Description
This reader offers eleven chapters that speak to the role and function of journalism and the newspaper in contemporary Japanese society. Individually, each chapter provides important information on the particular topic that is its focus, while at the same time elucidating on how that particular topic is addressed by the media and revealing how the coverage of that theme or event affects society overall. The combination of different themes and research approaches yields a unique work that brings insight into how information is disseminated and processed in Japan, thereby offering valuable contributions both to Japanese Studies and Area Studies, as well as Journalism Studies and general Social Sciences. The diversity of research themes, analytical viewpoints and methodological approaches that are exhibited across the chapters offer academics and students a range of issues and depth of treatment that will enhance understanding both of Japan and Japanese journalism and the workings of modern media in general. Taken as a whole, the contents provide a map of how news is approached by journalists, how it is transmitted to the public through the newspaper, and how this news then affects public consciousness, public opinion and governmental policy. The chapters cover a range of themes related to news production: historical, geographical, and technological. The contents outline implications that are political, international and in the creation of public consciousness. The book also includes a section on journalistic treatment of the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
A web appendix with tables and figures is included with this book. Please click here to download the web appendix in PDF format.