Various studies on children and the media have been conducted in many different ways around the world. Amid major changes in both the media and children's everyday lives, there is a pressing need to sort the results of these studies from clearly defined perspectives and correlate them for the best possible use. This task may now be regarded as indispensable to the further progress of such studies. This article seeks to analyze major trends in research on children and the media in different countries, the content and background of characteristic types of studies, and also feedback about the results of these studies, mainly in the 1990s. Ever more carefully designed studies need to be conducted, including those that place emphsis on the positive aspects of media impact which should be encouraged for enjoyment by as many children as possible. A fresh framework for studies should be developed from wider viewpoints, supported by researchers with different backgrounds and experience, in order to make the total media environment more healthy and attractive for children, not only in Japan but around the world.

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First, this paper reviews previous findings on relationships between children and television from the developmental psychological perspective, from which some definite but small effects are pointed out. Why the effects of media are small will be searched considering many factors. Especially we should consider the role of environmental settings in media use. From several investigations done by this author and others about Japanese children and their families, many families were shown to watch television together to enjoy their company. But also, each family member watches television and reads books individually. Thus media functions in the family life as tools for both the company and for individual entertainment. Through these methods, they access media contents as they are shared among family members and more broadly shared in the world.

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Since the adaption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, world perspective on discussion of issues relating to the media and children has greatly shifted from the 'protection' to the 'rights' of children. Giving an overview of this shift based on the analysis of discussions in recently held international conferences such as the first and second World Summits on Television and Children (Melborne 1995, London 1998) and the International Forum on Young People and the Media, Tomorrow (Unesco Paris, 1997), this paper attempts to define the basic concepts and working frameworks for major players in this field in pursing their roles and responsibilities in the needs of respecting children.

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When considering children's behavior toward information consumption such as TV viewing, several factors in their environment should be taken into account. Among those, opinions and attitudes which their parents hold toward media are the most influential. Especially, most of the parents of elementary school children today belong to the "TV Age." Their opinions of TV should be reflected somehow on their children's TV viewing behavior. This paper is aimed at capturing children's TV viewing behavior based upon their relationship with their parents, as well as with the viewing behavior of their parents. The discussion is based on the results obtained from the survey conducted by NHK in 1987 and 1997.

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In Japan, after several serious crimes committed by minors, reforms of juvenile proceedings have been debated. Among many issues are the problems of severe restrictions on press reports of minors' crimes and closed juvenile court proceedings, which the Juvenile Act of 1949 provides for. In this article, from the standpoint of freedom of expression and press enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan, I examine critically the provisions concerning restrictions on press freedom and open court proceedings, and then propose opening up juvenile court proceedings, and extending press freedom. Following the introduction of media codes of conduct on reportings minors' crimes in detail, the particular importance of self-regulation of the media, including the establishment of a press council, is also indicated.

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What kind of televised animation has most attracted Japanese children of today? "Pocket Monster, " which was originally made for a data-trading game for Nintendo's Gameboy, has been overwhelmingly popular. Consideration will be given to the detailed analysis of the animation's structure in comparison with its orginal game and comic scripts, which are found in children's monthly magazines such as "Korokoro Comics" and Shogakukan's "Primary Grader: 4th to 6th." In particular, major features of both the openings and the endings, as well as their broadcasting time schedules will be thoroughly examined to illustrate why "Pocket Monster" has become so popular.

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The purpose of this study was to propose a method of 'qualitative' content anlysis, and to examine its methodological usefulness by relating its results to the viewers' reactions. A televised drama, in which a committed teacher dealt with the problem of bullying the classroom was analyzed, and viewers' reactions to the drama were collected by a questionnaire and summarized. The content analysis was done in the following manner: First, the development of the drama was analyzed and then segmented into units. Second, the units were categorized into three negative stages and two positive stages in terms of the characters' mental state. It was found that this method of content analysis was quite informative for identifying the segments of the problem that probably induced each reaction of the viewers.

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This study was to examine the change of winter sports' image through the broadcast of the Nagano Olympic Winter Games. Before and after the Games, SD-typed investigations were conducted and extracted 5 stable factors for the perception of winter sports. They were interpreted as Dynamism, Beauties, Affinity, Freedom, and Complexity. Most winter sports' impressions tended to be polarized about Dynamism and Beauties after the Games, and Affinity was increased. Further analysis found that there were two types of sports. One is suited for edited broadcasting (eg. figure skating) and the other is suited only for real time or recorded broadcasting (eg. ice hockey)

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In May of 1997 an atrocious murder occurred in Kobe's Suma district, and the murderer's profile was guessed to be a middle aged man, when in fact in the end a 14 year-old boy was arrested. This study analyzed the published comments made by experts and learned people concerning the profile of the murderer. Comments by experts were taken from four newspapers and analyzed using qualitative methods. Factors which led to the inaccuracy of profiles put forth by experts included insufficient and incorrect information, as well as the constraining influence of images of murderers in the past such as Tsutomu Miyazaki.

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This article discusses documents and materials in the package form, such as books, CDs, phonorecords, CD-ROMs, and so on. As Jacques Attali wrote, the importance of authorship should be emphasized, not that of the media industry. Documents and materials in the package form can be exchanged. However, they do not promote the productive labor which can enrich the capitalist class. These documents and materials tend to be applicable for the future, because the form can be stored and because the author of the contents can feel as if he or she were in the forefront. In conclusion, concerning these documents and materials, it is important for authors to be conscious to interactivity.

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This paper explains the method in which Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) operates. I intend to consider CMC as the construction of interaction at some specific situation after first reviewing research trends and problems. First, by analyzing the contents of E-mail using conversation analysis, I made certain the possibility that verbal activities on E-mail are interactionally organized as "conversation" by using the same device as face-to-face conversation. Second, I found some characteristic behavior during greetings and jokes in E-mail. This seemed to take place to make the organization recognizable to each correspondent. These results suggest that the so-called "media characteristic" is not created solely on its own, but is organized in practical interaction.

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Although an argument of the reading space has been neglected in the study of media, this argument comprises sociological problems about the relation between semantic field and practice by the reader in association with the diverse equipments of the space. As for analysis of the reading space, I chose Hibiya Library as a laboratory to investigate the semantic field. This attempt is connected with the theory of "modern reader, " and throws light on the recipient of information and the patterns of modern practice.

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This study attempts to explore how the Japanese-Amierican camp newspaper covered the first winter holiday season in evacuation camps. Specifically, this study conducts a qualitative analysis of the three camp newspaper, the Topaz Times (Utah), the Manzanar Free Press (California), and the Heart Mountain Sentinel (Wyoming). This study concludes that, although their holiday coverage was essentially constrained by the framework of the camp authority's enlightenment and Americanization policies, they also exposed some negative aspects of in-camp holiday celebrations. These newspapers acknowledged that the winter season of 1942 was far from the ordinary one and also articulated that evacuees were developing bitter-sweet, ambivalent feelings about "celebrating" inherently the most festive moments of a year behind barbed wires. This dual character must not be ignored for more complete understanding of the camp papers' editorial activities.

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This paper is to clarify the transformation process of book-reading practices in Meiji Era Japan, by focusing on a popular magazine at the time, "SEIKO (The Success), " whlch contained diverse articles written by the contemporary literati, and told people how to read books well. Close examination of the magazine proves that (1) silent reading was, far from being merely the adaptation to the governmental policy or the innovation of printing technology, established only after many twists and turns; (2) the silent reading transformation reflected some drastic changes in the Japan ethos as a whole: i.e. individualization, privatization and atomization.

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