On June 28 and 29, 2019, 20 countries and regions, including 19 major developed and emerging economies and the European Union (EU), will be represented.G20 (Group of Twenty)The G20 is a group of large economies that has been engaged in a series of dialogues on monetary policy and trade. The G20 is currently the focus of attention in Japan as it hosts its first summit, but has the existence, role, and decisions of the G20 ever been in the limelight of Japan's international press? This article explores how much and how the G20 has been covered by the media, which is responsible for reporting world events.
2018, at the Buenos Aires Summit, Argentina (OECD/Flickr[CC BY-NC 2.0])
Background of G20 formation
What kind of grouping is the G20 and how did it come to be? The impetus goes back almost 20 years, when several financial crises, including the Asian currency crisis of 1997, occurred in emerging economies at the same time. In response, the Group of Seven (G7), a group of seven major economies that had previously held discussions, proposed that the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries, including advanced economies and emerging economies, as well as those of the European Union (EU), should meet as the G20, because they saw the lack of a framework for emerging economies to discuss economic and monetary policy together with advanced economies as a problem. The meeting started as the G20 in 1999. In 2008, when the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers hit, then U.S. President George W. Bush raised the meeting to the summit level and the first G20 summit was held. The first G20 Summit was held in 2008, where discussions were held on how to deal with the global financial crisis and on systems to prevent similar problems from recurring.
The Summit is usually attended by the United States, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Italy, India, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Germany, Turkey, Japan, France, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Russia, and the European Union. International organizations are also invited to participate. The G20 is a group of countries whose combined GDPs are equivalent to the GDPs of all the countries in the world.85%It is a gathering of countries with significant power in the economic sphere, accounting for As can be seen from the fact that the first summit was held in response to the global financial crisis, the agenda is mainly economic, but the 2014 Brisbane Summit in Australia, for example, dealt with Ebola, while the 2017 Hamburg Summit in Germany also addressed gender issues, The agenda has varied widely in accordance with the times.
Japan's International Press Coverage of the G20
So how has the G20 been covered in Japan's international press? We surveyed relevant articles in the international section of the Asahi Shimbun, and found 101 articles that mentioned the G20 in the text over the five-year period from 2014 to 2018. Of these, 12 were written with G20 in the headline and as the main theme. Only about two articles a year focused on the G20. It seems that the existence and activities of the G20 have received little attention so far.
What were the themes of the articles that referred to the G20? The most common theme was bilateral relations, with a total of 44 articles. The G20 was mentioned only as a place where the leaders of the two countries would meet next, for example, in an article about the U.S. and China holding talks to resolve a trade dispute. The next most frequent topic was 21 articles on the domestic politics of each country. The second most frequent topic was the internal affairs of each country, with 21 articles on the domestic affairs of each country, including articles reporting the opinions of citizens in response to the results of national elections in Turkey. The articles were conspicuous by their lack of relevance to the content of the discussions.
What about the countries that appear in G20-related news coverage? Below is the total number of times a country (*1) appeared in G20 articles.
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Although the G20 summits must have been attended by the leaders of more than 20 countries, including the invited countries, there is a large bias in the number of countries mentioned in Japan's international news coverage. First, both the U.S. and China account for more than 20% of the total number of mentions. In terms of the number of articles, both appear in more than 40% of the total, which is a significant percentage even taking into account that the 2016 summit was held in China, so one would expect some increase in mentions of China around the time of the summit. In addition, the top five countries alone account for 671 TP3T of the total, and of the 19 G20 members, excluding the EU, about half (Argentina, Italy, India, Indonesia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa, and Mexico) have appeared less than twice in five years, with the United States and China, a significant difference from how they are treated. In addition, the total number of appearances by G7 member countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Germany, Japan, and France) is 75, nearly 40% of the total number of appearances.
Another noteworthy country is North Korea, which, despite not being a member of the G20, appeared in many articles on U.S.-China relations, for example, as an issue common to both countries, perhaps because of the impact of its actions on Japan. And as a result of the brief mention of the G20 summit in those articles, North Korea is now one of the top five countries in terms of G20 articles.
In view of the current situation, Japan's international media coverage of the G20 is limited in absolute volume, and the content is dominated by developed countries such as the G7 and countries with a significant relationship with Japan, such as China, Russia, and North Korea. The uniqueness of the G20 as a joint framework of advanced and emerging economies is not strongly understood, and information on the existence, role, and decisions of the G20 does not seem to be adequately conveyed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron (President of Russia[) in conversation at the Buenos Aires Summit, Argentina, 2018.CC BY 4.0])
Unreported G20 Criticism
One of the most underreported criticisms has been directed at the G-20. One such criticism is directed at the existence of the G20 itself. He likened the G20 to the international community of the 19th century, with the large economies forming their own groups without clear responsibilities or authority, and the powerful members of the international community making decisions and debates about the global economy in their own interests, rather than for the good of the whole.I strongly condemned it.The following is a list of the most common problems with the
Another issue that has been raised in many forums is that of fairness in the global economy, and although financial market reform has been a theme of the G20 Summit since its inception, many of its members are large economies that have a vested interest in the international community and, perhaps because of this, are not willing to impose restrictions on their own large corporations.He never showed it to me.The first is the In addition, low-income countries due to investment by developed countries and the lending of funds as supportdebt problemand in some areas of the world where more than 40% of the population lives in extreme poverty, living on less than $1.9 per day.economic disparity issuesThe company has also failed to show a commitment to addressing the issue of climate change and other environmental problems. Furthermore, they have been criticized for not focusing on the adequate development of renewable energy as a response to environmental problems such as climate change.
Demonstration during the Hamburg Summit, Germany, 2017 (Uwe Hiksch/Flickr[CC BY-NC-SA 2.0])
Regarding the above points, many groups from around the world have questioned the state of the G20 and have actually taken action to criticize it. For example, one such group is the G20 Waves of Protest, an association that staged a protest in 2017 when the summit was held in Hamburg, Germany. In addition to Greenpeace, an environmental NGO, and Oxfam Germany, a German branch of the international cooperation organization Oxfam that works on poverty issues, several political parties in GermanyThis was composed of.Also in 2014, during the Brisbane Summit in Australia, approximately 2,000 people protested against the G20 anddemonstrationThe company conducted a
However, most of these criticisms and demonstrations were not reported; not a single article was written in five years to criticize the G20's raison d'etre or its activities, or to mention the above criticisms in the world. As for demonstrations, one article was written about the demonstration at the Brisbane Summit mentioned above, but it only reported that a demonstration calling for the elimination of economic disparities took place at the site of the summit, and did not mention that it was a demonstration to protest the G20. If critical perspectives are so lacking, it seems difficult to question or criticize the G20 based on information from Japan's international press.
Coverage at the Buenos Aires Summit, Argentina, 2018 (G20 Argentina/Wikimedia Commons[.CC BY 2.0])
The G20, as a group of nations with large economies, has a great deal of influence on the international community, and as such, it is required to pay attention to various issues and has sometimes been the target of harsh criticism. However, until now, the international press in Japan has focused not only on the small volume of coverage but also on the relationships and trends among the few major powers, rather than on the G20 itself, and has not conveyed questions and criticisms. Now, the venue for the subsequent summit in 2020 has many problems.pointing outSaudi Arabia, which is currently the focus of much attention. When the current high-profile summit leaves Japan, will the G20 disappear again from the international press?
1 Countries mentioned: Countries that are clearly mentioned in the article as having taken some action or being a country involved in some action of another country.
Writer: Suzu Asai
Graphics: Yow Shuning, Saki Takeuchi
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The situation of "not a single article" mentioning criticism of the G20 is quite shocking, or perhaps appalling,
With this kind of media coverage, I think this summit will become more and more of a token gathering in name only.
I hope the coverage in the rest of the world is still better.
Even in articles about the G20, in the end, the only countries that get coverage are the ones that are always reported in Japan.
I understood that the G20 is a group of countries with large economies that discuss financial and other issues, but I did not know about the various criticisms, demonstrations, and other problems.
I believe that by knowing the negative aspects of various things, we, the readers, can be made to think and learn about the real picture and the problems in our own country. This is why I always feel the need for GNV to exist.
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The author is right, I myself was totally unaware of any criticism regarding the G20 and never questioned its holding until now.
I thought that the G20 was an opportunity for rich countries to discuss issues for the benefit of the world, but the reality is that the agenda is very much home country-centric and rich-centric, which I found disappointing.
The G20 summit will finally be held tomorrow. The article suggests that we need to change our attitude of only focusing on the name of the G20 and not on its outcomes.
I was saddened to learn that so much money and manpower is spent to even hold the G20, yet it is only on the surface that we should think about making the world a better place, and that it is a self-centered discussion for the rich.
Don't you think that summits like the G20 and G7 are a bit much?
It takes a lot of money to organize a summit, but will it have the equivalent effect?
The host country will see it as an opportunity to show its dignity and to demonstrate its national strength and leadership (or is it to be dressed up?). The host country may see it as an opportunity to show its dignity and to demonstrate its national strength and leadership. It will also be considered in part as an aim to gain domestic support for other countries. As is the case with the Olympics, which will end up in the red, the government that decides to host the games probably considers the dignity of the event more important than the cost of the funds.
As for the debt problem of developing countries, you agreed on a policy to make its repayment sustainable.
But last year, the year before, and the year before that...we always put that kind of language in one place. I am sure that few G20 countries would resist writing "policies" without concrete measures and policies. If these policies in the joint statement issued by the G20 every year were converted into effective measures and realized, the world would be moving in the right direction.