Recently the problem of media's influence over society has been frequently argued, but never seems to be settled. Major contributions to this field such as the agenda- setting theory or the spiral of silence hypothesis have partly solved it, but have left much more to be solved. What makes this problem so opaque is the lack of a systematic analysis of the interaction between the media and the audience. H.A.Simon found that constituents' voting behavious are bounded by the "frames"by which they decide national issues. His concept of bounded rationality can be the cognitive foundation of the influence of agenda set by the media. It is an optimizing solution to the problem in which few values among many parameters are known exactly and it takes high information cost and algorithmic complexity to decide it by him/herself. A very simple game-theoretical model is introduced to formulate this cognitive view: we model the"spiral"effect as interdependence of two players' optimal strategies (agenda) in a"coordination game"played by the media and the audience (or a medium and another medium), in which one player's payoff is positive if and only if his/her strategy corresponds with another's. Examining its quasi-dynamic behaviour, we found that the more correlated media and audience's agenda, the stronger the spiral effect would be. An important reason for this interdependence is undecidedness of the coordination game: i.e.any cooperative solution is equivalent as long as one's strategy corresponds with another, so there is no criteria for deciding which of these"multiple equilibria"is more desirable than another. What makes such correspondence possible is not the players' rationality but their common knowledge that each other selects more"salient"agenda. This deductive conclusion of game theory coincides with the common wisdom of media theory, and might be a logical foundation of the spiral effect in setting agenda. These findings suggest how to asses the media's influence over the audience: it is not their proper"power"but their function to create such correspondence or momentum that makes them seem so influential. And this momentum will be accelerated by growing ignorance and undecidedness about national issues, because the information matrices we face are becoming more and more complex and multi-dimensional today. Since we will be more bounded and interdependent by sharing information, the media's seemingly strong power is only one symptom of the instability and precariousness of the coming"information society".

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This paper focuses on the discourses on freedom of press surrounding the decision to suspend publication of"Little Black Sambo." All the publishing companies in Japan that had been publishing this book decided to stop publication at the end of 1988, citing that the book is based on prejudice against black people. There were numerous arguments about this incident, and freedom of speech or press were sometimes mentioned, but it was rarely discussed at length. This is because the theory of freedom of speech or expression is traditionally discussed only in terms of regulation by authority. However, if we take a look at some incidents of late that have been discussed in terms of freedom of press, it is apparent that they are not so much concerned about the relations between authority and the press, but more about relations between individuals, or between society and individuals. In face of these trends surrounding the marketplace of speech, we have to make a turn in our discussion to adapt the theory of freedom of press to the present situation. In order to discuss incidents concerning freedom of press between individuals, the framework of the analysis of freedom of press should be shifted from'Authority-Individuals'to'Authority-Society-Individuals'. This deviates from the Hutchins Commission's framework, Authority-Mass Media-Individuals(or society)'. In theory, the marketplace of speech, free from government regulation, is considered a place where public affairs of a society are discussed, and through such discussion, an agreement is supposed to be reached naturally. However, if we observe the discourses concerning"Little Black Sambo"in Japan since the end of 1988, the function of the marketplace is viewed differently. Each society's marketplace has its own history in which a certain amount of agreement is taken for granted before a speech or publication comes out in a free marketplace of speech. Therefore, the fact that a speech is in a marketplace means that the speech is authorized. The existence and non-existence of speech are taken as a representation of the implicit ethical rules on which a society is based. This is why some people require certain types of expression to be suppressed. If we try to examine freedom of speech in our present society, we have to examine when the implicit ethical rules are in agreement with the theory of freedom speech and at which points they collide. In analyzing discourses in line with the method called"discourse analysis, "it is clear that the value of freedom of speech is diminishing in our society, and this may be paralleled to the phenomena which Hannah Arendt termed a rise of'realm of society'after the disappearance of the distinction between public and private realms.

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The structure of international communication has been largely changed by appearance of broadcasting satellites. In particular, the audience in'internationalization of broadcasting'created by satellites are directly related to foreign TV. Most researches in international communication have concentrated on a relatively large unit of analysis, typically a national media system or culture. The structural change of international communication requires a change of the level of analysis to that of individual. The spillover of the Japanese Direct Broadcasting Satellite (DBS) in Korea has given rise to an argument about cultural imperialism. The proponents of this argued the problem of culture but overlooked the activity of the audience. Audience members are more active than critics believe. They seek content that seems to be the most gratifying in an information environment by the Japanese DBS which has enlarged the selectivity of the audience. By watching the Japanese DBS, the audience of Korea can directly receive information about Japanese society which does not pass through the process of filtering by the Korean media. By directly informing the audience of Korea, the Japanese DBS may affect them differently from Korean media on their perception of Japanese society. In this paper, I have tried to explore the needs and gratifications, and agenda-setting function of the Japanese DBS, adapted to the theory of Uses and Gratifications and Agenda-Setting. This research found that the Japanese DBS functions as a medium of international information and education. In particular, 'high-understanding groups'use this actively and gratify their needs with the Japanese DBS to same degree as Korean TV. Furthermore, more long-term and accumulative effects occur to the audience watching Japan news than non-viewers on perceiving the recent agenda about Japanese society.

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