Hard Lessons Learned: Tracking Changes in Media Presentations of Religion and Religious Aid Mobilization after the 1995 and 2011 Disasters in Japan

Abstract

When religious organizations of all types mobilized relief efforts in the wake of the 17 January 1995 Great Hanshin/Awaji earthquake in western Japan, their contributions failed to translate into favorable media coverage. By contrast, religious aid responses after the 11 March 2011 Great East Japan earthquake disasters attracted a largely positive mainstream media response. This article surveys Japan's major daily newspapers, popular books, academic reports, and other published treatments of religious responses to these two major disasters to assess a shift in recent post-disaster "religion" media narration. It suggests reasons for a change in tone from skepticism to support and points to questions about an evolving selection process that determines which religious actors fit and which are left out of a burgeoning post-2011 media picture. keywords: religion-disaster-Japan-media-Great Hanshin/Awaji earthquake-Great East Japan earthquake disaster

Mídia e desastres: panorama da produção científica internacional de 1996 a 2016

“…Each of the identified articles was evaluated by its theoretical or methodological approach. The largest proportion of articles published on media and disasters during the period of analysis were case studies (EWART; LAITURI;KODRICH, 2008;LEITCH;BOHENSKY, 2014;MACIAS;HILYARD;FREIMUTH, 2009;PFEFFERBAUM et al, 2003;PRINCIPE, 2015;RODRIGUEZ;TRIANOR;QUARANTELLI, 2006;ZAVESTOSKI et al, 2004), followed by comparative case studies (CUPPLES; GLYNN, 2014;EFFERBAUM;ROSENHOLTZ, 2012;McLAUGHLIN, 2016;PARK;WANG;PINTO, 2016;SONNETT;JOHNSON;DOLAN, 2015); literature review (HOUSTON et al, 2015;POWER, 2013;PFEFFERBAUM et al, 2014;PFEFFERBAUM et al, 2015); and construction of theoretical models (SUSMAYADI et al, 2014).…”

“…Debates on the media and disasters, taking into account the type of disasters, focused on the categories of: Environmental disasters (CUPPLES; GLYNN, 2014;EWART;PFEFFERBAUM;ROSENHOLTZ, 2012;LAITURI;KODRICH, 2008;LEITCH;BOHENSKY, 2014;MACIAS;HILYARD;FREIMUTH, 2009;McLAUGHLIN, 2016;PRINCIPE, 2015;RODRIGUEZ;TRIANOR;QUARANTELLI, 2006;SONNETT;JOHNSON;DOLAN, 2015), with Katrina Hurricane being the most investigated natural disaster; Anthropogenic disasters (PARK; WANG; PINTO, 2016;PFEFFERBAUM et al, 2003;ZAVESTOSKI et al, 2004), with special emphasis on the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in the United States in 2001 and the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011; and lastly the category of Disasters (HOUSTON et al, 2015;POWER, 2013;PFEFFERBAUM et al, 2014;PFEFFERBAUM et al, 2015;SUSMAYADI et al, 2014) which concentrates researches of the two previous groups.…”

“…Other studies (HOUSTON et al, 2015;LEITCH;BOHENSKY, 2014;McLAUGHLIN, 2016;PRINCIPE, 2015;SONNETT;JOHNSON;DOLAN, 2015) have given particular attention to narratives of media coverage of disasters. Issues such as religion, race and resilience are a point of interest in media reports.…”

“…Sonnett, Johnson and Dolan (2015) point out that in the post Katrina Hurricane coverage many studies presented racially biased and stereotyped representations of the affected population. On the other hand, McLaughlin (2016) indicates that after the disasters (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident) of March 2011 in Japan, the media narrative concentrated on conveying a favorable image of the religious activists who provided aid in the regions affected by the disasters. b) Media exposure to disasters.…”

Media and New Religions in Japan

“…What is undeniable is that the media in Japan has had a central role in defining these groups and has been seen as a trustworthy authority defining how we should think about religion and the religious groups that we could accept in society and those that should be labelled as "dangerous". Recent publications (Fujiyama 2011a(Fujiyama , 2011bMcLaughlin 2016) have discussed changes in media discourse about re ligion following the Gr eat East Japan Earthquake disasters in March 2011. These studies make similar observations about how the recent traumas have not resulted in a particular increase of media reporting about religion, but, compared to the post-1995 Great Hanshin/Awaji earthquake 42 and post-Aum Affair context, media narratives about religion have been more positive since 2011.…”