Since lifting the press ban in Taiwan in 1988, research on the history of media culture has gradually become one of the academic focuses. Although there have been sporadic studies on the establishment, transformation, and response of the professional identity of individual full-time journalists, such as reporters or editors, during the Japanese occupation period, not much systematic research has been conducted so far on the formation and discourse of this emerging new profession.
This research focuses on journalist as a profession for two reasons. One is that journalist was an emerging job during the Japanese occupation; the other, journalists were social leaders with influence. As a result, the following are the emphases of the research: the number of Japanese and Taiwanese working as journalists, their academic and working experiences, birthplaces, social status, and the issues that they were faced with.
This research focuses on the role of the old literati as well as that of contemporary intellectuals that were shaped by the educational system introduced by Japan. During the Japanese Occupation, journalism transformed into a rising force for social change. This paper analyzes how intellectuals from the two respective groups adapted to the professional demands imposed on journalists at the time, and how they worked within a framework that enabled them use journalism as a promotional platform for social change, whilst complying with the constraints imposed by Japan's covert "assimilation" policy. Furthermore, their social impact on Taiwanese society is discussed.
The research is not centered on the values and connotations of works of these old and new intellectuals, but on the "civilization trap", constructed by the colonial Japan, that embodied "Modernity", with mass media being a medium. The researcher discourses the process in which the traditional intellectuals got familiar with the communication platforms and self-transformations on the new cultural space, while the new intellectuals, with the knowledge of the Japanese modernity, dealt with the problems in the process of constructing Taiwan awareness, using newspapers as the base for their political discourses.
Particular attention is paid to the dual role of "organic intellectuals" and "cultural intermediaries" that the new intellectuals played at the time. By tracing back the historical trajectory, this thesis examines how mass media served as a platform of resistance to the Japanese colonial government. Despite the acts of defiance committed by journalists and intellectuals during the Japanese era, for the most part, they were not recognized as such by the Kuomintang government, which resulted in many intellectuals being forced to leave the profession.