In recent years, digitalization and Young people are turning away from newspapers and TVThe Internet and smartphones have become the new tools for people to gather information.trendhas been increasing. However, there are various purposes of smartphone use, such as communication and games, and those who use news apps areabout 30%This is the first time that this has been the case. While comparatively few people actively seek news, many get news through social media (SNS) applications such as LINE, Twitter, and Facebooktrendare being seen.

But how is the world being reported in the news reports provided by these social networking applications? This time in Japan.SNS apps with the highest usage ratesThe report will focus on LINE NEWS provided by LINE, and explore its international coverage.

LINE NEWS does not engage in news reporting activities on its own, but rather provides a system that brings together news reports from multiple newspapers, news agencies, and other conventional media. In addition, the news is further narrowed down and eight articles are distributed each morning, noon and evening (*1) in the form of LINE NEWS DIGEST.According to the line.The DIGEST is "news that the editorial department has carefully selected as "news that you should know and talk about. This time, we decided to analyze the LINE NEWS DIGEST.

LINE NEWS DIGEST (photo by the author)

Percentage of international coverage

Let us now look at the international coverage in the LINE NEWS DIGEST. This time we analyzed the period from May 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017; data prior to mid-April was not accessible, so this is an 8-month analysis, not a year.

First, let us look at the percentage of international coverage among all articles. The figure below shows the ratio of international coverage to the total number of articles (*2).

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The result was 8.3% of the international coverage in the LINE NEWS DIGEST, and 7.8% excluding Japan-related international coverage. Japan-related international coverage refers to coverage related to Japan, such as coverage of Japan-U.S. relations, although it is classified as international coverage; compared to the overall figures for international coverage in newspapers in FY2016 (Asahi: 11.7%, Mainichi: 11.0%, Yomiuri: 11.0%, all including Japan-related international coverage). It is also clear that the LINE NEWS DIGEST has less international coverage, although it is difficult to generalize since they are not in the same period of time.

International Media Coverage by Region

Next, let's look at the volume of international news coverage by world region (*3). The chart below shows the results.

In order of percentage of coverage, Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Oceania, with Asia accounting for an overwhelming 40.91 TP3T, as can be seen. This is followed by North America and Europe, which account for a large percentage of the developed regions. Asia, North America, and Europe alone account for 90% of all international news coverage. In contrast, the total volume of coverage in Latin America, Africa, and Oceania is only 5.61 TP3T.Percentage of newspapers (total number of words in international coverage of the three major national newspapers) by regionIn order of percentage, in 2016, Asia accounted for 46.5%, North America for 22.5%, Europe for 17.6%, Latin America for 3.8%, Africa for 2.1%, and Oceania for 0.5%, which cannot be compared due to the different time periods, but the trends are generally the same for newspapers as for LINE NEWS DIGEST.

Now let's look more closely at the amount of coverage by country.

Top 10 countries in media coverage

The figure below shows the top 10 countries in terms of the volume of international news coverage in LINE NEWS DIGEST. The figures on the far right indicate the volume of international news coverage related to Japan.

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The extremely high volume of coverage on the U.S. can be seen, with the U.S. accounting for 28% of the international coverage in the LINE NEWS DIGEST. Looking at the other countries, North Korea (18.71 TP3T), the United Kingdom (8.41 TP3T), South Korea, France, China, East Asian countries, and European countries followed the U.S. The top three countries alone accounted for 55.1% of the total, more than half of the total. The top three countries alone accounted for 55.1%, more than half of the total, and the top 10 countries together accounted for 75.0% of the total coverage. On the other hand, in 2016, newspapers inTop 10 countries with the most media coveragewere the United States, China, South Korea, North Korea, the United Kingdom, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Taiwan, and France.2015The countries that received the most coverage were the United States, China, France, South Korea, Russia, Greece, Syria, Germany, Myanmar, and the United Kingdom, in that order. Except for Turkey, Taiwan, and Myanmar, where coverage temporarily increased due to terrorist attacks, coup attempts, and elections, the countries were generally the same as in previous years.

So what events were the focus of attention in 2017? In the U.S., interest was focused on the words and actions of Trump and the U.S. administration. We also saw articles related to the contact accident with the U.S. Aegis and the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. There were also many reports on North Korea's missile launch, and attention was also focused on the responses of various countries, the summit meeting, and the UN Security Council. In the UK, there was extensive coverage of the terrorist attacks and house fires in London. France had many articles related to the presidential election. As shown above, the top 10 countries are all countries that are considered important to Japan's security and developed countries, and there was a lot of coverage of military-related events, information on terrorism, and elections in those countries.

So what events are making news in Latin America, Africa, and Oceania, which are not in the top 10 countries? Nine of the 15 articles in the Latin American region were about Mexico, all related to earthquakes. Of the nine articles on Africa, four were related to terrorism. Even in a region with such limited coverage, it seems that most of the coverage is focused on countries that have experienced major disasters or terrorist attacks, and not on many countries. 

After the analysis

While the constraints of print and airtime are among the obstacles to substantial international reporting, online dissemination is less expensive than traditional media, and more news can now be covered because there are no restrictions. This could be seen as an opportunity to increase the volume of international reporting and reduce bias. In reality, however, since the online dissemination, including LINE NEWS DIGEST, has selected articles from the traditional media, the percentage of international coverage is small, as in the case of newspapers, and even when it is reported, there remains the same bias in the regions and countries reported.

Although the problem of an increasing number of people not actively seeking news has been a major issue in the past, LINE NEWS DIGEST is used by a large number of people because it is easy to check news while using LINE as a means of communication, and its presence in the world is increasing. However, even with the shift to online news, there is a risk that the world as people know it will become biased under the current circumstances. We would like to call for a reconsideration of the state of international news reporting.

LINE booth (Photo: Solomon203/Wikimedia Commons)[CC-BY-SA-3.0].

1 It consists of one large article with a photo, one or two medium-sized articles with a photo, and five articles with only headlines.

1 The online databases of each company were consulted. For the definition of international news articles, see "GNV Data Analysis Methods [PDF].See also.

3 The regions are the UNSD (United Nations Statistics DivisionThe region was divided into six regions: Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe, North America, and Latin America, according to the criteria of the United Nations Statistics Division (UN Statistics Division).

Writer: Sayaka Ninomiya
Graphic: Sayaka Ninomiya