Between Reality and Research

2021/05/14

Social science researchers are, to a greater or lesser extent, influenced by real-world events as they conduct their research. For example, since 2016, populist politics has garnered attention in various fields. Case studies have been accumulated there, driven by an interest in why the Trump phenomenon occurred. My translation published last year, "Emotions, Media and Politics" (co-translated with Shuzo Yamakoshi, Keiso Shobo), attempts to answer such questions from the perspective of journalism studies. This translation project began when an editor approached me at the Mita Sociological Society in July the year before last. Encouraged by the powerful words, "It will have a huge impact if it's out by the 2020 presidential election!", I impulsively accepted. Later, I would find myself with a nervous stomach over the reckless schedule of publishing a translated book in just one year.

According to the original author, Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, the media influenced the Trump phenomenon by stirring up emotions such as anxiety, frustration, and anger in us, the audience. This is because the expression of these emotions in the media leads to them being widely shared in society. While working on the translation, I was thinking about Japanese cases to which this theoretical framework could be applied. Although several phenomena considered "populism" can be found in Japan, they differ in scale and content from those in Western countries. Time passed without me being able to fully deliberate on the question.

Amidst this, our environment changed significantly due to the spread of COVID-19. Looking at the spread of emotions like fear and anxiety, the situation of the pandemic in Japan can be considered an appropriate subject for analysis. When I actually analyzed the media, it was overflowing with anger toward people who did not practice self-restraint. It is thought that such emotions were widely shared through their connection with social media, leading to dissatisfaction with the government's infectious disease control measures. Due to changes in reality, the theoretical framework became applicable.

Furthermore, the pandemic also affected my research time. I had been worried that the translation would not be finished on schedule, but because the "stay-at-home" period increased my research time, the work progressed rapidly. In this way, the reality of the pandemic influenced not only the content of the research but also the time spent on it. Now, as for whether the publication of the translation made it in time for the presidential election—I will simply state that it was released in the same month as the election.