POL405 Seminars in Political Science
Politics and the Mass Media
Autumn 2012
Faculty of Liberal Arts
Dr. David McNeill
Sophia University
Outline: This course aims to provide you with a deeper understanding of media that dominate our
lives. How has the enormous media system that provides us with most of our information about the
world developed and evolved, who owns and controls it, how does it operate and what are the
implications for what we see, hear, read and watch? The course will run over one semester with a
lecture/workshop format.
Lecturer: Dr. David McNeill is a journalist and academic who writes regularly for The Irish Times,
The Independent (UK) and The Chronicle of Higher Education. His work has also appeared in
Newsweek, New Scientist, the BBC, The South China Morning Post and many other publications
around the world. He has reported from most countries in Asia, including North and South Korea,
the Philippines and Thailand and is a member of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. He is a
coordinator of the e-journal japanfocus.org.
Course Requirements include two essays, as well as a class presentation during the semester.
Material from your presentation can also be used in essays. The first properly referenced essay, due
mid-semester should be 1500 words long and the second, due in the final week of semester should be
at least 2500 words. Presentations will be discussed and arranged in class. Grading will be based
on your performance across all these areas. There is no final test.
Textbooks: There is no required textbook for this course. Books and recommended readings will
be available in the library and on Moodle. Every week there will be a required reading for each
lecture, marked in bold. You should also try to keep up with what is happening in newspapers and
magazines, and read adventurously for this course; your knowledge of current affairs and media
issues will be a factor in grading.
Plagiarism is quoting from, paraphrasing, or using specific ideas contained in any published work,
e.g. books periodicals, public documents, internet, etc…, or using another person’s ideas, without
providing an appropriate citation or recognition which credits the author and/or origin of the work or
idea, and presenting them as if they are your own. Please don’t do it!
Section A: Politics and the Media
Session one: Introduction and course outline
Workshop: Quiz, Does the media tell us the truth?
Session two: What’s wrong with this picture? Ways of looking at the media
Workshop: Rupert Murdoch and Outfoxed!
Session three: Who owns the media and does it matter?
Workshop: Deciding presentation timetable
Session four: The crisis in world media
Workshop: Media models
Session five: Censorship
Workshop: Debating Censorship
Section B: The Media in Japan
Session six: Taboo Japan
Workshop: Taboos?
Session seven: Press Clubs and the 3.11 Tohoku Disaster
Workshop: Discussing 3.11 and the nuclear crisis
Session Eight: Confessions of a foreign correspondent
Workshop: Do foreign correspondents get Japan right?
Session Nine: Guest lecture, to be decided
Session Ten: Japan’s weeklies
Workshop: Presentations
Session Eleven: The Great Equalizer? The Internet
Workshop: Presentations
Session Twelve: What have we learned?
Workshop: Presentations
Indicative Reading List
Please don’t forget to consult Moodle for essays and weekly updates.
Japan
Asano, K., (2004), Media and Democracy (photocopy; available in reserve binder)
Asano, K. (2003), Japanese Self-Imposed Kisha-Club System Decays Investigative Journalism (in
Japanese only: available in reserve binder)
Atkins, A (2002), The Politics of Southeast Asia’s New Media. Curzon.
Barrat, D. (1990), Media Sociology (Routledge).
Cooper-Chen, A & Kodama, M (1997), Mass communication in Japan, Ames
Foreign Press Center Japan (2004), Japan’s Mass Media
Freeman, L. A, (2000) Closing the Shop: Information Cartels and Japan’s Mass Media, Princeton
University Press.
Feldman, Ofer (1993), Politics and the News Media in Japan, Univ of Michigan Press.
Freeman, L.A., “Japan’s Press Clubs as Information Cartels,” JPRI working paper No. 18, 1996
Available online at http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp18.html
Gatzen, B. (2002). “Media and Communication in Japan,” Electronic Journal of Contemporary
Japanese Studies.
Available online at: http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/Gatzen.html
Gottlieb, N., & McLelland, M. (2003), Japanese Cybercultures, Routledge.
Hall, I.P. (1997), Cartels of the Mind: Japan's Intellectual Closed Shop, New York: W.W. Norton
Hall, I.P. “Gagged on the Ginza,” (1998), JPRI Critique Vol. V No. 9
Available online at: http://www.jpri.org/publications/critiques/critique_V_9.html#Hall
Krauss, Ellis, “TV News in Japan: Reporting on Politics or Shaping it?” in Japan Media Review.
Available online at http://www.ojr.org/japan/media/1054281719.php
Krauss, E. (2000), Broadcasting Politics in Japan: NHK and Television News
Jameson, S.(1997), “A Veteran American Journalist Looks at the Japanese Media,” JPRI working
paper 40. Available online at: http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp40.html
McNeill, D., “The Great Equalizer? The Internet and Progressive Activism in Japan,” in Mark McLelland &
Nanette Gottlieb, (2002), Japanese Cybercultures, (Routledge).
McNeill, D. (2002), 日本の地方ラジオ報道の在り方を問う, (What’s the problem with local radio in
Japan?) Sougo Journalism Kenkyu, (Studies in Journalism) August 2002
McNeill, D. (2003), “Confessions of a Foreign Correspondent,” Japan Policy Research Institute,
JPRI Critique, Volume X, No. 7. A Shorter version is available in the Japan Times, Sept. 23, 2003.
Available online at http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20030923zg.htm.
McNeill, D., (2004), “Trouble at the Top,” Japan Focus. Available online at:
http://www.japanfocus.org/139.html
McNicol, T., (2004), “Covering Japan’s royals,” Japan Media Review. Available online at:
http://ojr.org/japan/media/1095987858.php
Pharr, S. J., & Krauss, E.S. (eds.) (1996), Media and Politics in Japan, Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press.
Skov, L. & and Moeran. B. (1995), Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan, Curzon Press
Tokinoya, H., (1996), “Japan,” in Alan Wells (ed.), World Broadcasting:
A Comparative View, New York: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Van Wolferen, K. (1993), The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation,
Tokyo: Tuttle.
Watanabe, T, (2002), Memoirs of Tsuneo Watanabe, Chuo-Koron Shinsha.
Watanabe T & Gamble, (2004), A., “A Public Betrayed: The Power of Japan’s Scandal-Breaking
Weeklies,” Japan Media Review.
Available online at: http://www.japanmediareview.com/japan/research/1091748643.php
Wong, M. and Mak, V. (2003) Japan’s Mass Media, University of Hong Kong. Available online at:
http://jmsc.hku.hk/students/jmscjournal/critical/michellevivian_01.htm
Yoneyama, L. (2001), NHK Censorship/Japan's Military, Sexual Enslavement, H-Japan,
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/logsearch/.
Global
Anderson, B. (1991) Imagined Communities, Verso.
Biskind, P., (2002), Easy Riders and Raging Bulls: How the sex ‘n’ drugs ‘n’ rock ‘n’ roll generation
saved Hollywood, Bloomsberry.
Chomsky, N. & Herman, E., (1994), Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass
Media (Pantheon): http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Speech/rccs/theory01.htm
Curran, J.& Seaton, J., (1996) Power Without Responsibility: The Press & Broadcasting in Britain
(Routledge).
Curtis, M., (2003), Web of Deceit: Britain’s Real Role in the World, Chapter 19: “The media’s
propaganda role,” pp.374-386
Garnham, N. (2000), Emancipation, the media, and modernity: arguments about the media and
social theory (OUP)
Garnham, N. (1990), Capitalism and Communication (Sage).
Herman, E.S. & McChesney, R.W. (1997), The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Global
Capitalism, Cassell.
McNair. B. (1999) News and Journalism in the UK: A Textbook (Routledge)
McNair, B. (1998) The Sociology of journalism, Oxford University Press.
Murdoch, G. and Golding, P. (1997) The Political Economy of the Media (Edward Elgar)
Habermas, J. (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: an inquiry into a category
of bourgeois society (MIT Press)
Randall, D. (1996): The Universal Journalist, Pluto.
Randall, D. (2000): Theory and Practice of Journalism, University of Michigan Press.
Rich, F., (2006). The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to
Katrina, Penguin, NY.
Winfield, B.H. & Davidson, S. (1999): Bleep! Censoring rock and rap music, Greenwood Press.
Winston, B. (1997) Media Technology and Society, A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet,
(Routledge).
Wasko, J. (2001), Understanding Disney: the manufacture of fantasy, (Polity).
Wasko, J. (2003), How Hollywood Works, Sage
Watson, J.& Hill, A., (1997), A Dictionary of Communication and Media Studies, ,Arnold.
Web sites you might want to check out
Asahi Com: http://www.asahi.com/
Daily Yomiuri: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/
Foreign Correspondent’s Club Japan: http://www.fccj.or.jp/
Kenichi Asano: http://www1.doshisha.ac.jp/~kasano/
Kyodo News: http://home.kyodo.co.jp/
NHK: http://www.nhk.or.jp/
Media Lens: http://www.medialens.org/
Mainichi Daily News: http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/
Nikkei Interactive: http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/
Indy Media Japan: http://japan.indymedia.org/
Independent Media TV: http://www.independent-media.tv/about.cfm
Japan Media Review: http://www.japanmediareview.com/
Japan Policy Research Institute, http://www.jpri.org/
Japan Times: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/
Japan Focus: http://www.japanfocus.org
Shukan Shincho: http://www.shinchosha.co.jp/shukanshincho/index.html
Shukan Bunshun: http://www.bunshun.co.jp/mag/shukanbunshun/index.htm
Shukan Post: http://www.weeklypost.com/index.htm
Also: The Japan Foundation Library (http://www.jpf.go.jp/) is a great starting point when searching
for books on Japan, media and technology.
Sample Essays
Commentators have said that media coverage of the March 11 Tohoku disaster shows the Japanese
press in both its best, and worst light. What is your view?
“Self-Censorship is one of the most conspicuous characteristics of the Japanese Press.” Discuss with
reference to real incidents.
Why has the Japanese media missed or ignored so many major stories over the years?
According to Karel Van Wolferen, although apparently designed to facilitate the dissemination of
information to the Japanese public, “Japan’s press club system in fact is the most serious barrier to
this dissemination.” Discuss.