Cultural framing of "heroes" in time of crisis: a comparative analysis of Japanese and Western media, journalistic practice, and audience response

Abstract

This study explores the media representations of workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant -- a group often dubbed as 'Fukushima 50' by English-language media, and Japanese seniors and retirees who volunteered to work at the beleaguered plant -- a group who calls itself 'Skilled Veterans Corps.” Through a qualitative discourse analysis of narratives, languages and imageries in Japanese and Western media and an observation of reactions to the news stories, it examines salient schemata associated with the two groups of 'heroes' whose projected archetypes are, I argue, socio-culturally constructed with distinctively different characterizations. Drawing on literatures in the field of frame theories, media anthropology and cultural studies, the study zeroes in on how cultural meanings of “heroes” create a frame -- a conceptual filter adopted by both journalists and audience. It compares a wide variety of news coverage on the two topics from Japan’s national newspapers such as Mainichi and Yomiuri to weekly news/business magazines like Gendai Business and Toyo Kezai to established Western news outlets with large international audience such as CNN, BBC, Guardian, and the New York Times to alternative popular news sources on the web. The findings are also informed by my personal conversations and interviews with reporters and journalists who disseminated the communication texts and portrayals. The comparative analysis tries to contextualize the influence of culture in the age of globalized news networks by illustrating what factors affected the formation of observed cultural frames in Japanese media and their Western counterparts.