Japan Workshop at Sophia University invites you to an evening of two talks on disaster media.

A Disaster Unfolds: Portrayals of 3.11 in Japan's Online and Offline News Leslie M. Tkach-Kawasaki, Associate Professor University of Tsukuba

News, Narratives and the Local Newspaper: Aomori Newspaper Coverage of the Great East Japan Earthquake Anthony S. Rausch, Associate Professor, Hirosaki University

July 6th (Friday) 2012
7pm (note later start time)

Sophia University, Yotsuya Campus
Bldg. 10, room 301

The event is in English
Free and open to all

Abstracts:

A Disaster Unfolds: Portrayals of 3.11 in Japan's Online and Offline News Leslie M. Tkach-Kawasaki, Associate Professor University of Tsukuba

Since March 11, 2011, the online versions of Japan's major national newspapers have comprehensively covered multidimensional perspectives of Japan's "triple disaster." Ranging from scientific and technological explanations of the crisis at the Fukushima Dai'ichi nuclear power plant to human-interest stories focusing on the impact of the disaster on individuals and families, multiple themes emerged in the immediate and mid-term aftermath of the disaster.

In this presentation, the author discusses the similarities and differences in how 3.11 was framed in the online and offline discourse in the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan's leading national newspapers.
Through an analysis of the Asahi's website content during the one-month period immediately following the disaster and comparison to its print counterpart, this presentation shows how the disaster was framed in complementary mass media channels. In addition to investigating the discourse analysis during the immediate aftermath of the disaster, by extending the analysis of the print newspaper through to the end of 2011, trends and portrayals of the 3.11 disaster reveal how dialogues concerning the disaster evolved over the longer term.

News, Narratives and the Local Newspaper: Aomori Newspaper Coverage of the Great East Japan Earthquake Anthony S. Rausch, Associate Professor, Hirosaki University

The March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake 'triple disaster' not only devastated the coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, it sent shock waves throughout Japan. Being a Tohoku prefecture, Aomori can provide a unique media view on the event and its aftermath. This presentation examines the Aomori newspaper portrayal of the events, using a three-component assessment framework:
article trends, narratives of disaster-related special sections, and reader impressions of media coverage.
Concluding comments focus on the informational character of local newspaper coverage, near-term and long-term, the narrative frames for the disaster, and dissemination of future policy agendas.

Biographical Sketches

Leslie M. Tkach-Kawasaki is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tsukuba. Her research interests include comparisons between online and offline journalism, the use of the Internet by Japanese political actors, and comparative website analysis. Dr. Tkach-Kawasaki authored a chapter comparing website coverage of the
3.11 disaster among national newspaper websites in Japan and CNN in Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan, edited by Jeff Kingston (2012).

Anthony S. Rausch (PhD Monash University) is a long-term resident of Aomori Prefecture and has published on many local themes. He is author of A Year with the Local Newspaper, Cultural Commodities in Japanese Rural Revitalization (Brill); and 'Japan's Shrinking Regions in the 21st Century' (co-author; Cambria).

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David H. Slater, Ph.D.
Faculty of Liberal Arts
Sophia University, Tokyo