Lecture 15:The Dispute Over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands
2015/1/27 15:58:31
Lecture 15:The Dispute Over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Jan . 27 . 2015
Topic: The Dispute Over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands: How Media Narratives Shape Public Opinion and Challenge the Global Order
Speaker: Thomas A. Hollihan, Professor of Annenberg School for Communication
University of Southern California
Time: 0:00-12:00, September 26, Friday, 2014
Location: 3005 Xinjian Building
Format: 50 minutes lecture in English followed by Q & A session
This lecture summarizes the findings of the speaker’s new book on the longstanding controversy over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. Although US media described them as unpopulated specks of land, in China, Taiwan, and Japan they are characterized as vital parts of the motherland. Japan claims it 'discovered' these unclaimed islands in the late 19th century and annexed them to Okinawa. China claims these islands have been Chinese for centuries and that Japan seized them during its period of imperial expansion. As evidence the Chinese emphasize that the islands were systematically patrolled and that they were considered part of Taiwan. In the view of the PRC, since Taiwan is an indivisible part of the Chinese motherland, so too are these islands. The Chinese argue further that since the islands were a product of imperial aggression they should have been returned to China as a result of the treaties negotiated at the end of the war. The Japanese media emphasizes, however, that the United States returned the administration of the islands to Japan, and it is the PRC that is unsettling the calm in the East Asian Sea through its aggressive territorial ambitions. In contrast, Japan is characterized in its mediated narratives as a stable status quo power.
The lecture examines media diplomacy as it unfolds in the competing narratives revealed in textbooks, legacy media, and social media. It discovers that while the Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese narratives focus primarily on the past, the US narratives focus on the present, and that no viable narratives have been created to shape a peaceful future.
About the speaker:
Thomas Hollihan is a professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School.
Professor Hollihan publishes in the areas of argumentation, political communication, media
diplomacy, contemporary rhetorical criticism, and the impact of globalization on public
deliberation. He is the author of several books including: The Dispute over the
Diayou/Senkaku Islands: How Media Narratives Shape Public Opinions and Challenge the Global Order (forthcoming), Uncivil Wars: Political Campaigns in a Media Age, Arguments and
Arguing: The Products and Process of Human Decision Making (with Kevin Baaske), and
Argument at Century's End: Reflecting on the Past and Envisioning the Future. In addition,
Hollihan has published in the International Journal of Communication, Quarterly Journal of
Speech, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Argumentation and Advocacy, Communication Quarterly,
Western Journal of Communication, Southern Speech Communication Journal, Controversial,
Speaker and Gavel, and Debate Issues.
Professor Hollihan served as the associate dean for academic affairs in the Annenberg
School for Communication and Journalism from 1997-2007. He currently chairs the Executive
Committee of the USC US-China Institute. He has also served as the chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the National Debate Tournament, president of the American Forensic Association, president of the Western Forensic Association, chairman of the National Communication
Association's Doctoral Education Committee, chairman of the Committee on International
Discussion and Debate, and chairman of the National Debate Tournament Committee.
Professor Hollihan has been a visiting scholar at Renmin University and the Communication University of China, both in Beijing and at Meiji University in Tokyo. He is a faculty fellow in the USC Center for Public Diplomacy and the USC Center for Communication Leadership.