Popularizing Japanese TV: The Cultural, Economic, and Emotional Dimensions of Infotainment Discourse

Over the past years, the view has emerged that Japanese TV is dominated by an infotainment mode of discourse. The book extends this view, detailing and interpreting the cultural, economic, and emotional dimensions of this communication phenomenon from an ethnographic perspective. It examines the complex ways in which infotainment works in an advanced capitalist society. As such, this is more than a book about Japan; it is a work that fits within media ethnography and cultural studies, and appeals to readers interested in the question of how television, at the heart of the global media stream, successfully turns into a persuasive, intimate, and powerful member of a televisual audience-family through carefully engineered televisual discourses, linguistic/non-linguistic component, audiovisual strategies, and economic and cultural elements.

Drawing on ethnographic observations in TV stations in two major cities, Sendai and Tokyo, the book reveals several essential components embedded within infotainment discourse. Thus, this book not only provides a panoramic picture of a core phenomenon in Japanese broadcasting since the 2000s but also discusses how both cultural discourses and economic considerations influence contemporary television broadcasting.

Hakan Ergül is Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at Hacettepe University, Ankara. He received his MA from Anadolu University, Turkey and his PhD from the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University, Japan. Between 2013 and 2018 he lived in Rabat, Morocco, where he taught at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and worked as a communication expert for UNHCR Morocco. Currently he lives in Belgrade, Serbia. He has teaching and fieldwork experience in the areas of media ethnography, media and vulnerable groups, everyday life studies, Turkish and Japanese television, and has published books and articles pertaining to these fields.