Referring to Nobuhiko Sakai’s column in the Sankei Shimbun, this article criticizes excessive theatrical direction in television reporting on the coronavirus, including celebrity comments on wide shows, emotional narration, and background music that stirs anxiety. It argues that the more serious the issue, the more calmly and plainly the facts must be reported.

April 19, 2020
So-called celebrities also appear on wide shows and speak their arbitrary impressions, but since even medical experts hold differing views, the presence of celebrities is not merely completely unnecessary, but probably harmful.
The following is from a serial column by Nobuhiko Sakai, former professor at the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun under the title “Coronavirus Reporting: Television Must Remove Theatrical Direction.”
The emphasis in the text is mine.
In reporting on the novel coronavirus issue, television is exerting a major influence.
This column is a column for criticizing newspapers, but since the key stations of commercial television are closely connected with newspaper companies, I will take them up here.
On television, a truly massive amount of information concerning the coronavirus issue is being broadcast.
So-called celebrities also appear on wide shows and speak their arbitrary impressions, but since even medical experts hold differing views, the presence of celebrities is not merely completely unnecessary, but probably harmful.
Needless to say, wide shows are problematic, but I think there are problems even in pure news programs.
For quite some time, I have been especially concerned about changes in the news programs of commercial television.
That is because, in news reporting, a tendency toward theatrical direction has increasingly become visible.
News in which a prepared script is read aloud and the facts are conveyed is called “straight news,” and I remember that, in the past, everything followed this style.
At some point, however, excessive theatrical direction came to be applied.
Since it is television, there are also problems with images, but on this occasion, what I would like to focus on is not the visual part, but the audio explanation.
“Narrators” other than announcers have come to be used frequently.
＊This is also true of NHK.＊
Moreover, perhaps in order to heighten the atmosphere, their tone is extremely emotional and sentimental.
In other words, the expressions have become exaggerated.
Another problem is background music.
In the case of dark news, eerie music that seems intended to stir anxiety is used.
The deterioration of television news reporting described above has appeared even more conspicuously in the reporting on the present coronavirus.
To begin with, the more serious the issue is, the more calmly and plainly it must be reported.
When excessive theatrical direction is added, the report becomes dramatic, and instead reality is lost, while the caution that people ought to have is also damaged.
Television studios had been typical “three密,” or three-crowded, spaces, but from around the end of March, people suddenly began sitting apart.
In other words, this is proof that, before then, they had not been taking the issue seriously.
Now that the coronavirus problem is expected to become considerably more prolonged than initially thought, television media are required to adopt an even calmer reporting stance, one that removes theatrical direction.