A shift of media distrust in Japan

 

(Source: www.secretsofthefed.com/2013)

On March 11, 2011, Japan has experienced a major earthquake and subsequent tsunami that has affected the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant which cause an explosion in the northern region. The issue arises when there is no accurate information reported by the Japanese media.

Thus, Waseda University Professor Jiro Mori says, "The reason that important facts were not covered soon enough was, mostly, the media's insufficient ability to pursue the facts and a lack of good reporting skills.  He added "If the public got frustrated by the level of reporting, it reflects their high expectations. People believe that the media can do much more.”

Interrelated to this issue, a blogger and former journalist at another daily, Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Yasuharu Dando records the press’ spinelessness in his blog. The actual fact is that government had set the evacuation area at a 20-kilometer radius.

Contradict with the information, Asahi Shimbum on March 15, has reported “instructed the correspondents in Fukushima Prefecture to get out from a 30-kilometer radius and report from indoors."

Due to the issues mentioned above a, I foresee that Japanese media was negligent in handling those cases, they also prepared an inaccurate data which may lead to even deeper consequences. Residents at affected areas had to find the accurate source onto other international media that appeared in the internet.  It happens because media and government distributed different information for the public; to avoid from the misinterpretation they have to find other sources that could help. 

As mentioned by (Ward, 2008) journalism ethics investigates the “micro” problems of what individual journalists should do in particular situations, and the “macro” problems of what news media should do, given their role in society.

It reflected negative images to Japanese media credibility. They seems are lacking of communication skills for example they need to get confirmation from a reliable source e.g government before publish the issue to the public in order to ensure readers could depend on them.

Reference

 1) Stephen J. A. Ward,2008, Global Journalism Ethics: Widening the Conceptual Base

Global Media Journal -- Canadian Edition, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 137-149, ISSN: 1918-5901 (English) -- ISSN: 1918-591X (Français)