The impact of media on public attitudes towards the environment: Actors and institutions

We are following the response rates of “The most important issues in the world (and “in Japan)” by the nationally representative respondents drawn from 20 and over Japanese from the spring of 2005. Those response rates reflect from those impacts such as media reporting, especially mass media (television programs, newspaper articles), and international and domestic events, such as important political events (G8 summits) or disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis).

We used the opinion poll data referred above and media reporting data(newspaper & television news coverage on the environmental issues, climate change issues).

The impact of the East Japan Earthquake in March of 2011 is huge. We could not carry out nationally covered opinion poll until May 2011. Even two months after this event, more than 40% of our respondents answered this event is the most important issue in Japan, and still more than 35% in September. Along with those impacts, climate change is also a issue. Media coverage is still not low and important. We examined the “importance” of climate change issue in the national agenda, and its changing position. As a result, the environmental issue including climate change established its position in the national agenda since January 2007, and the highest in the summer of 2008,but declined 2008 autumn, but still keeps higher position compare to other issues. We saw global institutions and actors were playing important role for this change, such as Al Gore, G8 summit, disasters.