Three years after Fukushima: Renewables are the ‘losers’of German energy transformation

Coverage of nuclear energy and renewables on international TV news shows

Zurich, March 11, 2014 — Three years after the Fukushima nuclear accident and the German Government’s turnaround in energy policy, there are only ‘losers’ in the media coverage of the energy transformation. “In media reports on this topic, risks are significantly stronger than opportunities and a positive outlook,” says Roland Schatz, Founder and CEO of Media Tenor International. “Furthermore, critics of renewables have a larger influence than nuclear energy critics.”

Even though the debate was accompanied by a certain spirit of optimism — in the first months after the Fukushima accident and the Germans’ decision to abandon nuclear power — there is nothing left of this mood today. In contrast, frustration and skepticism dominate the media debate as rising electricity prices and a rebound of CO2 emissions have demonstrated that Germany cannot change its tracks in the energy policy without paying a price. Neither the arguments of the nuclear power faction, nor those of the supporters of renewables tend to be accepted in the media as a convincing alternative.

Only on German TV news does the debate on the role and risks of nuclear power and the promise of renewables remain a relevant topic even three years after the accident in Fukushima. The Fukushima incident has not really changed the relevance of this issue on U.S. TV news or on BBC news.

For this study, Media Tenor has analyzed all 3,127 reports on nuclear energy and all 961 reports on renewables out of 747,301 reports, in total, in 13 international TV news shows. The average inter-coder reliability in the 4th quarter of 2013 was 86.38 %.