The media coverage and public awareness of environmental issues in Japan

Abstract

This paper examines how mass media in Japan influenced upon the public awareness of the global environmental issues during and prior to the Earth Summit (UNCED) in 1992. Our survey revealed substantial public concern about environmental issues in Japan. Content analysis of television news during the UNCED, however, found relatively weak relationship between the salient environmental issues of the audience and the portrayal of environmental issues in television news during the UNCED. An agenda-setting study of the newspapers during and before the UNCED showed a gradual and cumulative nature of the effects rather than the immediate effects. The amount of television viewing and the attitudes toward environmental tax showed positive association, after controlling for demographic variables, which suggested cultivation effects of the media.