This research deals with how stereotypes about Japanese people manifest themselves in news photographs published in Western media. Hopefully this thesis will also shed a bit of light on how...Show moreThis research deals with how stereotypes about Japanese people manifest themselves in news photographs published in Western media. Hopefully this thesis will also shed a bit of light on how qualitative data analysis methods can be applied not only to textual narratives, but also to (news) photographs. On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered two disasters. Off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku, the most powerful earthquake in Japan’s recorded history occurred (9.0 on the Richter scale). As a result, the eastern coasts of Japan were hit by devastating tsunami waves, killing around 15,000 people. Another disaster quickly followed. Because of the quake and tsunami, there were level 7 meltdowns at the nuclear reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex. It would be the largest nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. It goes without saying that this was a major news story. But after a while, the discussion in the Western media seemed to shift from actual disaster reporting to assumptions about the Japanese mentality. Blatant stereotypes about Japanese people became more and more apparent in stories about the disaster. Stereotypes not only appeared in the textual narrative, but could also be found within its accompanying images. So it is within the photographs of Japanese people dealing with the tsunami and nuclear disaster that this research attempts to uncover certain stereotypical cues and tropes. These cues and tropes ultimately contribute to the collective manifestations of stereotypes about Japanese people. Current psychological theory conceptualizes stereotypes as cognitive structures or schemas that represent widely shared beliefs about the defining characteristics of social groups. The media most commonly use stereotypical categorizations of individuals or groups based on race or ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, employment, and age. These stereotypes are automatically activated when audiences encounter cues or symbols in mass media, according to Peffley, Shields and Williams (1996) and Abraham and Appiah (2006). Stereotypes about Eastern people and cultures in particular have been widely researched. Edward Saïd first posited the revolutionary theoretical framework of Orientalism, which is how he coined the particular form that Western stereotypical understandings of Asian cultures has taken. He, and many other experts, claim that this Orientalism has evolved into a cultural myth permeating Western thought. It has been articulated through metaphors which characterize the East in ways which emphasize its strangeness and otherness. The Oriental person is made up of a single image which carries with it the taint of inferiority. Kathleen Tierney and Erica Kuligowski postulate that the media help enforce already existing disaster myths among the general public and organizational actors. Examples of such myths are the notions that disasters are accompanied by looting, social disorganization, panic, and deviant behavior. This is relevant because the Japanese people after the disaster seemed to subvert many of those myths. Surprisingly, this subversion was seen as conformation of the Japanese supposedly stoic yet respectful nature, therefore affirming Orientalist stereotypes. Through the application of these theories and a qualitative data analysis of a selection of 200 images, this research uncovers how stereotypical cues and tropes about Japanese people manifest themselves in these photographs. Whether or not Western news media possess that knowledge and thus deliberately choose to photographs with stereotypical elements, however, are two wholly different questions.Show less
