Local Storytelling, Collective Efficacy, and Civic Participation in Fukushima, Japan: An Ecological Approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study examines how media connectedness influences collective efficacy and civic participation in post-disaster Fukushima. The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in March 2011 permanently changed the lives of Fukushima residents by altering their physical and social environments. The majority of Fukushima residents have been dealing with a new, negative identity related to “Fukushima” imposed upon them. In such a context, the study takes an ecological perspective to examine how people’s connectedness to macro- and meso-level media are related to their collective efficacy and civic participation. Based on communication infrastructure theory, the study found that traditional and social media local storytelling have direct effects on collective efficacy, while mainstream media connectedness has indirect effects on collective efficacy via local storytelling. Mainstream media connectedness and local storytelling have indirect effects on offline civic participation via collective efficacy. This study is one of the few that examined how storytelling on different levels and platforms directly or indirectly affects community outcomes. Implications of the results in the context of Fukushima and other disaster situations are discussed.