I mentioned how American media reacted to the incident of September 11 in the previous post. They lost objectivity, and that made viewers and readers unable to think and establish their own opinion.
What about in other countries? How did the media in different countries react? In this post, I will particularly write and focus on how the Japanese national TV network, NHK reported the incident. As I researched deeper, I found that the way of reporting was biased, and such attitude was very distant from what the media should have done during intense incidents.
NHK distinguished people’s names to be read for safety confirmation in their programs based on companies they worked for, and that was ethically wrong. NHK, which is Japan's government broadcaster, started reporting after the United Airlines’ aircraft crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) (Katsura, as cited in Ito, 2007). And NHK kept broadcasting about what was going on until the next morning (It happened around 10 pm in Japan). NHK repeated scenes of airplanes crashing into the buildings, as American TV networks did. They tried to let Japanese people know what was taking place. Simultaneously, they kept reading the name list of Japanese people working in Japanese companies which were located in the WTC. It seems there was no problem. It could be natural to worry about its citizens’ safety. However, the problem was that the scope was very narrow. There should have Japanese people who worked for American or other countries’ companies whose offices were located in the WTC as well. There is no difference between those people who worked for Japanese companies and foreign companies, and their offices located in WTC. The formers’ names are read in the national network and the latters’ names were not read. They all are Japanese citizens. It was morally wrong that NHK differentiated the names to read in their programs based on companies people worked for.
In addition to NHK only highlighting Japanese workers during the 9 11 incident, the entire Japanese media did not incorporate third person’s objective view since they were influenced by the American media, and did not know how to react under this kind of situation as well. As I wrote in previous post, the American media became very subjective, and embraced morale against Muslims and patriotism after the incident. American media’s attitude directly influenced the way the Japanese media reacted, and the Japanese media essentially followed the same steps as the American media took. That was the major failure of the Japanese media. Since Japan was not directly attacked, the media should be calm, and able to analyze the situation critically based on a third-person’s point of view. They could have judge and differentiate facts from subjective opinions created by the American media.
The other reason the Japanese media were unable to create and integrate a unique analysis from the outsiders’ view was that they did not know how to react. It could be said for both the American and Japanese media. Their reactions were totally understandable because they did not know what to do or how to react under the intense situation. However, they are the media. The media strongly influences people’s perception, and our thoughts are created based on the ways and the contents they report. The general public needs and wants information during these kinds of disturbing events. The media are the ones who should be composed, able to report facts as they are, and analyze the situation critically. In the case of September 11, it did not happen.
Ito, K. (2007). Recipe of image: Referring to the images of Islam and terrorism. Retrieved from http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/katote/08ito.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment