from Ellis S. Krauss. The Mass Media and Japanese Politics: Effects and Consequences (pp.355-372). In Susan J. Pharr and Ellis S. Krauss (Eds.) Media and Politics in Japan, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Structure wise, media in Japan tends to be highly plural, independent, autonomous, diverse, and accessible
Beyond structure, highly integrated with the business world through non-owernship connections, centralization and concentration rather than diversity, limiting pluralism and autonomy
The role of the media: stimulating interest in politics and political participation by the average citizen and transmitting and representing the popular will or the public opinion about an issue group-centered nature of Japanese culture, sensitive to what others think. and keeping political elites responsive and also contributing to maintaining those in power.
Ambivalent trickster role: a role outside the established order that mediates between that order and the realm of chaos (the unknown) and also the realm of cosmos (values and meaning): to evaluate the established order, to provide alternative perception and meaning the way the state says things should be. to help change the established order and help to maintain it, when and under what conditions the media play each of the dual trickster roles?
Posted by Xiaoge 
