Social distance portrayed: television news in Japan and the UK

摘要

The potential of the camera framing, or shot-size, semiotic resource to encode meanings related to social distance has been recognized for some time. This study seeks to bring this resource into the remit of systematic analysis. Data are taken from screen measurements of portrayals of social actors in news programming produced by two national broadcasters, NHK in Japan and the BBC in the UK. Results for these two media outlets are compared and an attempt made to place the results in a meaningful cultural context. Analysis focuses on NHK's images and the less familiar Japanese media system.