著者

後藤 文康

出版者

日本マス・コミュニケーション学会

雑誌

新聞学評論 (ISSN:04886550)

巻号頁・発行日

no.35, pp.120-131, 290-289, 1986-04-30

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In the late 1950s when Japan was runinng at full speed toward becoming an economic power, a new type of people began to emerge. They drastically changed the framework of the "masses" which until then referred to the "general working class, including labours and farmers." The masses situated in the lower part of the traditional pyramid-shaped society have come to occupy the central and major part of the present oval-shape society. The masses in this society were highly educated and shared almost equal health. Along with the emergence and expansion of the new "masses, " the newspaper was forced to change in order to arise their interest. The first noticeable change was the increase of news and information on home and community life, sports and leisure. It was then followed by an increase in international news items and the expansion of readers' columns. In this period, when the goal of average-people was to improve their standard of living in the same way that others were doing, the task for the newspaper was to understand and respond to such needs and to point out frictions and contradictions. Challenged to fulfill this task, newspapers, the national papers in particular, competed with each other in increasing their number of pages. It was then in the middle of the 1970s that the newspapers have again witnessed a change in the masses. In the so-called "mature" society, people were no longer easily satisfied with homogenized information. The word "bunshu(diverse and divided masses)" was even coined. The newspaper could no longer mass-produce standardaized news only. In order to meet diversified demands, newspapers then have chosen the strategy of multiple-option. Pages on specific topics like health and medical care were increased and separate editions which could be termed 'living journal' were issued. Newspapers from this stage, however, have become often puzzled by the "whimsical" masses who seemed to have become more inquisitive and curious. Protection and consideration for human rights and privacy are thus the biggest problems that newspapers face at present. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the masses, whether they undergo another change or not, will continue to be the key factor in the survival of the newspaper. This is so not only from the financial point of view but also in opinion formation. How should the newspaper fulfill its mission by not losing support from the masses? The author proposes the concept of "paternal journalism, " which entails : cool and mature judgement, broad viewpoint, generosity, self-restraint, rich knowledge, protection of the weak from the strong, and strength …all of which are required by the present-day masses to actualize what may be called the ideal journalism.