Hidetoshi Kato's Media Strategy for paperback Pragmatism Seen in the Words of Chuko Shinsho’s "Words of Publication"

In this paper, I focus on Hidetoshi Kato, who wrote Chuko Shinsho's "Words of Publication", and analyze his media strategy, interpreting the "Words of Publication" by referring to Kato's other writings. Kato is a researcher who has been strongly influenced by pragmatism from his surroundings. In his "Middle Culture," Kato explained the difference between Kodansha culture (popular culture) and Iwanami culture (high culture), and the middle culturalization that resulted from the proximity of the two, using paperbacks as a case study. However, for Kato, Kappa-Books and Iwanami Shinsho were insufficient as middle culture, and he aimed for more ideal one. Kato used pragmatism to mediate between the concrete and the abstract, and constructed the media strategy of the Chuko Shinsho, with the intention of preventing mass society from turning to totalitarianism, by connecting others and empowering readers to think for themselves.