Some Analysis of the “Public Nature” of Broadcasting in Newspaper Articles

The “Public Nature” of Broadcasting Revisited (1)

November 2006

The concept “public nature” has been used as a basic idea which regulates broadcasting. On the contrary, however, people have repeatedly argued that “public nature” is too vague a concept. With this in mind, the author studied how the term “public nature” has been used in newspaper articles as a preliminary research to review the meaning of “public nature” under a new environment called “digital age.”

The author carried out full-text searches in “Asahi Shimbun article archives (from January 1985 to present),” “Yomiuri Shimbun article archives (from September 1986 to present),” and “Mainichi Newspapers article archives (from January 1987)” on G-search database for keywords “public nature of broadcasting,” “broadcasting” AND “public nature,” “public service broadcasting,” and “public nature.” The numbers of articles containing each term are as follows.

AsahiYomiuriMainichi
“public nature of broadcasting”505148
“broadcasting” and “public nature,”278247251
“public service broadcasting”760525478
“public nature”299523712366

Year-by-year comparison of the numbers of articles including “public nature of broadcasting” shows there were 4 or less articles using “public nature of broadcasting” per year in most cases from the 1980’s to 2004, but the number suddenly increased in 2005. There were three factors in the background of this surge: 1. Livedoor’s attempt to purchase Nippon Broadcasting system, 2. Rakuten’s move to merge TBS, and 3. the launch of Council for Prommoting Regulatory Reform and an advisory panel to the Internal Affairs and Communication Minister on telecommunications and broadcasting. “Public nature of broadcasting” was used in articles featuring the above three events 19 times in Asahi, 23 times in Yomiuri, and 28 times in Mainichi.

As long as newspaper articles are concerned, the term “public nature” contains the following nuances.

 1. “Beneficial for everyone (public good),” “known by everyone (well known to the public)”
 2. Reasonable price setting so that being available for anyone, not for money-making
    (universality, non-commercialism)
 3. Credibility, stability, and quality of the service
 4. Accountability as the media “for the people”
 5. neutrality, free from specific interests

However, as people put emphasis on different aspects depending on who uses it or where it is used, the meaning of “public nature” as a whole remains elusive.

“Public nature” of broadcasting is an important concept. We should clarify the meaning by examining equivalent expressions in English and other foreign languages and by studying how people involved in broadcasting and experts are using this term.

The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research