Jul 29 2008
Beijing is not the first Olympic host city subjected to scrutiny of its air quality and pollution. In the months before the start of the 2004 Athens Olympics, that city's notorious air pollution was the subject of some media coverage. But it was small compared to the attention focused on Beijing's problems thus far.
Coverage of Beijing's environmental issues has been more than 10 times that of Athens' in the seven months prior to each event, according to analysis by Dow Jones Insight of more than 2,000 mainstream media sources published during both time periods.
From January 1 through July 31, 2004, there were 353 documents mentioning environmental issues related to the Athens Games in the analyzed newspapers, magazines and newswires. In comparison, during the first seven months of 2008, there were 4,216 documents mentioning environmental issues related to Beijing as the host city.
The striking difference in coverage may be a reflection of current growing worldwide concern over the state of the environment and the effects of global warming, whereas before the 2004 Games the primary focus of attention was on domestic and international terrorism in Greece.