This paper analyses data of a nationwide survey of mobile media to clarify the characteristics of Japanese users of matching apps. The results show that the use of matching apps is about 1.5% nationwide in Japan in 2021. Many users were in urban areas, in their 20s and 30s, who can take on risk of encounters, and who have self-confidence in their ability to judge relationships. This self-confidence was associated with "the ability to handle relationship problems well," and was linked to the rationalization of relationships. It can be concluded that matching apps are associated with "cold intimacy" (Illouz 2007) and bring about the marketization of relationship selection.

    In this paper, we would like to examine the purpose of social media use among university students in Japan to discuss the everyday world we live in while utilizing social media. We analyze quantitative data from the 2020 nationwide survey of ’Lifestyle and Attitudes of Japanese university students’ by Japan Youth Study Group.

    In our survey data, we found that most students used multiple social media networking services simultaneously, rather than just one of the platforms. Forty percent of the students used Twitter and Instagram simultaneously, followed by 18.4% using Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok; 9.7% using Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook; 9.3％ using Twitter only; 7.8% using Instagram only; and 0.2％ using TikTok only. Very few of the students used only one type of social media platform (There are no Facebook only users).

    As a result of the analysis, it was found that simultaneous users of TikTok along with Twitter and Instagram, but not Twitter or Instagram users alone or simultaneous Twitter and Instagram users, have multiple hobbies such as idols and fashion, as well as multiple forms of human relationships including ’face-to-face relationships’ and ’media-mediated relationships’. It is conceivable that students utilize multiple social media platforms accordingly depending on their hobbies and human relationships.

    In recent years, fandoms have expanded beyond national and regional boundaries thanks to the proliferation of social media. Social movements based on such connections are attracting attention because of fan activism. However, such fan activities also need to be carefully analyzed. While studying the autonomy and enjoyment of fan activism, Fandom Studies has criticized the possibility of fans being exploited by the cultural industry and mass media. This study is a case analysis based on Fandom Studies of the fan activities of K-pop fans using social media today. During the period when K-pop idols were unable to perform in Japan due to the covid-19 disaster, online interactive communication products were sold between the idols staying in South Korea and their fans living in Japan. The qualitative findings of this study revealed that while Japanese female fans enjoyed these online products, they tended not to continue purchasing them if they did not like them. By contrast, fans in the U.S. and Southeast Asia are enthusiastic about social movements aimed at elevating the K-pop image and solving social issues important to them. South Korean entertainment companies are also enthusiastic about social movements because efforts to resolve social issues are necessary for success in American show business. Japanese female fans were active in protecting K-pop idols, who were forced by their foreign fans to donate money and publicly endorse groups associated with social issues. The above attitude of valuing their own enjoyment and kindness to others probably serves an autonomous function in their fan behavior. It can be concluded that the above sensitive considerations are important in situations where people living in different everyday worlds use smartphones to enjoy and encounter diverse entertainment content.

    This article reconsiders conceptualization of the self in the age of social media, and discusses issues of social media research in the future.

    Kilger’s "virtual self" is an image of the individual formed as a composite of digital information, and his "digital individual" is a set of virtual selves. In contrast, Waskul and Douglass’s "cyberself" is formed through anonymous, simultaneous communication, without body and place. Papacharissi’s "networked self" is a different concept: the self that is constructed by social networking site (SNS) relationships, such as those between Facebook "friends." An SNS is a system that reproduces real-life relationships on the Internet, expanding networks of friends and friends of friends. Papacharissi argues that SNS relationships enhance networked sociability. Other social platforms include microblogs (Twitter), video-sharing sites (YouTube, TikTok), mobile instant messenger applications (WhatsApp, LINE), and photo-sharing sites (Instagram). Purwaningtyas and Alicya term the self formed by Twitter the "fragmented self." Erdem points out that the self can be fragmented by using many social media platforms contemporaneously. Thus different conceptions of the self have been proposed.

    This article defines the "second offline society" as a society where the boundary between offline and online is blurred. In the second offline society, numerous popular social platforms have emerged. With reference to Madianou and Miller’s "polymedia" and Tandoc, Lou and Lee Hui Min’s "platform-swinging", this article raises issues pertaining to the examination of the self in the age of social media. It also points out that social virtual reality, social augmented reality, social credit score, and sense transformation of time and place are important topics for future research.

    The Japanese media studies, which originated in the early twentieth century, have experienced some transitions. These developments are reflected in the name changes of one of the most prominent Japanese academic societies for communication and media studies：The Journalism Society of Japan, established in 1951, was later renamed as the Japan Society for Studies in Journalism and Mass Communications. It is currently known as the Japan Association for Media, Journalism and Communication Studies. In line with the latest change, recent Japanese scholars have been ceaselessly trying to specify the concept of Japanese media studies. Although several researchers consider media studies from the perspective of "medium" and technological transformation, only a few have paid attention to the scholarly works that can be correctively described as the "de-Westernization of media studies" and have been redefining media studies from a global perspective. Consequently, previous Japanese works seem to have failed to consider its fruitful implications. Considering this omission, this study first revisits the development of the de-Westernization of media studies and then examines its implications for understanding Japanese media studies.

    This paper primarily focuses on the "fact-checking boom" in the Korean media industry and traces back to its origins. The number of media regularly fact-checking politicians’ claims, rumors, misinformation, and disinformation in South Korea is the second largest in Asia. This reveals that fact-checking has become one of the routinized methods of reporting style among the Korean media.

    The sinking of the Sewol ferry, which occurred in April 2014 and was an event in which 299 passengers were victimized, was a turning point for a rapid increase in media distrust, as readers and viewers were misinformed by false reports, and reporters had committed human rights violations against the victims and their families. Faced with harsh criticism, JTBC, a TV station led by the most trusted liberal journalist, embarked on a regular fact-checking spot on its evening news program. The spot has fact-checked various politicians, policies, and rumors on the internet without taboo. As such, it has become a role model for other Korean media.

    The SNU Fact Check Center, an institute at Seoul National University that is run by former reporters, is another norm entrepreneur that promotes fact-checking reports. Its position as an independent platform has contributed to cooperation both within the Korean media industry and with international organizations, such as The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). Two actors have played a significant role in this new journalism style taking root in Korea.

    The Covid-19 pandemic presented a significant challenge, as there was no confirmed information about the virus and treatments among experts. Although the Korean media’s fact-checking reports have been much more cautious regarding facts, media consumers have demonstrated relative confidence in their reports. This can be viewed as a positive indication made by the Korean media for continuing its fact-checking attempts for about a decade.

    When we view Japan’s early TV documentaries through the lens of form (how they were made), we can observe a situation unfolding that might best be described as the collision of techniques emphasizing visual imagery and techniques emphasizing the spoken word. This paper seeks to elucidate this situation, taking as its cue the formalistic characteristics of the dissonance between visual imagery and the spoken word evident in early works in the documentary series Nihon no sugao (Japan Unmasked, NHK, 1957-64). This dissonance was born of the attempt of the NHK program directors, who theretofore had only produced radio documentaries, to subjugate visual imagery to the spoken word (the narration) when turning their hand anew to producing documentaries for TV.

    The purpose of this study is to reveal the construction process and dynamics of national war memorials through a media-historical analysis of the "Save The MIKASA". The battleship Mikasa was the flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Russo-Japanese War. "Save The MIKASA" was a preservation movement that took place between 1922 and 1926 and advocated the preservation of the Battleship Mikasa as a memorial ship. However, at the same time, anti-militarism and pacifism were on the rise in Japanese society in the wake of the Washington Conference on Disarmament. Why was it necessary to commemorate the history of one’s own country’s wars in such a time?

    In this study focusing on the (1) Who started the Preservation Movement and with what intention? (2) How did the "Save The MIKASA" Develop into a National Movement? (3) How were the "Save The Mikasa" and the "Memorial ship Mikasa" given any significance? Furthermore, from these analyses, the social and historical meaning of the "Memorial Ship Mikasa" will be discussed. In this paper, I would like to take a media historical approach to the discussion based on article such as "JapanTimes&Mail" and "Tokyo Asahi Shinbun" published from 1922 to 1926.

    In conclusion, it was clear that "Save The MIKASA" is a movement that was established by the dynamics of the conflict between the ruling class and the ruled class, and the conflict between radical thought and reactionary thought in social thought. In the 1920s, when memories of the Russo-Japanese War were fading, the Mikasa Preservation Movement revived a spiritualism that emphasized the history and traditions of one’s own country and heightened patriotism through the recalling of memories of the Russo-Japanese War. However, it had to be done with a logic that was consistent with the pacifist ideology of the time.

    Computer technology as an aspect of communication media has been evolving since the 1970s. This study discusses the history of evolution of the media system that was institutionalized while new technologies were being incorporated. The originality of this study is its focus on Stafford Beer, a communication scientist grounded in the British system theory and his philosophies and activity as one of the founders of design theory. In the 1970s, Japan witnessed exceptional research in studies based on mass media and the information society, but there was limited focus on Beer’s theory or practice. The absence of discourse regarding Beer in Japan has become a dynamis in design theory. It is challenging to evaluate Beer’s purely technical ideas and extremely abstract communication theories to interpret him in today’s society. Furthermore, his activity at the time reflected postcolonialism and imperialism as he lectured paradoxically title in the 1970s regarding "design freedom". This study elucidates how Beer subsequently influenced US design theorists and philosophers.

    This paper investigated the transformation of Chinese ethnic media in Japan over the past 20 years and the influence it has received from cross-border homeland media.

    With the development of digital media, the use of ethnic media by Chinese residents in Japan is shifting from traditional mass media such as newspapers and broadcasting to we-media that utilizes SNS platforms. We-media has taken over most of the ’intra-group function’ and ’social stability function’ of mass media, and has emerged as a major player in ethnic media. On the other hand, newspapers and television for Chinese residents seem to have declined significantly in their functions as media and seem to have fulfilled only a symbolic function as a testimony to the history of the Chinese community in Japan.

    To analyze the characteristics and social functions of we-media, this paper conducted a case study on the WeChat official account ’tokyomen’, which is one of the most used accounts by the Chinese community in Japan. The results of the study from two approaches, content and discourse analysis, show that ’tokyomen’ has adopted a survival strategy of growing revenue by promoting Japanese products and designs while aligning with the hardline stance of the homeland media on political and social issues in Japan. However, the negative attitude towards Japan may undermine Chinese residents’ trust in the host society and hinder their adaptation to it. This characteristic of we-media derives from the shifting of ethnic media from the host society to the home country as they merge functionally and morphologically with the homeland platform. We consider the phenomenon in this paper as the tendency of ethnic media to become homeland media.

    This article examines the notion of "authenticity" as one of the values for the legitimization of journalism in the hybrid media environment, blurring public and private boundaries while relativizing the professional journalistic norm. It finally suggests a revision of professional journalistic roles or norms.

    Authenticity has ritually legitimized authority through its originality and uniqueness. Some scholars also portray it as the existential ideal of deciding one’s life following one’s own internal voice as society gets modernized. However, of late, this ideal has deviated to more popular and commercial value, as mass production, including mass media, has deconstructed the division between original and copy. As seen in Reality TV and social media, paradoxically, people have come to consume self-performance that seems authentic and its collective sharing experience as authentic. Consequently, various media practices are competing for this constructed authenticity as symbolic power. This article refers to this situation as "politics of authenticity."

    In conclusion, this article discusses that today, journalism must incorporate authenticity into the democratic process of subjectification to restore its legitimacy in the neoliberal media environment. It concretely suggests that journalists must reveal a more personal self to audiences to facilitate the audience’s subjectification and dialogue. On the other hand, it also indicates that such a tactic often contradicts the democratic ideal of representing diverse voices because it is liable to represent, more widely, sympathetic as authentic. To respond to this problem, journalism studies need to empirically examine the processes of constructing authenticity by focusing on relationships among media actors or media environments in various practices.