In 2022, Nihon Media Gakkai (Japan Association for Media, Journalism and Communication Studies; JAMS) made significant revisions to its bylaw. As a result, the terms "practitioners," "civic activity," and "media literacy education" were written into it. However, the meanings of all these terms are not self-evident. Therefore, this paper proposes one of the issues that "media studies" should address in the future, based on the 70-year history of the JAMS and its relationship with these terms.
When JAMS was founded in 1951 as Nihon Shimbun Gakkai (the Journalism Society of Japan), there were more practitioners than scholars. With the development of journalism studies, broadcasting studies, and mass communication studies, the number of members grew rapidly and the percentage of scholars increased, leading to institutional reform of the society’s management in the 1980s. The general framework of the society has remained unchanged to the present. In contrast, since its name change to Nihon Mass Communication Gakkai (The Japan Society for Studies in Journalism and Mass Communications) in 1991, a tension has emerged between mass communication studies and media studies, and the further diversification of research fields has been encompassed by the expansion of research subcommittees.
In addition, the relationship between media studies and media literacy is complex, which is why there have been few opportunities for this society to engage deeply with practitioners in school education and civic activities. On the other hand, since the 1990s in Japan, the concept of "media literacy for senders" and practices based on it have been established by practitioners at broadcasting stations, but there is a twist in that scholars have been less involved here. Furthermore, now that the Internet has become widespread, the validity of the concept of media literacy itself, which assumes an oppositional relationship between senders and receivers, has come to be questioned.
In order to face these issues, JAMS needs to consider not only further activation of its research activities but also its administrative activities.
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