“Under the Weather”: The Weather Effects on U.S. Newspaper Coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Abstract

By using computer-aided content analysis, this study examined how Beijing's weather, which was measured by the Air Pollution Index (API), temperature, and cloudiness (sunny or cloudy), might influence the coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics by 4 U.S. newspapers. The results demonstrated that the API and temperature were significantly related to the negativity of the news reports that were filed from Beijing. Specifically, as Beijing's temperature rose or air pollution level increased, U.S. journalists used more negative words in reporting on the Olympics. The temperature was also correlated with the negativity of China-related reports. The findings provided evidence that journalists’ news decision making might be influenced by a greater variety of factors than we previously thought. To better understand how journalists make news decisions, it is necessary to explore not only known patterns of journalistic practices but also some exogenous factors, such as weather.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge the editors, Stephen D. Perry and Kim Bissell, and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript, although any errors are ours.

Notes

Note. For Step 1, R ² = .27, p < .01; for Step 2, ΔR ² = .38, p < .01. API = Air Pollution Index.

*p < .05. **p < .01.

Note. Source: China's State Environment Protection Agency.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bu Zhong

Bu Zhong (Ph.D., University of Maryland, 2006) is Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at The Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include decision-making theories studying judgments and decisions regarding information use, ranging from news to sports information and social media.

Yong Zhou

Yong Zhou (Ph.D., Renmin University of China, 2008) is Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Renmin University of China. His research concentrates on media effects, especially TV news media.