Narrative in Newspaper Accounts of Orix Blue Wave's Victory Connected to The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and Real Life of an Orix-fan

Abstract

According to the result of questionnaires distributed to people (n=918) who came to the stadium to watch the Orix Blue Wave homegame on July 4 in 1998, more than 90% who suffered damage in the great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake answered that the victory of the Orix Blue Wave encouraged them in 1995 when the earthquake occurred. It can be expected that media played a vital role in forming that collective memory. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to investigate the narratives told and how these narratives are carried in the Kobe Shinbun newspaper from 1995-1996 from the viewpoint that media text is decoded actively by an audience, and to clarify by interview how an Orix fan (Mr. K) is affected by these stories with reference to his real life.
The main results are as follows;
1) The motif found in the editorial columns is “affliction in disaster area”→“overlap of invincible Orix Blue Wave and recovery in disaster area”→“courage and vigor brought to disaster area by the victory”→“gratitude”→“hope of reconstruction”.
2) The articles telling of the Orix's victory are composed of comments made by fans and celebrities. It is inferred that the composition illustrates how the readers should react to the victory, and helps to instil a meaning to the victory.
3) However, it was clarified that Mr. K, who was an enthusiastic Orix fan and suffered damage by the earthquake, felt a gap between the narrative and his real life.
4) It is suggested that audiences exposed to media texts experience activity which is beyond a decoding of the text and supplement the meaning with reference to their own real lives, which denies and rejects the messages.