2016 Volume 4 Issue 3 Pages 47-62
Post Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, the issue which social awareness and public opinion in favor of nuclear energy was built through the media came up to the surface. This paper takes notice of the 1950's and the 1960's in which public opinion toward nuclear energy began to shape and analyzes how nuclear power was represented in PR Films as public information media of governmental agencies and power companies. Moreover, this paper focuses on the viewpoint of ordering party and order-receiving party as social contexts in PR Films. This study demonstrates three factors correlating with social issues through PR Films from the 1950's to the 1960's: ‘Atoms for Peace', ‘Technology', and ‘Modernization'. However, PR Films also had significance as a ‘document', which was created by order-receiving producers' concerns differing from the aim of nuclear power promotion. In conclusion, clarifying the relationship between PR Films and nuclear energy from the perspective of the social context will be the first step to revaluate PR Films as cultural heritage and elucidate the process of forming consciousness toward nuclear energy.
