‘Crazy Chinese’ and the 2017 nuclear crisis: A Peruvian newspaper representation of Kim Jong-Un

This study analyzes the narrative characteristics of graphic and written language regarding Kim Jong-Un in the peruvian newspaper ‘El Trome’. This occurred in May of 2017, when mainstream press in Peru closely followed national corruption scandals, whilst ‘El Trome’ focused on a different news story: the nuclear crisis between the United States and North Korea, popularizing the term “Crazy Chinese” in order to refer to the controversial Asian leader. Grounded Theory precepts were employed, which included content analysis of the newspaper covers as well as in depth interviews of the newspapers with both Trome’s General Editor and Design Editor. The newspaper maximized the fear associated with an impending nuclear war, constructing a journalistic message from a sequence of events with two main protagonists: Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un, unpredictable leaders with access to nuclear weapons. The strategy appealed to black humor and entertainment in order to position an agenda independent from mainstream press, which focused on internal politics at the time.