Content analysis of descriptions abou t romantic love skills in Japanese magazines and websites

Abstract

  This study aims to clarify the impact of media concerning adolescent views of love and to establish a basis for developing media literacy about romantic love. The study analyzes the contents of four magazine articles and four websites about romantic love techniques. The results reveal the following findings: Firstly, there is a tendency for the recommended skills to focus on love for loveʼs sake. Secondly, romantic love skills based on traditional gender-roles were emphasized within the skill categories and their contents. Thirdly, the notions about love skills draw on unfounded empirical views, such as the personal opinions of readers in the magazines and the webmaster on the websites. Finally, almost all the skills recommended in the magazines and websites are concerned with the construction of relationships, with few skills relating to the maintenance and breakup of relationships. The results indicate that adolescents are likely to experience problems in their heterosexual relations because of using inappropriate skills picked up from inaccurate media treatments. Therefore, it is even more important in our rapidly-advancing Internet society for adolescents to develop literacy to judge the reliability of information sources in obtaining accurate information.