“Educating diversity” and the Japanese gaze on Papua: A commodification in disguise of Waseda Boys Indonesia trip (2022) videos on Papua Island
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Abstract
In 2022, Nihongo Mantappu’s YouTube channel created a video series called “Waseda Boys Indonesian Trip” intended to “educate” the audience about Indonesian cultural diversity. The boys, consisting of Jerome Polin (Indonesian), with Tomohiro, Yuzuke, and Otsuka (Japanese), visited various islands and tourist attractions in Indonesia and collaborated with Traveloka to promote the holiday platform. One of the islands they visited was Papua. There, they travelled to various places, including Wamena, to meet the Dani tribe in Kumugima Village. However, the prior idea of “educating diversity” seems problematic, as it was delivered through the Japanese gaze as “the Self”, positioning Papua as “the Other.” Using Undressing Advertisement theory by William O’Barr, this research aimed to explore how the othering of Papua was achieved through idealized images, social interactions, inequality, and power. Furthermore, to analyze the discourse behind the image and text, this research employed Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis by Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen as a research method. The data source for this study was three YouTube videos of “Waseda Boys Indonesia Trip,” Papua edition by Nihongo Mantappu. The study shows that the boys from a sophisticated background positioned themselves as the ideal, while seeing Papua Island as primitive and aggressive. They even commodified the aggressive image of the Dani tribe as clickbait to attract viewers and gain YouTube trending status.
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