Maeshima Kazuhiro

This paper examines how political talk radio programs have played important roles in American politics. A political talk radio (politically-oriented talk radio) program is a radio format that features discussions of political issues. Most programs are regularly hosted by a single individual and typically include "call-in" (live conversations between the host and listeners) elements. Political talk radio programs have become popular partly because of the federal government's deregulation of political broadcasting since the 1980s and partly because radio stations discovered the niche demands of listeners whose needs are not met by music-only programming. While talk radio has been dominated by conservatives since Rush Limbaugh's success beginning in the early 1990s, liberal talk radio programs such as the Ed Schultz Show have emerged over the past ten years. As liberal talk radio programs gain popularity, both conservative and liberal talk radio has helped fostering respective political movements and encourage political participation.

This paper discusses the issue of teen courts (youth courts, peer courts) in the United States. Specifically, this study focuses on teen court's uniqueness as public policy programs. Teen court programs are very diverse: each court has its own way of management, and its organization is quite different from others. Financial and funding situation of a court literally depends on each organization. Those differences come from the fact that each is created by its own regions with sets of needs from the citizens. This work exemplifies the teen court of Washington, D.C. (D.C. Time Dolalr Court) and articulates how the organization is unique.

This study examines the role of so-called media watchdog groups in American politics. Specifically, this paper focuses on activities of several major media watchdog groups (both on the left and right politically, as well as groups that specialize in certain topics) and analyzes how they frame political issues and influence citizens. Media watchdog groups claim that they analyze the news content of major news organizations and point out their inaccuracies and bias. Media watch groups' activities are crucial in setting the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage and also in promoting open dialogues in public. However, media watch groups themselves are not free from political bias; some groups appear to present data in a way that promotes their own political agenda; some are more conscious of the group's political leanings and attempt to collaborate with like-minded interest groups in order to press their policy priorities. This work concludes that media watch groups' "objective" data may sometimes present certain views on controversial political issues.

This paper examines the notion of the "Americanization" of political campaigns. The Americanization hypothesis describes an ongoing process of: (1) media-centered campaign practices, (2) the weakened role of parties in recruiting and selecting candidates, (3) candidate-centered campaigns, (4) professionalization of electioneering, and (5) increasing cynicism among voters. This paper extensively surveys the literature focusing on Americanization in European countries. It also explores Americanization in Japanese elections. At the end, several criticism of the hypothesis are analyzed.