Chinese and Japanese Dispute on the Islands

Final Paper -

Chinese and Japanese Dispute on the Islands

ENGL319 Fundamentals of Media Communication

LAU Cheuk Lam, Emily 10529486D

MOK Sin Ting, Bess 11251143D

YIP Sze Wan, Gloria 11336210D

27 December 2012

A. Introduction

China and Japan have long been confronting on the issue of the Island, in which China call the Islands "Diaoyu Island" while Japan calls it "Senkaku Island". Being Chinese's territory for long, the Island was ceded to Japan along with Taiwan during Sino-Japanese War in 1895 due to China's defeat. In 1951, when Japan surrendered and admitted her defeat in Second World War, she agreed to return all the territories by invasion, including the Island. Yet, having discovered the Island is rich in natural gas resources which is of high economic and military value, Japan refuses to return the Island by claiming that it is not included in the territories-return treaty.

Recently, this dispute is being raised again, intensifying the tension between the 2 countries. Due to their countries' respective interests, media in different countries report on this raw dispute very differently. 4 articles are extracted from Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kong and American newspapers and magazines respectively to show such variation.

The following paper aims at examining how the same raw event can be encoded and decoded differently so as to shape readers' perspectives on the matter.

B. Realization of Stances Through Linguistic and Picture Selection

Daniel C. H and Paolo M (2004) suggested "most of the literature in the media is highly ethnocentric, in the sense that it refers only to the experience of a single country", hinting that the majority of media speak for their representing country. This can be proved by linguistic selections in the articles extracted.

For China Daily, newspaper representing the Chinese government, her stance on the dispute is clearly shown in the lexis choice "wrongdoing" in the headline. Saying Japan has to face her "wrongdoing", China Daily is directly criticizing that Japan is wrong and she has to correct her mistake of claiming the Island belongs to her.

Additionally, numerous negations are used throughout the whole report, such as "its (Japan's) wrong attitude" and "cannot help win trust", conveying the message of Japan is in fault to readers. Also, only the Chinese name of the Island was used in the passage, revealing it is the only name recognized by China. (Refer to Appendix1)

For SCMP, being a Hong Kong newspaper, though it tried to reduce bias, it is still suspected to be more pro-China . Therefore, many negative selections, for instance, "vent his frustration" and "little Japan"are discovered in its report. Pictures and videos attached mainly focus on how crowded the protests were, trying to proof that many Chinese people are concerned about this event and supportive towards the Chinese government. (See Appendix 3)

For Forbes, an American economic magazine, its stance is rather neutral among the 4 extracts, proven by the inclusion of both Chinese names in its article as well as pictures with protestants demonstrating peacefully without destroying anything. However by looking at the paragraphing, the writers seem to describe a lot Chinese violent act and the negative consequences on Japan. Doubt is placed on the seemingly neutral stance of Forbes. (Look at Appendix4)

However, article extracted from Asashi Shimbun, newspaper having the highest circulation in Japan, reports the same event very differently to support the Japanese government. Unlike China Daily, Asashi Shimbun did not criticize China directly. Instead, it tries to shape Japanese readers' perspective that Chinese government is weak and indecisive in handling anti-Japan riots, indirectly mocking that China is not determined enough to fight against Japan in the Island matter.

Moreover, a lot of words related to violence and destructions like "erupted" and "loot" and close-up pictures of slogans insulting Japan are chosen, so as to show Japanese how violent and bad Chinese is in order to stimulate readers' anger and nationalism and make them align with the writer. (Go to Appendix2)

C. Perspective on ownership and target readership

The four national newspapers report the island issue in different angle can be explained by its ownership and profit orientation. According to the propaganda model, the first filter of media news is size, ownership and profit orientation.

Currently, China daily has the widest print circulation in the country and is known as the door to official China policies. While freedom of press is not fully established in China, [9] it is conceivable that bias is shown in the news as it has to protect China as to give face to the Chinese government. "...Unified the workers because it fostered an alternative value system and framework for looking at the world" (Herman & Chomsky, 2006). Media is effective in raising class consciousness, it is also a strong tool to inflame the sense of belonging towards a country. Regarding this reason, Chinese has longed control the media to portray a politically right image of the government and to shape the citizen's mindset to consent any political actions. In China Daily, the editors are told that the paper's editorial policy was to support the Party line. They are allowed to criticize the authorities only when there was deviation from party policy. Moreover, China daily also targets international audience including US, Europen, Asian and Hong Kong. Stance of the news is also important in portraying China's national image.

Unlike China daily, South China Morning Post has its own law and custom due to freedom of press, therefore it tries to make its stance neutral. However, after the handover of Hong Kong, the city becomes politically and economically more dependent on China. Moreover, the founder, the Kuok family is recognized to be pro-Beijing, and doubt has been put on the paper's editorial independence (Smith, 2006). In a business perspective, the expansion of SCMP is seen as largely dependent on its ability to penetrate the Chinese market. Therefore how it reports the island issue might cause consequences on its business