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Media bias distorts details of past earthquakes

04-03-2007 · EurekAlert!

The story of some violent historic earthquakes may need to be revisited, according to a study published in the April issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Seismologists rely on written accounts, mostly local newspaper articles, to judge how strongly the ground shook during earthquakes that predate the use of current instrumentation. Those news accounts have proven to be misleading, say scientists, and reliance upon them must be tempered when evaluating the size of past earthquakes.

Keywords: media, bias, distorts, details, past, earthquakes, bia, distort, detail, earthquake

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