We covered the National Marine Manufacturers Association NMMA public comments on the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Recreational Vessel Propeller Strikes and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in our regulations section.
At the close of our coverage, we presented a wordle of NMMA’s comments.
This post presents a much larger version of that wordle. Read More→
The third in a series of posts investigating news media coverage of propeller accidents. We continue with our study using news media coverage of the Gabby DeSouza February 5, 2011 boat propeller accident as our example. This one follows our Phase 2 The Hospital Stay Wordle.
This time we analyzed several news media articles of her release from St. Mary’s Medical Center (the hospital). The specific articles we used are listed briefly below:
Now we would anticipate seeing thanks and gratitude being expressed, some comments from family members, and lots of hugs from the medical staff and other caregivers. Read More→
This article is a continuation of our series investigating news media coverage of propeller accidents by using wordles of a collection of news articles about a specific accident. It follows, Phase 1 Breaking News Coverage of Propeller Accidents.
We continue to study news media coverage of the same boat propeller accident, Gabby DeSouza injured by a boat propeller Februrary 5, 2011 near Palm Beach Florida.
This time we analyze a group of news media reports shortly after she had been in the hospital for a month. The five specific articles we used to create the wordle are briefly listed below.
As mentioned in our Phase 1 post, we would anticipate seeing her name, learning some more about her, some mention of finances, physical therapy, prosthesis, surgeries, her family and her interactions with her friends. Read More→
We mentioned in our earlier post on using wordles to explore propeller safety topics our intention of using wordles to identify common threads in media coverage of propeller accidents. For those not familiar with wordles, they are a form of word art in which the relative size of a word represents its relative frequency in the text being studied. This post is the first of a series exploring the use of wordles to better understand news media coverage of propeller accidents.
As we have looked at thousands of news reports of propeller accidents and their victims, we see common threads in printed and televised news media coverage, especially in the coverage of high profile propeller accidents resulting in critically injuries. News media coverage of a propeller accident typically begins with a news bulletin including the sex and approximate age of the victim, the location of the accident, date and approximate time of the accident, a mention of the propeller being or possibly being involved, and citing officials on the scene. These initial reports also often mention the victim being life flighted by a specific service to a named hospital. Law enforcement officials often mention an investigation is in progress to determine the cause of the accident and may note alcohol or negligence on the behalf of others may have contributed to the accident. Other family members on the scene are sometimes identified by position only (father, mother, brother, uncle) and not by name. The area of their body struck by the propeller is often identified (legs, thigh, arm, torso, etc.). Read More→
Wordles are a form of word art. They display the frequency of use of individual words in a passage of text by the relative font size of the word in an image. The individual words are displayed all jumbled together in colorful, eye pleasing collection of fonts and colors. As we view wordles, we begin to make associations of the various words and see the prominence of some words in the text from them being displayed in much larger fonts. We will be using wordles to deepen our understanding of propeller safety topics. Read More→