Public opinion, propaganda, ideology : theories on the press and its social function in interwar Japan, 1918-1937 / / by Fabian Schäfer.

• Superior document: Brill's Japanese studies library, 39
• Author: Schäfer, Fabian.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's Japanese studies library ; v. 39.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (201 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

As early as prewar Japan, thinkers of various intellectual proveniences had begun discussing the most important topics of contemporary media and communication studies, such as ways to define the social function of the press, journalism and the formation of public opinion. In Public Opinion – Propaganda – Ideology , light is particularly shed on press scholar Ono Hideo, his disciple the sociologist and propaganda researcher Koyama Eizō, Marxist philosopher Tosaka Jun and sociologist and postwar intellectual Shimizu Ikutarō. Besides introducing the different approaches of the aforementioned figures, this book also contextualizes the early discursive space of Japanese media and communication studies within global contexts from three perspectives of transnational intellectual history, id est adaptation reciprocities and parallels.

Table of Contents

Introduction -- The formation of a modern mass press in Japan -- Transnational contexts: appropriation, reciprocities, and parallels -- Disciplining knowledge: the foundation of newspaper studies -- The social function of the press: education, public opinion, propaganda -- Marxian intervention: the actuality of journalism -- Latent publics: rumors and the reciprocity of communication -- Conclusion.