Historical Changes and Contexts in the Routine of Copy editors in Postwar Japanʼs Newsrooms: Through the Magazines Published by Nihon Shinbun Kyokai

Abstract

This study aims to explore the historical changes in routines within newsrooms and their context by using the case study of copy editors who were affiliated with major post-war Japanese newspapers.

Between the 1960s and the 1990s, the mechanization and computerization of newsrooms progressed, leading to the transfer of many tasks performed by copy editors to news writers/desks. Although copy editors became more specialized in editing, the proliferation of the computerization also shifted editing tasks to news writers/desks. Copy editors held significant influence over gatekeeping within newsrooms, but their influence became limited.

The extracted contexts are as follows:

1) Rationalization: Rationalization was a consistent background driving technological adoption, remaining unchanged. Multiskilling was necessary for rationalization, and the duties of copy editors were centralized under news writers/desks.

2) Nationalization: In parallel with rationalization, another factor was nationalization. Nationalization referred to the standardization of newspaper content at a national level, concentrating editing in Tokyo.

3) Labor Union: Japan's labor union's stance against differential treatment based on job functions led to the equalization of skills among news-workers and the flattening of job roles. Previously, gatekeeping in newsrooms by copy editors and news writers/desks was dualistic, but it shifted to news writers/desks and became singular after mechanization and rationalization. Against the backdrop of these three contexts, the gatekeeping function of copy editors declined.