Fu Mengyuan

博士課程2年

研究テーマ

Making the invisible visible: a study of science communication surrounding the problem of microplastics in Japan

研究内容

A newly emerging global environmental problem, microplastics (MPs), in recent years, has built a high profile throughout scientific research, media, and public debates. MPs-related societal changes are emerging in Japanese society after 2019′s G7 and G20 Summit. However, compared with the exponential burst of scientific research on this issue, its social research is still in its infancy. Among a variety of disciplines in social science, science communication has held significant value throughout past research, because acting as the intermediary between the scientific community and the public, it takes microplastics – these tiny, almost invisible particles - from the laboratory and converts the issue into a readily accessible one for public comprehension.

To explore how the concept of “マイクロプラスチック(microplastics)” has been framed, this research combines the qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze Japanese articles published both on paper journals and online media. Through rhetorical analysis of text, a commonly used approach in the study of environment and communication, as well as lexical choice, narrative and discursive practices revolving around microplastics will be analyzed to show how this issue has been rhetorically constructed and framed in chronological order. Also, this research will explore how the image of microplastics has been presented with text explanations, in other words, how media has visualized these tiny particles to characterize this difficult-to-detect environmental risk. In addition, in utilizing the database of Yahoo Answers (Japanese version), supplementary evidence will be provided to show how particular messages regarding microplastics are conveyed.

論文・学会発表等

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