MC 423 Summative Essay

How Have Social Media Changed The Production And Consumption Of News?

Introduction

As our lifestyle has extended to the multinational field thanks to the new communication technology such as social media, we are now able to communicate mobile around the world without the geographical limitation for our business, study, and inhabitation without the national boundaries. As our notions in the national boundaries have slowly vanished these days with the use of the new media, we have changed our attitudes towards the consumption of the news in the more global way. Currently we tend not to depend on the news produced by the traditional media, and the companies have a struggle financially. Therefore the traditional and dominant broadcasting companies are now shifting towards interactive and multinational media, as a “public sphere” claimed by Habermas. The current changes in media entities also face the emergent need for the shift in their organizational system nowadays.

With the following issues, this essay will focus how the social media have changed the production and consumption of news by the analysis of national media of Japan at the time of emergency. Comparing with two examples of the great earthquake that Japan has experienced in 2011 and 2016, I will examine the roles of dominant television company and the journalists.

The transformation in the information flow

In recent years, our communication has become mobile regardless of the geographical boundaries, especially because of the birth of smartphone with new media. For example, the social media platforms expand our regional boundary for communication from a small community to the broader community worldwide: from a platform for communication of your local school community to a broad public sphere worldwide. There is also no boundary of nations. People communicate by, share the information in and make the most of the social media in everyday life. As the network enable us to communicate within and towards the other countries, our communication fields had been extended without the border of place and time differences.

Notions of the ‘national’ have been extended to encourage the production for music industry in the national or regional language, as Homan claims in 2012, and digital media has shattered the previous neat and tidy compartmentalization of audiences and stations. The national broadcasting contracts are unstable now as “the local and foreign contents cannot be sustained, at a time when the global cross-pollination of ideas, musicians, live and recording personnel, not to mention media

MC 423 Summative Essay

How Have Social Media Changed The Production And Consumption Of News?

platforms, increases.” (Homan, 2012). The example shows that the cultural difference would be no longer into consideration with the global trade negotiations and without the limitation of the national boundary.

As Homan also argues in his work in 2012, the information flow without national boundary discussed above leads us to the constructions of cultural nationalism, as the media industries and governments try to present their power on digital and on-demand platforms. The online mobile communication has gained more popularity these days, and much more trend for the information resources online had been transformed from the traditional media, such as television, newspaper, or radio, towards the new media, such as homepages, social networking services or digital applications.

The influence from the transformation of communication technology

As the new technology evolved as this essay has discussed above, the new trend of the communication tools became so popular that we utilized for many kind of skills in our lifestyle, and adjusted to several changes in it with technology as well.

Firstly, the consumption of information and its conversation has transformed globally in the current digital society. The social shift from the geographically restricted communication to the mobile and unlimited communication, people are now in demand for more international information without the limitation in time, place and language. We are now facing in the global community without boundary, which have effected towards our perception for the individual community. Therefore our locational compartmentalization have been also extended multinational and global, as Richeri discussed in his work in 2004 below:“Maintaining individuals’ links with their community and providing citizens with fast and effective access to health, safety, and emergency services.”“Difficulty in categorizing the field of regulation as purely economic or purely social regulation tensions between economic and social welfare policy objectives.”(Richeri, 2004)

Secondly, we no longer have to depend on the traditional media for news and the broadcasting company for the information of commodity in everyday life. We can gain our information by ourselves from internet and new media, which has influenced to the broadcasting company and public television services. As well as Homan’s argument about instability of national broadcasting contracts listed above, Richeri claims that a number of different factors have been coming together in a way that creates a crisis in

MC 423 Summative Essay

How Have Social Media Changed The Production And Consumption Of News?

public television services in the past few years (Richeri, 2004). He also marks that the public television services have experienced through crises having reduced their size and scale of operations in his arguments.

Last but not least, with the impact from the global transformation flow as well as our individuality of consumers separated from the traditional media organizations, the companies have a struggle in the monetizing in reporting news as well as the advertisement. Traditionally, the media organizations have two roles, both political and economic entities in the market, as Napali claims:“Media organizations are able —and even expected— to influence public opinion, government policy, and citizen voting behavior…at the same time, media organizations’ continued existence in a capitalist system such as ours depends upon their ability to maximize revenue and minimize costs.”(Philip Napali, 1997)

However, as the traditional and dominant media are shifting towards interactive and multinational media, the current changes in media entities are now facing the emergent need for the shift in their organizational system.

The role of national media in the emergency: The Great East Japan Earthquake

With the financial crisis of the traditional media in the new media age, how will the media industry survive from the independent consumers? Here I would argue about the changes in the role of broadcasting: from the information resource to the public sphere to share the public opinion and discussion. The people’s behavior and the style of attaining information has shifted as this essay discussed above, and the free information through internet and social networking services enable us to compare each information resources. It gives the reader of news the power to interact with the media production company itself.

There is an example from Japanese broadcasting at the time of 3.11 that has made a good contribution for the civic participation into public discussion on the national television services.

On March 11 in 2011, Japan was hit by one of the most disastrous earthquakes in recorded history, called as the Great East Japan Earthquake. More than 28,000 people are dead or missing in this area, and the nuclear accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant followed to happen. The Great East Japan Earthquake was also resulted to the tsunami, which raise the people of missing and dead. At the time, except the region of Tohoku, Japanese people did not know what is going on or how massive the disaster

MC 423 Summative Essay

How Have Social Media Changed The Production And Consumption Of News?

occurred. In Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, the public transportation was stopped so that a lot of people could not go back to their home without information, food, or safe place to sleep. The useful tool first of all that available to everyone was Twitter. It supported to communicate with family or friend to let them know that you are alive, where you are now, where you meet, and to share the information where to go for necessary things to do such as toilet or buying a bottle of water. As people cannot call by mobile phone because of too much people are connecting at the same time, almost all of information was exchanged and delivered online by Social Networking Service.

On the national television programme, there was a restriction to report the situation in Tohoku area, so for several days there is no specific information or report about it. As Silverstone argued that regulation should rather deal with the protection of media environment, the regulation should be to control “environmental standards of media practice”, not for the contents or access to information. To fill up the role of TV programme to supply the information, on the internet there are a lot of practical information to know the situation and find specific places to take what people need. As the journalists collected information online such as Twitter or Facebook, the role of them are more as curator than as reporter. There was a public sphere by Habermas with a singular purpose to get together and support each other, suffered from the great earthquake.

The greater role of national media in the emergency times nowadays in 2016

In the great crisis for the nation, such as The Great East Japan Earthquake in Japan in 2011, the news is not only for reporting the unexpected situation to let everyone know, but also for giving the practical information for people who are in need. As the new technologies such as Internet and Social Networking Services were generally spread, the integrated news report with civic participation enable us to access and share the information. As the credibility and responsibility with journalism ethics is needed for a journalist, not everyone could or should be a “Journalist” with the use of new technologies; however, anyone can participate in and contribute to the formation of the informative network to create news that is detailed, fast-paced and more accurately needed by people.

Here is another example of the crisis in Japan: the Kumamoto earthquake in April 2016. This earthquake had occurred in Kyushu, the southern-west part of Japan, and was the biggest earthquake since the one had occurred in 2011. “Nine people died and more than 1,000 others were injured. The magnitude 6.5 quake in Kumamoto

MC 423 Summative Essay

How Have Social Media Changed The Production And Consumption Of News?

Prefecture also registered the highest level of intensity on the Japanese seismic scale”, as reported in NHK World. The situation was so serious that people in Kumamoto prefecture have gathered at the municipal office to get daily necessities: Self-Defense Forces members try to prepare food and to supply water and blankets as some people had to spend the whole night outside because the buildings might collapse.

The Kumamoto earthquake had happened suddenly so that no reporter could predict it for sure, however, at this time the television report was so different from the report in 2011 that I could notice the progress and revision from the last tragedy of the great earthquake. By examining the television report of NHK, the national broadcasting in Japan, it shows how social media works well for conveying the information towards Japanese citizens as public sphere in the emergency from the following significant three point of views: the speed of delivering the news, the useful contents not only for the people in Kumamoto prefecture and the emergent region but also for the people who want to support there, and the connectivity between the reporter and the audience of television report.

Firstly, there are so many reporters in the area from the sky and the ground as soon as possible the Kumamoto earthquake had occurred in 2016, while the report was only about the map of Tohoku region where the situation had been serious and was nothing details about things to do with the actual spot at the time in 2011. There was the live broadcast for three hours in the emergent area suffered from the earthquake, which had not been done at the time of the Great East Earthquake in 2011. The reporter was trying to report about the emergent area as soon as possible when the new information is attained: when the Japan Meteorological Agency holds the press conference to let us know about the situation in Kumamoto, and also when the president Abe holds his press conference to let us know about the policy of Japanese government.

Secondly, there were several interviews from the people suffered from the earthquake who have lost their houses and have escaped from there without their belongings. It gives us the information about the real situation in that area, which lead us to understand what the people in Kumamoto prefecture need at the moment. On the television screen, there is a main screen of live broadcasting and also the section for the caption for the additional topics. In this section, a lot of useful information are shown to the audiences, especially for the people suffered from the earthquake. For example, three major mobile phone providers, such as NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp. and Soft Bank Corp, said they had activated emergency public Wi-Fi hot spots in Kumamoto Prefecture, with the WiFi access point is named “00000JAPAN”, as it shows in the article of the Japan Times by Shusuke Murai in 15th April in 2016. Self-Defense Forces

MC 423 Summative Essay

How Have Social Media Changed The Production And Consumption Of News?

provides the food for people in Kumamoto prefecture, and Land, Infrastructure and Transportation ministry let people without houses stay in the Inn and the hotel. LINE, the social media application tool for phone call and chat message, provides IP telephone. It is a significant progress for the quality of reporting from 2011, as the news reporting is not only showing how the disastrous situation is, but also providing beneficial information to deal with the disastrous situation. It also gives the sense of emergency to the audience who are not in the suffered region outside of Kyushu region, which is important to let the Japanese people know how the earthquake is so serious that people need to support the region.

Thirdly, the news report of national broadcasting shows that the broadcasters were willing to make sure that people in the area can listen it with feeling of sympathy from the television report. The news anchors had reported the information which explains how to escape from the area, what to be careful, with repeating the encouraging words such as “Don’t be panicked, stay calm and cooperate with people around you”. As the earthquake had happened at night, without the place to sleep, it gives the sense of community by listening the encouraging message from television report. One day later of the earthquake, there is also the reporting about the revision of situation at night, with the messages from twitter. Social media as a bridge between the reporter and the audience who are worrying about the suffered region works well on the national broadcasting, which is good example of “public sphere” to discuss the needs of people in Kumamoto prefecture.

Although these progresses from 2011 to 2016 for the broadcasting with the good effect from social media use, there is a problem to consider for the production and consumption of news because of the language barrier in Japan. The Japanese government claims the lack of support for foreigners as a serious problem, as “tendency for Japanese to take precedence” in disaster preparedness planning for many municipalities.” in the article of JAPAN TODAY. At most of the evacuation sites in both prefectures, there is no language guidance provided other than in Japanese. It would be another things to consider for the social media that can solve in the further future to progress the support that the traditional media cannot follow in time when people need it.

Conclusion

During the chaotic situation, such as the earthquake in Japan in 2011 and 2016, the media institutions has supported by civic participation at this time greatly showed a

MC 423 Summative Essay

How Have Social Media Changed The Production And Consumption Of News?

good use of the social media for the production and consumption of news in forth ways.First, they are working for the people in Japan who need the help to get

information, feeling connection as one community. Even there was a dangerous places to get closer, they went to the available places as many as possible based on the assessment of government as well as the local people there. There is an integrated archive reported by the journalists with the name of “Remembering 3.11” published later, which shows their great sympathy to the people suffered in Tohoku.

Second, they keep transparency of information to report online. As TV broadcasting was restricted, the journalists uses public account online or Social Networking Service to spread the information and analysis about the endangered region. Especially official account on Twitter expanded fast by “Share” of people. As the account name was official, or as the username with title name of Newspaper Company, there are credibility to trust the information and share to others.

Third, they were honest to collect the mistakes. I define this term as the ability to take the responsibility to tell the truth even when they are to be criticized. When the situation had changed because of the recent report, such as the number and names of missing people, they reported each time as soon as the information was available.

Last but not least, the journalists followed the cause to make the information available for all in need. If they did not have an ethic of Justice, the curation with civic participation approach would not work well as it had done. For it was mainly voluntary work, the curated information was free and open to everyone.

The media institutions where cooperated with the civil participation on social media platforms has shown the good ethics of sympathy, fairness, accuracy and justice. It enabled the traditional media and the social media to be one public sphere for sharing the important information to Japanese who are in need during the tragic and chaotic times of the great earthquake in 2011 and 2016.

The cooperation between the traditional media and the social media was genuinely good example for the media institutions to follow their mission in terms of the journalism. The identity of the journalist should be generated by the mission to deliver the appropriate information for people who need it the most. I believe that the best way for Japan to develop as fast as possible is completed by these communications to share their needs and ask people in Japanese civil society for a help to provide them. These cases shows that the journalism in Japan at the earthquake highly achieved the great work based on four ethics state above.

MC 423 Summative Essay

How Have Social Media Changed The Production And Consumption Of News?

Reference

Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and political engagement: citizens, communication and democracy pp. 172-181

Dayan, D. (2007) ‘On Morality, Distance and the Other: On Roger Silverstone’s Media and Morality’, International Journal of Communication, April

Napali, P (1997) pp. 207Nightingale (2004)Horman, S. (2012) Local priorities, industry realities: the music quota as cultural exceptionalism pp. 1041-1049Richeri, G. (2004) Broadcasting and the Market: The Case of Public Television pp. 178-192

Remembering 3.11: Archive of video and articles http://www.fnn-news.com/311/articles/201103120086.html

“After shocks still Rattling”APR 15, 2016, NHK WORLDhttp://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/editors/3/20160415/index.html

Connectivity, news and social media become crucial lifelines in quake-hit areasAPR 15, 2016, the Japan Timeshttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/15/national/connectivity-news-and-social-media-become-crucial-lifelines-in-quake-hit-areas/#.Vxu3T_krLIV

“Lack of support for foreigners during disasters creating problems”APR 21, 2016 JAPAN TODAYhttp://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/lack-of-support-for-foreigners-during-disasters-creating-problems