A Media History of the "Man on the Street" : The Radio Program Street Interviews and Public Opinion on the Street

Abstract

This paper is a study of the history of media, and focuses "man-on-the-street" interviews as a form of public opinion. More specifically, we discuss the radio program, Street Interviews (Gaito Rokuon), along with discourses regarding the program, in order to demonstrate how the interviews broadcast on this program were disseminated as messages representing public opinion. The radio broadcaster created the program with the aim of capturing public opinion by using "man-on-the-street" interviews. The process through which these interviews were circulated among the public was strongly affected by the following two circumstances : First of all, the views broadcast on Street Interviews were circulated not only through radio, but also through various interrelated media, including newspapers and magazines, and came to be regarded through this process as messages representing public opinion. Secondly, Street Interviews, which intended to use "man-on-the-street" interviews that represented public opinion, was faced with various problems and criticisms. These problems, with which mass media programs using such interviews street voices continue to be confronted to this day, were already important issues during the time of Street Interviews. This study emphasizes the need to analyze the process through which "man-on-the-street" interviews are disseminated as typical examples of public opinion from the perspective of media history, focusing on Street Interviews as a starting point. Our analysis will eventually make it possible to reveal the role of the "man on the street" in the post-war history of public opinion.