News
Special Lecture: "Do We Really Know Trump? This is How Japanese Mainstream Media Spread Untrue Stories"
On Thursday, November 14th, 2019, a special lecture by Mr. Yoichiro Tateiwa was held at Kinugasa Campus, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, hosted by the University’s Asia Japan Institute, Graduate School of International Relations (GSIR), and Institute of International Relations and Area Studies (IIRAS). Mr. Yoichiro Tateiwa is the founder and executive editor for Seeds for News Japan (SNJ), an Osaka-based nonprofit news organization focusing on investigative reporting. Mr. Tateiwa had led the Panama Papers investigative reporting unit of NHK, Japan’s public news and broadcasting bureau, before leaving in 2016 to start SNJ.
Mr. Tateiwa’s lecture chronicled his experience and intimate knowledge of the inner workings of investigative journalism and his search for truth as he delved deeper into Japanese mainstream media coverage of headlining topics such as United States President Donald Trump’s ascendancy into office and his involvements in the Korean Peninsula issue. During the process, he noted the propensity of Japanese mainstream media outlets for painting out-of-context and incomplete pictures of speeches and statements, as well as a notorious lack of clarity regarding sources. Mr. Tateiwa’s episodes and anecdotes from his stay at Trump Hotel in Washington DC and Pyongyang illustrates the need to go beyond the smoke screen and look closer to gain a more complete grasp of the situation on the field. He also lamented the fact that Japanese mainstream media often leans towards reporting international news only when it is directly connected to Japanese interests. All of these factors contribute to the misleading tendencies of Japanese mainstream media coverage, which brought about the demand for fact-checking mechanisms such as The Washington Post’s fact checker as well as PolitiFact. However, adapting such fact-checking mechanism to Japan comes with its own set of challenges, which necessitates the modification of truth-or-false scale to make it more “polite” to avoid offending people implicated in the news and hence more suitable to Japanese journalistic culture.
Lastly, Mr. Tateiwa reinforced the importance of cooperation and networking with an international cadre of fellow investigative journalists, not only to exchange information or discuss how other journalists might approach a particular news, but also to share best practices to ensure a more impartial and accurate news coverage. He then proceeded to field several questions from several students in the audience before wrapping up the lecture amidst boisterous applause from the crowd.
Mr. Tateiwa’s lecture chronicled his experience and intimate knowledge of the inner workings of investigative journalism and his search for truth as he delved deeper into Japanese mainstream media coverage of headlining topics such as United States President Donald Trump’s ascendancy into office and his involvements in the Korean Peninsula issue. During the process, he noted the propensity of Japanese mainstream media outlets for painting out-of-context and incomplete pictures of speeches and statements, as well as a notorious lack of clarity regarding sources. Mr. Tateiwa’s episodes and anecdotes from his stay at Trump Hotel in Washington DC and Pyongyang illustrates the need to go beyond the smoke screen and look closer to gain a more complete grasp of the situation on the field. He also lamented the fact that Japanese mainstream media often leans towards reporting international news only when it is directly connected to Japanese interests. All of these factors contribute to the misleading tendencies of Japanese mainstream media coverage, which brought about the demand for fact-checking mechanisms such as The Washington Post’s fact checker as well as PolitiFact. However, adapting such fact-checking mechanism to Japan comes with its own set of challenges, which necessitates the modification of truth-or-false scale to make it more “polite” to avoid offending people implicated in the news and hence more suitable to Japanese journalistic culture.
Lastly, Mr. Tateiwa reinforced the importance of cooperation and networking with an international cadre of fellow investigative journalists, not only to exchange information or discuss how other journalists might approach a particular news, but also to share best practices to ensure a more impartial and accurate news coverage. He then proceeded to field several questions from several students in the audience before wrapping up the lecture amidst boisterous applause from the crowd.