HOW THE 2004 INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI WENT FROM BEING A TIDAL WAVE TO A TSUNAMI AND WHAT THIS MEANS FOR SCIENCE LITERACY

On the day of the December 26, 2004, tsunami, most newspaper and wire service reports referred to the destructive ocean waves as tidal waves or used the terms, tidal waves and tsunami(s), interchangeably. Only 5% exclusively used the term, tsunami. However, within four days, over 80% of articles were only using tsunami to refer to the event. Since that time, more than 95% of newspaper and wire service reports of other major tsunamis have exclusively used the term tsunami. Understanding what caused the media to permanently shift from a colloquial to a scientific term has implications for improving inter scientist-media-general public communication on other topics, including, climate change. We contacted journalists who reported on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to investigate what caused this nearly instantaneous and permanent shift in how the media describe tsunamis. Using the LexisNexis® Academic database, we generated a list of reporters whose articles initially either used tidal wave exclusively, or interchangeably used tidal wave and tsunami, but whose later articles used only tsunami. Reporters were then contacted via email or phone calls. Responses revealed two main reasons for the shift and for why the shift occurred so quickly. As we had hypothesized, some reporters used tsunami because the scientists from whom they were obtaining information were using that word. The other reason lies in the roles of editors. For example, within a few days of the event, editors at the Associated Press sent out emails instructing reporters to only use tsunami. When entire news organizations mandate a change in the reporting of a significant event, it can lead to widespread acceptance of that change. A counter example that occurred on December 26th, when an editor changed a reporter’s text from tsunami to tidal wave, is also instructive. Our findings suggest that the science literacy of editors is critical to the use of appropriate scientific terminology in news reports. We encourage scientists not only to comply with reporters’ requests for interviews, but also to make concerted efforts to clearly convey scientific concepts and terminology directly to news editors.