2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Analysis of the Mode and Discourses of News Programs in Japan

Research Project

Project/Area Number	13410066
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	社会学(含社会福祉関係)
Research Institution	Waseda University
Principal Investigator	ITO Mamoru Waseda University, School of Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (30232474)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	KOBAYASHI Naoki Nagasaki Siebold University, assistant Professor, 国際情報学部, 助教授 (10249675) HUZITA Mahumi Hosei University, Professor, 社会学部, 教授 (60229010) HAYASHI Toshitaka Waseda University, School of Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (80238112) TANAKA Toko Waseda University, School of Education, Assistant, 教育学部, 助手 (40339619) OISHI Yutaka Keio University, Professor, 法学部, 教授 (40213623)
Project Period (FY)	2001 – 2003
Keywords	news / discourse / multi-mode / discourse analysis / conversationalization
Research Abstract	We want to conclude this survey by drawing the main issues. The objects of analysis are linguistic and audio-visual texts of evening news programs and night news programs in commercial broadcasting. To approach to the texts we adopt critical discourse analysis and multi-mode analysis. 1 A large part of television news programs is clearly designed as mixture of entertainment and information. So what is involved here can be thought of as a shift in the internal structure of the television, relaxation of the boundary between public affairs and entertainment in television. This shift can be seen in more general terms as part of an intensified "marketization of the television". 2 We emphasize Conversationalization in information programs or news show in Japan. It is indeed a hallmark in contemporary social life and the particular structural properties of mass-media communication involved the contradiction between the public nature of media production and the private nature of media consumption. Two connected questions about the tensions and tendencies we have highlighted are related to power relations within the social system. There is an ambivalence in the case of Conversationalization. It cannot be simply dismissed as ideological, indded ofen is, but it does nevertheless represent some degree of cultural democratization.