How Did the Local Broadcasting Stations Report the Nuclear Power Problem?

The Case of the News and Documentary Program“ NNN Document”

Abstract

　　This thesis investigates how the news and documentary program, “NNN

Document,” has reported the nuclear problem.

　　This is important because previous studies have not clarified regional differences

and diachronic changes in programs produced by local broadcasting

stations that represent how people feel where nuclear power stations were

located.

　　Seventy-eight documentaries about nuclear power from“ NNN Document,”

which is produced by 29 local broadcasting stations of the NTV group, were

analyzed. These sources were examined by analyzing changes in the way in

which the stations represented people statements.

　　This research discovered the following. From 1970 until the Chernobyl

disaster, many different people appeared in the documentaries, but after the

Chernobyl disaster, the perspective of people living in areas suffering radiation

damage and depopulated areas close to nuclear power stations came to the

forefront. During the 2000’s, the number of documentaries about nuclear power

decreased sharply. After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the lives of

the refugees were portrayed from the point of view of their places of refuge.

Thus, it is shown how “NNN Document” has come to more closely represent

the opinions of citizens in the news about nuclear power generation.