Tracing Individual Perceptions of Media Credibility in Post-3.11 Japan
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Volume 18 | Issue 10 | Number 3 | Article ID 5397 | May 15, 2020 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Tracing Individual Perceptions of Media Credibility in Post-3.11 Japan Sonja Petrovic Abstract credibility, social media The 3.11 disaster revealed many shortcomings in Japan’s mass media organisations and government, the most prominent arguably being the poor handling of the disaster by central government and TEPCO, including Information needs and communication miscommunication and delays in releasing gaps accurate data on the dispersal of radioactive The 3.11 disaster in Japan is the epitome of an materials. The lack of transparency in mass media coverage of the nuclear meltdown and unforeseen, catastrophic and intrinsically levels of radiation resulted in growing distrust disruptive event. On 11 March 2011, the among the public, who turned to online sources northeast coast of Japan was struck by a and social media to confirm or challenge powerful earthquake, which caused a chain- information provided by the mass media. reaction of events: a devastating tsunami, continuous aftershocks and tremors, and Based on in-depth interviews with 38 Japanese damage to nuclear reactors in the Fukushima individuals, this study explores individual Daiichi Nuclear Plant, resulting in nuclear perceptions of media credibility in a disaster meltdown and considerable dispersion of context and in the present, elaborating how radioactive materials into the environment. In changes in trust in media intersects with the all phases of the disaster, Japan’s media played changes and dynamics in media use and how a crucial role in how people communicated and the 3.11 disaster continues to influence media coped with a complex catastrophe. Nine years use and perceptions of credibility today. The after 3.11, social recovery, reconstruction in main findings of the study suggest that in the disaster-stricken areas and delays in wake of the unprecedented national disaster, decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi Japanese media users moved from using Nuclear Plant, which could take decades, traditional mass media as their sole source of remain ongoing concerns for Japanese public. news to a personalised, inter-media environment which integrates both online and Trust is a critical component of disaster traditional modes of communication without communication, and it is often tested in replacing traditional media players. This situations such as natural disaster and crisis further facilitated the practice of seeking and (Mehta, Bruns, & Newton, 2017), where evaluating information and media credibility citizens’ demand for credible information through new media forms of connectivity such increases. The exposure to inconsistent news as social media platforms and news websites. and media reports can significantly alter people’s perceptions of media credibility Keywords: 3.11 disaster, communication gap, (Gaziano & McGrath, 1987). Furthermore, in a inter-media environment, mass media, media disaster situation, the fragility of media is 1 18 | 10 | 3 APJ | JF exposed (Endo, 2013) and people seek different Delivering information to the general public ways to find the information they need and look about levels of radiation was especially for trusted media sources to reduce uncertainty problematic shortly after the explosion in the and ambiguity (Lachlan et al., 2014a). During nuclear plant. The inability of government, crises and natural disasters, many people rely TEPCO, and national media to accurately on Twitter for its ease of access, timely updates communicate information and educate the and real-time information, and ability to public (Hobson, 2015) subsequently created identify users’ specific needs and concerns. confusion among citizens who, without prior However, despite social media’s critical role in knowledge on the levels of radiation, could not communicating risk and disaster response, understand whether the reported levels of their fast and immediate dissemination comes radiation were dangerous or not, or whether with the risk of incomplete, misleading or and how best to leave the area. This study has inaccurate information. Another reason for been driven by data collected from participants questioning social media credibility is the highlighting the lack of transparency in mass shifting role of “gatekeepers” from producers media coverage of the meltdown and levels of to consumers (Westerman et al., 2014), which radiation, which led many to turn to alternative is why many people seek information from sources of information as the disaster was official and checked sources (Lin et al., 2016). unfolding and to connect with a variety of sources and communities. In this context, The 3.11 disaster was both a “natural” and a individual perceptions of media credibility and “man-made” disaster (Kingston, 2012). This confidence in Japanese media were overlap between natural and complex disaster significantly shaped and reconfigured by the setting, with high levels of uncertainty,3.11 disaster and its changing media amplified the critical need for credible, up-to- environment. date and timely information on rapidly evolving events necessary for effective disaster management. Within the complex 3.11 media landscape, social media served as a new The erosion of public trust in Japan information tool and an essential medium for up-to-date, real-time news when otherIn the years following the 3.11 disaster, communication systems were not working, Japanese people have been expressing even as television remained a widely used declining levels of trust in media institutions medium in the first moments of the disaster and government. According to the 2018 (Jung, 2012).1 However, the complexity of what Edelman Trust Barometer, public distrust at came to be known as the “Triple Disaster,” the global level is on the rise, with 20 out of 28 especially the nuclear meltdowns and the countries polled being categorised as diffusion of radioactive materials, altered this ‘distrusters.’ The survey from Edelman shows significantly. The opaque nature of mass media that Japan belongs to the category of reports and the communication gap between ‘distrusters’ with continuously low levels of local and central government alongsideinstitutional trust; the most recent report contradictory announcements by Tokyo Electric shows 32 percent for media and 37 percent for Power Company (herein TEPCO)2 and media the government (see Table 1.1.). Japanese trust institutions, and the contradictory orin social institutions, including NGOs, media, insufficient information from the government, government and business institutions is 11 contributed to profound public distrust towards percent lower than the global average in 28 government and mainstream media institutions countries surveyed, 37 percent versus 48 (Funabashi & Kitazawa, 2012; Hobson, 2015). percent, placing Japan at the bottom of the list 2 18 | 10 | 3 APJ | JF as the world’s least trustful, after US (43 1.2.). percent), Germany (41 percent), Australia (40 percent), Canada (49 percent), and UK (39 Table 1.2. World Press Index Report percent). The report also shows overall distrust 2010–2018: Japan in both mass media and social media in Japan, with an insignificant gap of 4 percent between World Press Freedom: Japan Ranking Index trust in journalism (41 percent) and social Year Rank Index media platforms (37 percent). Thus, it is 2010 11 necessary to highlight factors that led to such 2011 22 low media credibility in Japan. 2012 22 2013 53 25.17 Table 1.1. Trust in media and government 2014 59 26.02 institutions in Japan 2010–2018 2015 61 26.95 2016 72 28.67 Trust in Institutions: Japan 2017 72 29.44 Media Government 2018 67 28.64 2010 36% 42% Source: World Press Freedom Index 2011 48% 51% 2010-2018, Reporters Without Borders 2012 33% 24% 2013 34% 27% 2014 38% 39% According to the media advocacy group 2015 30% 36% Reporters Without Borders, Abe’s 2016 38% 39% administration poses a threat to media 2017 32% 37% independence by its interference in the 2018 32% 37% editorial policies of Japan’s public broadcasting service, and its dismissal of journalist reports Source: 2010-2018 Edelman Trust Barometer that are critical of the ruling party, taking little Global Report account of the citizens’ right to information. Since the State Secrecy Law was launched in Japan in 2013, “investigative journalism has declined in Japan, as the government became According to the World Press Freedom Index legally entitled to designate sensitive reports released in the period 2010–2018, it is information (such as national defense and evident that media freedom in Japan has been Fukushima-related issues) as state secrets. The on the decline since 2012. With regard to the public’s right to information has become changes in ranking over eight consecutive restricted.” (Oishi & Hamada, 2019, p.116). years, Japan fell from being 11th on the list in 2010, to ranking 67th in 2018 (see Table 1.2.). Numerous studies of the 3.11 disaster raise From the time of 11 March 2011, there have pressing issues in Japanese journalism been significant developments and changes in including mass media’s heavy dependence on Japan’s government and political landscape, government, thereby lacking independent and which also affected media institutions. Ever critical perspective in coverage of the disaster since the current Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s (Galbraith & Karlin, 2016; Gill, Slater, & administration took office in 2012, media Steger, 2013; Kingston, 2012; McNeill, 2013). 3 freedom