In the United States increasing ideological polarization between the Republicans and the Democrats has deteriorated into a deep partisan divide among the public, exemplified by the Trump phenomenon since the 2016 presidential election. It has been noted that the Internet intensifies and entrenches such polarization of political attitudes through encouraging selective exposure of information based on individual preferences and predispositions.

In Japan, although the situation is not as drastic as in the United States, the left-right partisan conflict in the mass public has become more salient under the Abe government than before, particularly on the Internet. This study examined the effects of Internet use to polarize Japanese political attitudes, distinguishing the two-stage processes suggested by the “minimal effects” theory.

Analyses of nation-wide survey data randomly collected in 2019 revealed that people with high political interest and efficacy were more likely to seek ʻhard news’ concerning political and social affairs on the Internet, while those who were less politically sophisticated tended to focus more on ʻsoft news’, such as entertainment. The results indicated that the high-choice information environment brought about by the Internet increased the gap between the political actives and the apathies. Second, using a generalized ordered probit regression model as an alternative to a problematic methodology employed in previous studies, this study demonstrated that hours of using the Internet for personal interests had significantly a polarizing effect on the approval/disapproval toward the Abe administration, which was likely affection-based rather than ideology-based. This paper discussed the implications of these findings for civic engagement in democracy.

This paper aimed to investigate the social division in the United States by analyzing news content and quantity of reports, focusing on the New York Times articles with the keywords “covid 19 divide” between January 1, 2020 to March 15, 2021. This study examined the volume of coverage and the social context behind each article, referring to extraction lists of keywords and proper nouns (personal name, organization name, place name). As a concrete method, this study used the newspaper article database and natural language analysis system provided by ProQuest. The results indicated that the response to COVID-19 and the social division become a major issue during the presidential election period. In addition, the results revealed that articles related to political division associated with the presidential and primary elections accounted for 30.8% of the total articles. Furthermore, 22.7% of the articles reported division due to economic disparity, which affected people’s daily lives, while 18.6% of the articles reported division between ethnic groups and countries of origin against the background of racial discrimination against people of African, Hispanic, and Asian descent. In addition, division related to education associated with disparities in the information environment and media literacy was 7.5%, division between occupations regarding the degree of influence of COVID-19 was 6.6%, and division between urban and rural areas was 3.5%, information disparity was 3.0%, intergenerational division was 2.2%, religious division was 2.0%, gender division was 1.7%, and cultural division was 1.4%. This research demonstrated that the presence of various reports on social division in the New York Times during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this essay we make an argument for where we should examine media coverage of the 3.11 Earthquake Disaster in Japan, especially the Fukushima Nuclear Accident. We interviewed 9 people who experienced the interviews on 3.11 in order to reveal what the newspapers did not cover. It leads us to acknowledge that they are aware of media framing, suffered in the interviews, but also realize the need and the discretion to speak for another.

At present, the media are being scrutinized for their gender-biased expressions. One example of this can be seen in crime reporting. Gender-biased expressions were once common when it came to the depiction of female victims and suspects. However, at least in newspaper reporting, the style has been changed in such a way so that more consideration is given to the parties involved. Meanwhile, the Internet has become an arena where personal information is leaked, privacy is breached, and people are defamed and slandered. The media’s misogynistic tendencies can be observed in the ways in which women are attacked. In order to eliminate gender bias in the media, it is necessary to deepen our understanding of gender issues and discuss them thoroughly. It is hoped that gender bias will be eliminated as media companies begin to tackle these issues.

This study aimed to identify the types of nationalists who will participate in political activities on the Internet. Since the 2000s, people who use the Internet to make xenophobic claims, such as the “Nettouyoku” and “Zaitokukai,” have been singled out. However, quantitative studies have not examined what type of nationalists makes people engage in political activities on the Internet in contemporary Japan. This study examined the types of nationalism and morality/emotion as psychological incentives for political activities on the Internet by focusing on three areas. First, based on the arguments of Opp (2009), Snow et al. (1986), and Higuchi (2014), it is predicted that the more one has xenophobic nationalism, the more likely one will engage in protest activities on the Internet. Second, from several existing theories, it is predicted that the more one is morally and emotionally dissatisfied, the more likely one is to engage in political activities on the Internet. Third, interaction effects between nationalism and morality/emotion is predicted. The hypotheses were tested through a quantitative analysis using web survey data and a hurdle model. The results suggested that people with the most xenophobic type of nationalism and a strong sense of justice were more likely to engage in political activities on the Internet. The results suggested that “Nettouyoku” engages in political activities on the Internet due to a sense of justice rather than dissatisfaction.

Chuugakusei Nikki is a TV series that started in 1972 on the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) and is set in a fictional public junior high school in Nagoya. Unlike most school dramas, such as 3-nen B-gumi Kinpachi Sensei produced by TBS Television, Chuugakusei Nikki gained the support of school personnel, particularly teachers. This paper aimed to examine the content of Chuugakusei Nikki, particularly its transformation from 1972 to 2012, and to investigate the program’s depiction of “chuugakusei problems” (junior high school students’ problems) over a prolonged period. This paper analyzed introductory texts written for public relations, clarified the period of Chuugakusei Nikki’s history, and examined the characteristics of the contents in each period by comparing it with other contemporary discourses on “chuugakusei problems.”

Early Chuugakusei Nikki interpreted “chuugakusei problems” as issues that could not be solved by teachers’ passion alone, linking it to social structures, such as the educational system and gender division of labor issues. This cognitive frame was an alternative that reflected the position of school teachers. From the mid-1980s onward, against the backdrop of the deteriorating environment for teachers and competition with other school TV dramas, teachers and parents came to be regarded as capable of influencing children through exemplary behaviors and lifestyles in this program. At the same time, the inclusion of teachers’ voice became more pronounced. Since 2003, the program has changed to target only the younger generation. Moreover, it began to focus more on friendships and romance among the students, and how they dealt with concerns caused by physical and emotional changes during puberty. As such, after the renewal, Chuugakusei Nikki stopped presenting school teachers’ perspectives.

In media studies, the term, “amateur” has attracted attention as a subject who creates media or as an object created by media. Previous studies on the latter aspect tend to fall into a short-sighted conclusion that “everyone can become an amateur with the advent of new media.” To tackle this problem analytically, we propose a perspective that sees people become amateurs as a result of learning. Based on this perspective, we arrange three research questions to be explored: (1) what is the function of media that enables learners to become amateurs? (2) what kind of amateurs can people become? and (3) what is the scale of people who can become amateurs? Taking up the related research from various disciplines, we insist on exploring these questions considering the relationships between them.

This paper focuses on the transition of name and concept in Japanese Animated films, Senga (“line drawing”). This name was used for about half a century from late Meiji era (around 1910) to the World War II. At first, it was generally a neutral word to express animated films, and it became the genre for enlightenment and diverged with Manga (“cartoons”) to express an entertainment at the later time. But Senga is not memorized widely today. How and when was Senga born, and why did it disappear?

Japanese Anime did not develop easily, but get repeatedly into danger of disappearing, because they are suffered from a lack of human and economic resources, in addition, have also been overwhelmed in quality and quantity by Disney and other films from the United States, the producers asked themselves the significance again each time. On the other hand, How the animated films have it been hoped as the media to give the audience what kind of action and effect?

Therefore, this paper does not depend only on the content analysis. I examine the national newspaper and refer to a magazine, the book historical materials in the period mentioned the above. There are thought to related at the times when a concept of Senga changes. I argue in three questions, First, “when was Senga born?”, Second, “How has Senga be consumed?”, Third is “how did Senga disappear?”. The transition of the concept of Senga is engraved the aspects of dynamism which represents the changes in consciousness and behavior of the creators, the governments, and the audience of those days.

Producers of radio documentary programs for prefectural radio stations perform a multitude of tasks by themselves. As a result, these producers seem to acquire a more wide-ranging aptitude than producers of longform, live-broadcast programs, which are produced using the division of labor.

In this study, producers were interviewed about the techniques they use and acquired in producing programs, along with methods for learning them. The analysis was done using M-GTA (Modified Grounded Theory approach).

From the survey and analysis,13 skills that were used and developed were found, along with the utilization of an experiential learning model. These producers are not aware of the listeners’ reactions to the program and cannot gauge the circumstances from the environment. However, they overcome these difficulties on their own and weave their own theories based on what they imagine the reactions and opinions of the listeners to be. In this way, they have acquired a higher level of ability, where they can garner an overview of a program as a whole.

With the spread of the Internet and the development of citizen journalism, women are no longer “victims” who are unable to speak out for themselves. Because of this, the word “nuhanzi” has become popular in Chinese cyberspace that positively affirms the non-feminine type of woman who had been hitherto criticized. A subculture surrounding the “nuhanzi” has emerged, shocking the dominant culture. The result of this is that the mainstream media has begun using the word “nuhanzi” in its reporting. Based on this point, a “struggle for signification” has emerged between the novel view of gender represented by the “nuhanzi” and the dominant view bound to the gender order in China, which has existed for a long time. However, as a result of the fact that reports in the mainstream media surrounding the “nuhanzi” gradually turned negative, online “activity” surrounding the term dwindled, the “struggle for signification” against the reports of mainstream media could not continue, and in many cases, the debate ceased.

Based on the above facts, this study focuses on the “reproduction” of the dominant culture in the “struggle for signification” and the reasons behind excluding the new view of gender epitomized by the “nuhanzi” from the dominant culture. At the same time, we argue that in today’s information society, the existing mainstream media outlets still have a substantial influence on the reproduction of the dominant culture.

This paper analyzed the passage of Singapore’s Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act from the perspective of platform governance. This paper clarified how the country’s ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) ministers and politicians justified the adoption of top-down government legislation to regulate online falsehoods, rather than relying on self-regulation by digital platform companies or co-regulation by companies and the government. This paper asserted that, rather than Singapore’s authoritarian state forcefully justifying the law with its own logic, the argument circulating around Europe, on promoting legislation of platform companies to regulate online misinformation and disinformation, was used to justify the law. This paper provided an overview of critical arguments against the self-regulation and co-regulation of online falsehoods, and arguments justifying legal regulation. The paper presented a critique of the argument that digital platforms are not responsible for the content their users post, as the platforms are neither the publishers nor the speakers of that content. In addition, this paper cited the argument that digital platforms’ self-regulation is prone to a lack of accountability. Furthermore, the “click economy” business model employed by these platforms, which rewards users based on the number of clicks is also criticized. Using these frameworks, this paper analyzed the process of passing the Act. In this process, the PAP ministers and politicians emphasized the responsibilities of self-regulation exercised by digital platform companies such as Facebook and Google, and how these responsibilities were not adequately fulfilled. In addition, they highlighted the click-economy business model as an obstacle to policing online falsehoods and manipulation, thus justifying government regulation with a clear due process. This led to the rejection of self-regulation and little discussion of the possibility of co-regulation.

This study attempted to investigate the perception on the news coverage regarding bilateral tourism between Republic of Korea and Japan. Bilateral tourism between two countries had expanded affected by social circumstances including economic, diplomacy and culture. In particular, the media became one of the important variables with the diversification of media channels. Among various channels, news contains various information related to the tourism. As an case study, news data in South Korea regarding Japan trip was examined by applying text-mining. This paper tried to provide the recent phenomenon based on the quantitative method in terms of communication between two countries.

This paper focuses on content acceptance centered on video in the late 1970s and 1980s. In particular, we will focus on how anime fans, the early adopters of the video format, experienced the content-accepting space.

In the Japanese literature, there is a certain accumulation for the content receiving space for the anime fans, but It has not yet been discussed in connection with the transformation history of the broader content acceptance space. However, the process of transforming the receptive space of bookstores has grown, and it has become clear over time that this process historically conditions the development of a culture. However, no studies to date have specialized in video acceptance.

Outside Japan, there has been one study focused on the spatial organization processes of video stores in the United States. In it, the development of video stores is described as a “geography of tastes,” and the relationship with the movie industry and the process of forming a receiving space in each region is clarified. However, the study does not clarify for consumers specifically how such a “geography of tastes” was experienced.

To understand the relationship between anime fans and video, we used anime magazines as resources for this paper. The use of video was positioned differently in the amine fans’ groups, depending on the stage of penetration rate. While its rates were low, anime fans’ video collections were often exchanged in the informal fan community; however, as video stores became legal, the exchange of videos was discouraged. Therefore, a variety of information about video stores and the characteristics of the community of each video store were posted. Such information also tended to lose its meaning as franchising progressed. The experience history of video-receiving spaces is clarified in this paper, in light of the experiences of anime fans.