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 crosspollination of ideas, musicians, live and recording personnel, not to mention media
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 ondemand 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.

MC 423 Summative Essay

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

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 Homans 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
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 behaviorat 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

MC 423 Summative Essay

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

sphere to share the public opinion and discussion. The peoples 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
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.

MC 423 Summative Essay

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

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
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 15 th April in 2016. Self-Defense Forces
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,

MC 423 Summative Essay

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

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 Dont 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
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

MC 423 Summative Essay

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

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.

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 Silverstones Media
and Morality, International Journal of Communication, April
Napali, P (1997) pp. 207
Nightingale (2004)
Horman, S. (2012) Local priorities, industry realities: the music quota as cultural
exceptionalism pp. 1041-1049
Richeri, G. (2004) Broadcasting and the Market: The Case of Public Television pp. 178192
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 WORLD
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/editors/3/20160415/index.html
Connectivity, news and social media become crucial lifelines in quake-hit areas
APR 15, 2016, the Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/15/national/connectivity-news-and-socialmedia-become-crucial-lifelines-in-quake-hit-areas/#.Vxu3T_krLIV
Lack of support for foreigners during disasters creating problems

MC 423 Summative Essay

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

APR 21, 2016 JAPAN TODAY

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/lack-of-support-for-foreignersduring-disasters-creating-problems