO KAWARABAN","DAILY NEEDS","SUMA VOLUNTEER DAYORI","LIFE INFORMATION","LIFE LINE", "YOMIURI EXTRA EDITION of MOBILE BRANCH","SANKEI SPECIAL EXTRA EDITION".

The analytic method is almost the same as in the case of the newspapers. The difference is that in case of MCM we counted the number of the articles of the life-related information instead of space(area). This is because was quite difficult to measure the area of an article in the MCM due to the irregular size and formats. As we did in the local newspaper, we counted an article with any independent headline as the smallest unit of analysis. If a similar article was followed by another, we counted them as one article article. Any one article was always classified into one main category, and we did not double-code. If an article contained multiple contents, and if it has the multiple small headwords, we regarded it as separate articles. Concerning the articles about "consultation" "residence" "life line", we further classified them into sub categories. In many cases, MCM's article included multiple sub categories. In such case, we didn't count the number of articles, but the number of pieces of information that are carried. In the case of "consultation " for example, when multiple different consulting windows were introduced within one article, we counted the number of consultation windows�D

In MCM, the most frequently appeared article was about "consultations". The articles about "consultations" were more than any other articles in "ROKKOU STEP", "KOBE UNIV. NEWSPAPER EXTRA EDITION", "CHUO NANDEMO KAWARABAN", "LIFE INFORMATION", "LIFE LINE", "YOMIURI EXTRA EDITION of Mobile Branch". (fig.3.1-fig.3.4) During the investigation periods, the number of the articles regarding "consultations" did not change and kept a certain level. Regarding the sub categories of the "consultations", we found many information about " medical care", " mental care", " residence", "foreigner", "education", "insurance", "tax", "welfare", and "law". In these fields, the problems of residents were varied, and special knowledge was necessary for each of the solutions. We can estimate that MCM publishers depended on special consultation windows, because it was difficult for them MCM to treat these problems themselves. As various organizations opened the consultation windows in these fields in the early period of recovery, there were articles which introduced consultation windows. Therefore, there were many articles of consultations in MCM, but this did not always mean that the residents or evacuees seriously needed such kinds of information.

The second frequently appeared pieces of information in all the MCM were regarding "residence" "bath" and "medical care".(fig.3.1-fig.3.4) Regarding sub categories of "residence", the information about "shelters" appeared most frequently in almost all the MCM. The introduced objects here were public residence of local governments outside the stricken area or vacant room of the general individual ("home stay"). Because immediately after the earthquake, the season of entrance examinations had just began, many information on home stay for students were provided on MCM. Because the residences of many people received heavy damage, and 310,000 people at the maximum were living at public shelters, the "residence" was clearly one of the largest interest for the affected residents.

The destruction of the houses might be one reason, but mainly the destroyed lifeline such as water or gas supply caused the need for some information as "bath" service. Regionally, the outage of water and gas supply lasted until the April. Since it was a cold season, a need of bathing was less serious than in a summer season. However, it should be notice that in order to keep cleanliness and to recover the fatigue, bathing seemed indispensable to most Japanese residents. Similar to the newspaper and the radio, MCM were quite eager to introduced the public bathes that were available.

Fig3.1 Number of the article ("HINAN SHIMBUN","ROKKO STEP","KOBE UNIV. NEWS")

In the information of "medical care " MCM mainly introduced hospitals that could give medical treatment. Not only injury at the earthquake but also medical troubles of individuals (chronic disease for example) needed medical care. And information on distribution of food for allergic patient and on supply of medicines for diabetics were also often given.

Some MCM contain many articles on, "Stores on business","Laundromat" ,"free food service", "free service" ,"event", and "volunteer". ("stores on business" fig.3.3,fig.3.2; "Laundromat" fig.3.3; "warm food" fig.3.1,fig.3.2; "free distribution" fig.3.3; "event" fig.3.3 ;"volunteer" fig.3.3)

Of course the residents wanted information on "stores on business" for daily needs, but this kind of information was also important for rehabilitation of stores and self-reliance of victims. According such information, volunteers could terminate the free distribution of the goods which were already available at the stores. Mass media and publicity paper couldn't give the information of stores, because the number

Fig.3.2 Number of the articles �i"DAILY NEEDS","LIFE INFORMATION"(YMCA)�j
was too large to list up. However, MCM were targeting narrow local areas and so they could give this kind of information. The information on Laundromats was especially useful, because water supply had been stopped for a long time and there were few washing machines available at the shelters. "Free food service" and "free service" were executed in many places in the affected area. MCM were effective to disseminate such kind of information. "Free food service" had two functions; originally for nutrition and secondarily for entertainment. A free distribution of clothes and a free haircut were main programs in the "free service". However there was also unreliable information to just draw customer' attention, for example "glasses lens for free", inside the "free service".

Fig.3.3 Number of the articles�i"CHUO NANDEMO..","SUMA VOLUNTEER..","LIFE LINE"�j

There were two kind of information on "volunteers" .One was to recruit volunteers, and the other was to introduce the services that the volunteers provided. The latter might be especially valid for the residents. Putting things in order in the rooms, scooping water, finding valuables under the debris, stretching a seat for a naked roof were the works done by volunteer group. And these were welcomed especially by the aged and the handicapped. Many publishers also served volunteer activities, so they could easily get such information on volunteers.

Fig. 3.4 Number of the article("SANKEI SPECIAL EXTRA","YOMIURI EXTRA")

Although there was only one MCM, "CHUO NANDEMO KARARABAN", which picked up the information regarding recycling frequently, we think this kind of information was quite useful for the residents. On the one hand many people lost the household goods by the earthquake disaster, on the other hand the useful objects were invented by the relocation. The most needed tool at shelter was washing machine.

On the other hand, the information on maintaining minimum life condition immediately after the disaster(eg. the location and the time of water and food distribution, the location of refuges) and, the information whose sources were outside the local area (eg. information about water supply, gas supply, telephone service, and traffic) was not given by the MCM. Because the most of the MCM started publishing two or three weeks after the earthquake, they couldn't satisfy the needs for such information. Also they couldn't supply the information on life line utilities enough, because of the shortage of the news gathering. As for this kind of information, secondary information from mass media might be effective.

‚S�DMunicipal publicity papers

In Japan, almost all the local governments issue periodical publicity papers for their residents usually in a monthly interval. After the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, many local governments(Hyogo Prefecture, cities and towns) which were severely damaged published special issues for the affected local residents in shorter interval than usual. Table 4.1 shows some examples of publicity papers issued by local governments during the aftermath period. In this study we analyzed four different publicity papers and fax newsletters issued by Hyogo Prefecture and of Kobe City:"SHINSAI NEWS", "LIFE INFORMATION THROUGH FAX NETWORK", "KOBE

Table 3.2 publicity papers published by the local governments

‚S�D‚P SHINSAI NEWS", "LIFE INFORMATION THROUGH FAX NETWORK", "KOBE PUBLICITY PAPER"

Every publicity papers transmitted information well about "consultation", "residence", "financing", and "medical care". Many more articles about financing were found compared with the case of the MCM. Two types of information were given in publicity papers. The first was the information on policy practiced by the local governments themselves. Such information was also given in normal publicity papers. Most of the information in "SINSAI NEWS" and " KOBE PUBLICITY PAPER FOR EARTHQUAKE DISASTER" was of this kind.

Fig.4.1 Number of the article

Here information on the housing policy, financing, traffic was well transmitted (eg. the information about the setting of rescue stations of the public organizations, and the information on bus operated by Kobe city). The second was the information which the local administrative organizations collected by using their special knowledge or their advantageous positions. For example, Hyogo Daily-life Science Center, using it's knowledge of consumer consultation, informed well about house electricity products, insurance, and warning for dishonest business. The center transmitted this informations by FAX machines through a kind of VAN(value added network; called "F-NET") to all the shelters in disaster area. But the publicity papers did not transmit enough information other than these two categories(eg. about "store business", "hospital in business", "bath", "volunteer", "entertainment event").

Fig. 4.2 Number of the article ("KOBE PUBLICITY PAPER FOR EARTHQUAKE DISASTER")

4.2 Kobe Disaster Information on Fax

0 Updated information (Summary)

1 Life information (gas, water,etc)

2 Housing (Temporary housing, public apartment, etc)

3 Medical and Welfare infomation

4 Traffic/Transportation information

5 Environment (Garvage collection, debris clearance, etc)

6 Other

7 Telephon numbers for consultation

8 Kobe Publicity Paper (Copy)

We analyzed all the original manuscripts of the fax newsletters provided from January 29 to March 31. The unit of analysis was an independent information piece classified into one category of the 36 items, the same as we used in the local papers and MCM. We measured the space of each article by counting "pages" it shared. For example, if an article shares one-fourth of a page, then we counted it as 0.25 (page).

Figure 4.3 Space of articles on the Fax newsletters classified into 36 categories

However, unlike newspapers or MCM, some of the Kobe City Fax information was not renewed everyday, in other words, some of the information from fax continued unchanged for several days until updated information came in and replaced the older one. We also counted these unchanged information and coded it as "old information", while updated information was coded "new information".

The largest reason of this difference is that the Kobe City government was responsible for raising and managing the public temporary housings and they provided information on it. It should be noted, however, that there was a gap between the large quantitly of space given to the housings and the relatively small percentage of actual usage (Table 4.2). We should further examine whether the residents who really wanted this kind of information could use fax machines easily or not.

Figure 4.5 compares the total space of "new" information with "old" information for each category. The largest space of "new" information was on "lifeline", followed by "traffic/transportation", "bath service", "medical care". We find positive ecorrelation between the space of "new" information and the actual quantity of usage (Table 4.2). The newer information were more likely to be used by the residents. This suggests the strong needs for "fresh" information regarding daily life matters.

The content analysis of the Kobe Shimbun shows that the information on the traffic or tranportation in Kobe area had the largest space in the 36 main categories. There are several reasons for this prominence. Firstly, the traffic information was actually very important for restoring urban life in Kobe area. Secondly, traffic information was updated everyday and was generally thought to be essentially important .Thirdly, in such big city as Kobe there were hundreds of public transportation facilities and most of them were severely damaged, therefore traffic or transportation-related information required much space on the page. However, comparing with other information which had higher demand such as lifeline restoration, the space allocated for traffic or transportation was rather exceeded than was necessary. Regarding the lifeline information, there was also some imbalance in coverage, that is , the information on the gas supply was not provided enough compared with the water supply. The information on "consultation" and "housing (residence)" was also heavily covered by the Kobe Shimbun. Relatively larger area of circulation than MCM influenced the contents of life-related information and resulted in the differnce from the MCM and municipal publicity media.

As for the MCM and publicity papers, they provided the information about "consultations" and "residence (housing)" most frequently . However, unlike the newspapers MCM informed less about "traffic" and "education". And in the MCM, there were much information which was directly relating to everyday life (e.g. information on "bath", "medical care", "store", "Laundromat", "warm food", "free distribution") and also information about volunteers ("volunteer", and "event"). Because the MCM gave the information which was familier to the residents, there were much useful information included in them. Thus we think the MCM were more useful than the newspapers for the community residents or evacuees in shelters . In the publicity papers, there were many information about "financing", "traffic", and "administrative services". The publicity papers transmitted mostly the information on policy practiced by the local governments, and the information collected using their special knowledge and their positions. Also most information provided through Fax was not updated for a long time, thus lacked in freshness. So we think the information on publicity papers could not necessarily meet the needs of the affected citizens.

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