no143-149

[146] Analysis of the history of the Utsunomiya LRT and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of media coverage

○Masanori Ajito¹, Teppei Osada², Nobuaki Ohmori² (1. Graduate School of Utsunomiya Univ., 2. School of Regional Design, Usunomiya Univ.)

Keywords:Utsunomiya LRT, national newspaper, economic newspaper, regional newspaper, qualitative and quantitative analysis

The first LRT in Japan to be built on a newly constructed track from scratch will open in Utsunomiya. However, the LRT project was often covered in newspaper reports as various events occurred leading up to its opening. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the history of the LRT project over the 10 years since 2013, when the project accelerated, and of headline articles in different newspapers, revealed clear differences in the way the project was reported in national, economic, and regional newspapers, indicating the possibility that each newspaper has its own reporting trends.