exit Kanechika Daiki: “TV should not report on politics” – A new stone on election coverage: “No one will watch something that will cause complaints no matter what you do” In the Hyogo Prefectural gubernatorial election held on November 17th, Governor Saito Motohiko, who lost his job due to allegations of power harassment, faced a headwind from the media every day, but in the end he was re-elected with a landslide victory. Immediately after his election, it was said that the reason for this was the increased support on social media, but a television program host said, “In a sense, it’s a defeat for the major media,” which led to a lot of criticism of the comment and the election coverage itself. On “Abema Prime,” they discussed why online voices influenced the voting results in the Hyogo Prefectural Governor election, as well as the Tokyo Governor election and the House of Representatives election, and also discussed how newspapers and television, which are referred to as “old media,” should report in the future. ■The presence of the Internet in election coverage Re-elected Governor Saito While television news coverage is conducted with an awareness of laws such as the Broadcasting Act and the Public Offices Election Act, the presence of the Internet has increased significantly in recent elections. Businessman Takafumi Horie said, “The only fact is that YouTube has an enormous amount of power. The more minor the election, the more likely it is. In the House of Representatives election, none of the established political parties made any gains. New parties are gaining more and more votes. “The Democratic Party for the People, the Democratic Party for the People, and the Reiwa Shinsengumi also saw increases in their votes,” he said, pointing out that political parties that had the internet on their side saw an increase in votes. He had been paying attention to the YouTube channel of Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, and said, “As more and more videos are uploaded, it becomes clear that the Democratic Party for the People is saying a lot of sensible things that are beneficial to them. “I think people voted for the Democratic Party for the People because they thought that if they voted for them, the world might change a little.” What was the attitude of the TV side? Journalist Toshitaka Sasaki expressed some understanding, saying, “During election periods, the media is bound to be neutral and fair,” but added, “But that doesn’t mean it’s strange to say that the influence of television and newspapers has decreased.” Regarding the Hyogo Prefectural gubernatorial election, “If anything, we need to think about how much one-sided coverage was given to Mr. Saito before the election period and before the official announcement date. At this stage, when people are being led to believe that ‘we have to bring down Saito,’ I have doubts about his neutrality and fairness.” If a certain candidate is featured in television election coverage, it will draw complaints from people who support another candidate, and if they treat him like Governor Saito, it will also draw a strong backlash from his supporters. Regarding this current situation, Kanechika Daiki of EXIT said, “The only way is for everyone to research it themselves and believe what they think and believe. So if they say they don’t believe in TV, then that’s it. This is the result of a series of mistakes made by television,” he said, adding, “Television is half-hearted and vaguely biased. Sometimes I think it’s a bit biased, and sometimes it’s not fun because it tries too hard to be fair. The internet is easy to understand. It feels good because if you look at something you want to believe, you’re going to be exposed to an overwhelmingly biased opinion all the time. We live in such an era, so if you want to be liked on TV, it’s better to be biased. The media is too afraid of being disliked. Because of that, it has no bias and it’s not interesting so people have stopped watching it, it has lost credibility and is disliked by everyone,” he said, listing the problems. He also said, “I think it’s better not to report politics on television.” “Whether it’s the Moritomo and Kake scandals or issues involving politics and money, there are people who say it should be reported, and there are also people who say ‘don’t hide it’ if it’s not reported. With all the constraints we’re bound to, no one wants to see something where everyone complains about it no matter what we do. I think YouTube started out as just a platform that did weird stuff without interfering with politics, and people started watching it because it was fun. He also suggested that we create a situation where television no longer covers anything political, and people are free to do what they like on YouTube, the internet, or social media. Click the link for more details.
For example, even if they wanted to broadcast national elections on a variety show, they would have to allocate equal time to each political party, so they couldn’t get high ratings, and so most of the public would only know the faces of those in the LDP cabinet.
People who only studied half-heartedly get intoxicated by their own thoughts get intoxicated by the fact that they have opinions that differ from others television doesn’t report on politics if they don’t report on it, they don’t go on interviews or filming they don’t record politicians’ actions and statements youtubers don’t get permission to do interviews no one reports on anything no one reports on even talk of legislation that will cause confusion to the public do we really want such a society?
Political news should be on its own program, and variety shows where celebrities just talk about whatever they want should cover other topics. I think the biggest thing that’s damaging TV’s credibility is the continued existence of variety shows without any reflection.
People only watch it to complain. The proof is that they broadcast only incidents, accidents and scandals for hours every day whenever they have free time. Broadcast natural scenery every once in a while. Even the weather forecast ends with a weather chart and temperature numbers, and when they broadcast scenery for the first time in a while, all they see are scenes of typhoons, heat waves and heavy snow. Realize your blindness and that you’re not even trying to calm people’s minds.
What’s most frightening is that this guy is appearing on news programs without any hesitation. Television is abnormal in its deference to Yoshimoto, even before it becomes an old media.
It’s already taboo to talk about politics with people close to you, so Japanese people have little involvement in politics, and if politics stops being covered on TV, it will be the same as not having the right to vote.
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