Fabian Schäfer
Biographic Data
| ID | 212633 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fabian Schäfer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fabian |
| FAMILY NAME | Schäfer |
| SIGNATURE | SCHÄFER F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3570-7957 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Disinformation and Conspiracy Narratives in the Online Media Strategy of Happy Science (Kōfuku no Kagaku)
This article examines the online media strategy of the religious group “Kōfuku no Kagaku” (Happy Science) and its political arm “Kōfuku Jitsugentō” (Happiness Realization Party) through two analyses: a quantitative analysis of the group’s news outlets and a qualitative analysis of a YouTube channel. Combining large data analysis with close reading we examine the group’s use of right-wing discourse, conspiracy narratives, pro-Russian disinformatio…
Russian State-Controlled Propaganda and its Proxies: Pro-Russian Political Actors in Japan
There are two main ways Russian propaganda reaches Japan: (a) the social media accounts of official institutions, such as the Russian Embassy, or Russian state-linked media outlets, such as Sputnik, and (b) pro-Russian Japanese political actors who willingly (or unwillingly) spread disinformation and display a clear pro-Kremlin bias. These actors justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine and repeat the Russian view of the war with various objective…
Parroting the U.S. Far-Right: Former Fringe Party Politician and Conspiracy Entrepreneur Yukihisa Oikawa
This article investigates the popular social media channels of former Happiness Realization Party official Yukihisa Oikawa, who has built himself a profile as a media personality within the Japanese language conspiracy narrative realm. In our analysis, we put a particular focus on his statements concerning the Russo-Ukrainian war and examine them within the context of his larger ideological and political views. Using mixed quantitative and qualit…
The Far Right and the Dissemination of Covid-19-Related Disinformation and Conspiracy Narratives in Japan: The Metapolitics of Kobayashi Yoshinori
The initial lack of scientific consensus regarding COVID -19 and public controversies concerning implemented countermeasures have created fertile soil for the circulation of disinformation and conspiracy narratives. Applying a mixed-methods discourse analysis, we examine the use of typical rhetorical strategies and metaphors of conspiracy narratives and disinformation, and we study overlaps with discursive strategies of the New Right in Japan. Ou…
Evaluating the Public Climate School—A School-Based Programme to Promote Climate Awareness and Action in Students: Protocol of a Cluster-Controlled Pilot Study
Introduction: School-based programmes may promote knowledge and skills required to address climate change and better health and well-being in adolescents, yet evidence of their effectiveness is limited. In preparation for evaluating the Public Climate School, a school-based intervention to promote climate awareness and action in adolescents, we conduct a pilot study intended to assess procedures for participant recruitment, retention, and data co…
Japan's Shift to the Right: Computational Propaganda, Abe Shinzō's LDP, and Internet Right-Wingers (Netto Uyo)
In recent years, academic research and investigative reports have brought to light several cases of computational propaganda (i.e. orchestrated attempts to manipulate public opinion or the outcome of elections via social media), as well as proof that filter algorithms amplify right-wing conservative content on Japanese social media. Piecing together the scattered pieces of a puzzle, this article summarizes recent findings from various disciplines…
Quizzes and Questionnaires: Learning to Play Democracy under US Occupation in Germany and Japan
Die Umerziehung „der Japaner“ und „der Deutschen” nach Kriegsende war nicht nur ein politi- sches oder pädagogisches, sondern auch ein kulturelles Unterfangen. Unmittelbar beeinflusst durch das Denken und die therapeutischen Methoden eher neuer akademischer Disziplinen wie der Sozialpsychologie, der Psychotherapie und der Anthropologie, wurde re-education (oder „reorientation”) als das Verlernen von (vermeintlich „pathologischen”) kulturellen ode…
Auf der Jagd nach der Sonne. Das journalistische Feld und die Atomkraft in Japan
Numerous academic and non-academic publications have discussed the Japanese and non-Japanese media coverage of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of March 2011 and its aftermath. Tobias Weiß, in this book based on his PhD thesis, provides the most detailed and empirically grounded analysis of a phenomenon that has been condemned by some commentators as a four-fold disaster—if one includes the disastrous media coverage of the events in Japan. …
Normalizing misogyny: Hate speech and verbal abuse of female politicians on Japanese Twitter
Social media platforms such as Twitter have gained tremendous political importance in recent years. Moreover, being considered as platforms for organizing grass root political movements or political participation in general, this positive view has given way to more critical perspectives on the negative sides of social media, such as attempts of algorithmically manipulating public opinion or the outcome of elections and racist or sexist hate speec…
Confronting Capital and Empire: Rethinking Kyoto School Philosophy
Confronting Capital and Empire inquires into the relationship between philosophy, politics and capitalism by rethinking Kyoto School philosophy in relation to history. The Kyoto School was an influential group of Japanese philosophers loosely related to Kyoto Imperial University’s philosophy department, including such diverse thinkers as Nishida Kitarō, Tanabe Hajime, Nakai Masakazu and Tosaka Jun. Confronting Capital and Empire presents a new pe…
Media/Communication Studies and Cultural Studies in Japan (1920s–1990s): From ‘Public Opinion’ to the ‘Public Sphere’
Medium als Vermittlung: Medien und Medientheorie in Japan
Tosaka Jun: A Critical Reader
Tosaka Jun (1900–1945) was one of modern Japan's most unique and important critics of capitalism, the emperor system, imperialism, and everyday life in wartime Japan. This collection of translations contains some of Tosaka's most important essays and original articles on Tosaka
Public Opinion and the Press: Transnational Contexts of Early Media and Communication Studies in Prewar Japan, 1918-1937
As early as prewar Japan, thinkers of various intellectual proveniences had begun discussing the most important topics of contemporary media and communication studies (such as ways to define the social function of the press, journalism and the formation of public opinion). In this article, light is shed on press scholar Ono Hideo, his disciple the sociologist and propaganda researcher Koyama Eizō, Marxist philosopher Tosaka Jun and sociologist an…
The re-articulation of cultural studies in Japan and its consequences for Japanese studies
This article analyzes the global circulation of Cultural Studies in the light of its `re-articulation' within the certain local context in Japan. Furthermore, it will not simply raise the question of how to put Cultural Studies into Japanese Studies, but, by taking the detour via the re-articulation of Cultural Studies in Japan, wants to ask what Japanese Studies might `learn' from this already contextualized formation of Cultural Studies. This a…
Normalizing misogyny: Hate speech and verbal abuse of female politicians on Japanese Twitter
Social media platforms such as Twitter have gained tremendous political importance in recent years. Moreover, being considered as platforms for organizing grass root political movements or political participation in general, this positive view has given way to more critical perspectives on the negative sides of social media, such as attempts of algorithmically manipulating public opinion or the outcome of elections and racist or sexist hate speec…
The re-articulation of cultural studies in Japan and its consequences for Japanese studies
This article analyzes the global circulation of Cultural Studies in the light of its `re-articulation' within the certain local context in Japan. Furthermore, it will not simply raise the question of how to put Cultural Studies into Japanese Studies, but, by taking the detour via the re-articulation of Cultural Studies in Japan, wants to ask what Japanese Studies might `learn' from this already contextualized formation of Cultural Studies. This a…
The re-articulation of cultural studies in Japan and its consequences for Japanese studies
This article analyzes the global circulation of Cultural Studies in the light of its `re-articulation' within the certain local context in Japan. Furthermore, it will not simply raise the question of how to put Cultural Studies into Japanese Studies, but, by taking the detour via the re-articulation of Cultural Studies in Japan, wants to ask what Japanese Studies might `learn' from this already contextualized formation of Cultural Studies. This a…
Public Opinion and the Press: Transnational Contexts of Early Media and Communication Studies in Prewar Japan, 1918-1937
As early as prewar Japan, thinkers of various intellectual proveniences had begun discussing the most important topics of contemporary media and communication studies (such as ways to define the social function of the press, journalism and the formation of public opinion). In this article, light is shed on press scholar Ono Hideo, his disciple the sociologist and propaganda researcher Koyama Eizō, Marxist philosopher Tosaka Jun and sociologist an…
Tosaka Jun: A Critical Reader
Tosaka Jun (1900–1945) was one of modern Japan's most unique and important critics of capitalism, the emperor system, imperialism, and everyday life in wartime Japan. This collection of translations contains some of Tosaka's most important essays and original articles on Tosaka
Medium als Vermittlung: Medien und Medientheorie in Japan
Confronting Capital and Empire: Rethinking Kyoto School Philosophy
Confronting Capital and Empire inquires into the relationship between philosophy, politics and capitalism by rethinking Kyoto School philosophy in relation to history. The Kyoto School was an influential group of Japanese philosophers loosely related to Kyoto Imperial University’s philosophy department, including such diverse thinkers as Nishida Kitarō, Tanabe Hajime, Nakai Masakazu and Tosaka Jun. Confronting Capital and Empire presents a new pe…
Media/Communication Studies and Cultural Studies in Japan (1920s–1990s): From ‘Public Opinion’ to the ‘Public Sphere’
Quizzes and Questionnaires: Learning to Play Democracy under US Occupation in Germany and Japan
Die Umerziehung „der Japaner“ und „der Deutschen” nach Kriegsende war nicht nur ein politi- sches oder pädagogisches, sondern auch ein kulturelles Unterfangen. Unmittelbar beeinflusst durch das Denken und die therapeutischen Methoden eher neuer akademischer Disziplinen wie der Sozialpsychologie, der Psychotherapie und der Anthropologie, wurde re-education (oder „reorientation”) als das Verlernen von (vermeintlich „pathologischen”) kulturellen ode…
Auf der Jagd nach der Sonne. Das journalistische Feld und die Atomkraft in Japan
Numerous academic and non-academic publications have discussed the Japanese and non-Japanese media coverage of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of March 2011 and its aftermath. Tobias Weiß, in this book based on his PhD thesis, provides the most detailed and empirically grounded analysis of a phenomenon that has been condemned by some commentators as a four-fold disaster—if one includes the disastrous media coverage of the events in Japan. …
Normalizing misogyny: Hate speech and verbal abuse of female politicians on Japanese Twitter
Social media platforms such as Twitter have gained tremendous political importance in recent years. Moreover, being considered as platforms for organizing grass root political movements or political participation in general, this positive view has given way to more critical perspectives on the negative sides of social media, such as attempts of algorithmically manipulating public opinion or the outcome of elections and racist or sexist hate speec…
Evaluating the Public Climate School—A School-Based Programme to Promote Climate Awareness and Action in Students: Protocol of a Cluster-Controlled Pilot Study
Introduction: School-based programmes may promote knowledge and skills required to address climate change and better health and well-being in adolescents, yet evidence of their effectiveness is limited. In preparation for evaluating the Public Climate School, a school-based intervention to promote climate awareness and action in adolescents, we conduct a pilot study intended to assess procedures for participant recruitment, retention, and data co…
Japan's Shift to the Right: Computational Propaganda, Abe Shinzō's LDP, and Internet Right-Wingers (Netto Uyo)
In recent years, academic research and investigative reports have brought to light several cases of computational propaganda (i.e. orchestrated attempts to manipulate public opinion or the outcome of elections via social media), as well as proof that filter algorithms amplify right-wing conservative content on Japanese social media. Piecing together the scattered pieces of a puzzle, this article summarizes recent findings from various disciplines…
The Far Right and the Dissemination of Covid-19-Related Disinformation and Conspiracy Narratives in Japan: The Metapolitics of Kobayashi Yoshinori
The initial lack of scientific consensus regarding COVID -19 and public controversies concerning implemented countermeasures have created fertile soil for the circulation of disinformation and conspiracy narratives. Applying a mixed-methods discourse analysis, we examine the use of typical rhetorical strategies and metaphors of conspiracy narratives and disinformation, and we study overlaps with discursive strategies of the New Right in Japan. Ou…
Russian State-Controlled Propaganda and its Proxies: Pro-Russian Political Actors in Japan
There are two main ways Russian propaganda reaches Japan: (a) the social media accounts of official institutions, such as the Russian Embassy, or Russian state-linked media outlets, such as Sputnik, and (b) pro-Russian Japanese political actors who willingly (or unwillingly) spread disinformation and display a clear pro-Kremlin bias. These actors justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine and repeat the Russian view of the war with various objective…
Parroting the U.S. Far-Right: Former Fringe Party Politician and Conspiracy Entrepreneur Yukihisa Oikawa
This article investigates the popular social media channels of former Happiness Realization Party official Yukihisa Oikawa, who has built himself a profile as a media personality within the Japanese language conspiracy narrative realm. In our analysis, we put a particular focus on his statements concerning the Russo-Ukrainian war and examine them within the context of his larger ideological and political views. Using mixed quantitative and qualit…
Disinformation and Conspiracy Narratives in the Online Media Strategy of Happy Science (Kōfuku no Kagaku)
This article examines the online media strategy of the religious group “Kōfuku no Kagaku” (Happy Science) and its political arm “Kōfuku Jitsugentō” (Happiness Realization Party) through two analyses: a quantitative analysis of the group’s news outlets and a qualitative analysis of a YouTube channel. Combining large data analysis with close reading we examine the group’s use of right-wing discourse, conspiracy narratives, pro-Russian disinformatio…
Political science (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Art (5 works) · History (5 works) · Media Studies and Communication (5 works) · Media studies (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · European history and politics (3 works)