Abstract
Japan's first case of novel coronavirus infection was confirmed in January 2020. The virus has been spreading across Japan since then, exerting enormous impact on society including the third state of emergency announced in April 2021. Responding to the situation, media organizations have been delivering information not only through broadcast news or newspapers but also through websites specifically launched for coronavirus-related information.
Focusing on these coronavirus-specific websites, the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute analyzed 186 websites provided by media organizations and carried out an internet survey of 2,000 users with an aim to cross-sectionally study these organizations' efforts and approaches as well as to explore the use of websites. As part of the “BUNKEN FORUM 2021 Presentations of Research Reports” held in March this year, our team hosted a program themed “Delivering accurate and trustworthy information: Media's Efforts for Creating Coronavirus-Specific Websites and Their Usage by the Public,” where the gist of the findings from the above two research studies were reported. The presentation was followed by a discussion session with three panelists—creators of coronavirus-specific websites of NHK, Yahoo, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, respectively. What we learned from the discussion was the efforts exerted by each organization for communicating accurate information in an easy-to-understand manner during the COVID-19 pandemic and the attitudes of users. The panelists also shared the significance of cooperation among related-organizations such as media companies and local governments.
This paper presents the details of the two research studies on the websites and the survey, along with the discussion at the forum. The author also introduces the results of qualitative research that were not reported in the forum.
