Abstract
The development of the study of the media in politics is rather a recent phenomenon in political science, although the implications of the media for democracy were noted by J.Bryce and W.Lippmann in the early 1920s. The fact still remains, however, that studies in the media in politics have been mostly with a focus on the electoral process. In this regard, the study of the condition of the media in the community process is badly needed in Japan, where the local media are generally very weak. The revitalization of the political functions of the media in the community is more essential today in the face of the fast developing teledemocracy.
