著者

菅原 慎悦 小林 誠道 長井 裕傑

出版者

関西大学 社会安全研究センター

雑誌

社会安全学研究 = Journal of societal safety sciences (ISSN:21860815)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.11, pp.57-81, 2021-03-31

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This study explores how the COVID-19 was reported in Japanese media focusing particularly on 'reducing contact by 80 percent', an oft-mentioned policy slogan during the emergency period. Our qualitative content analysis of five major newspapers in Japan between 1 April and 30 June shows that media agenda had shifted from 'socializing the slogan of 'reducing contact by 80 percent'' to 'highlighting unachieved status against this goal', and to 'reviewing the boundary between science and politics'. By and large, our analysis indicates that Japanese print media coverage were modest and 'media hype' was not observed. Rather, the slogan had been emphatically represented as a 'scientific' and thus an uncompromised goal, which might orient people toward selfrestraint behavior. Meanwhile, it may have hindered the public from scrutinizing the incertitude of scientific expertise which supported governmental decisions.