2014 Volume 7 Issue 1 Pages 13-24
This work aims to investigate how Japanese newspapers contribute to community engagement. Ninety percent of households in Japan subscribe to newspapers. Moreover half of Newspaper circulation is concentrated on major newspapers whose head-quarters are located in a few major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. Nation-wide news and topics are the main content of these major papers. This style is similar to Japanese TV programs. As prior studies have shown, not nation-wide mass media but localized media such as community radio, contributes to community engagement as a part of production of social capital. This study quantitatively investigates the impact of newspapers by comparing them with other media such as TV, radio, magazines, PCs and mobile phones.
The result of the regression shows that the impact of newspapers is different from that of TV. The former is positively correlated to community engagement; on the other hand, the latter is negatively correlated. Although a large part of Japanese newspapers traditionally focus on national news, the result suggests that they also support everyday life activities in local communities. Furthermore, new digital media affects community engagement negatively. The length of PC and mobile phone use negatively correlates to community engagement. The authors discuss factors that could cause these different effects of the above media on community engagement.
