Ethnocentrism in Journalism: A Case Study on the Japan-US Automobile Trade Disputes

Abstract

This study aims to identify rhetorical features of a genre of news reporting known as Japan bashing, criticism based on unfounded claims about Japanese economic or trading practices often inflammatory in nature (Błażejowski, 2009; Morris 2011; Stronach, 1995), showing how U.S. mainstream media have inadequately reported on the trade disputes between the U.S. and Japan, essentially taking a one-sided approach. Cultural stereotyping tends to form the substance rather than facts that would justify their approach taken. This stereotyping—a matter of misperception—and how it is used by some journalists to inform the public becomes a vital study in the social sciences, especially for intercultural communication. That the selected news articles herein come from mainstream and respected publications at a time thought to be a “post-racial era” challenges the view that people of today are well-educated or advanced about intercultural or diversity issues. This study also identifies how our mass media have failed to properly inform about the trade disputes by the lack of investigative reporting. This study further hopes to contribute to intercultural relations by correcting misperceptions generally held about Japanese culture.

Keywords

Stereotyping / perception / othering / miscommunications / media / Japan bashing

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