Abstract
This report is the second part of “News Consumption in Changing Media Landscape,” published in the September 2022 issue of The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research. The paper presents the impact of digitalization on the Japanese media, using data gathered in a global research project led by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at Oxford University, UK.In this issue, the author reports how people use different digital media platforms for different purposes, how they access news online, and the first way of accessing news in the morning. With more journalists building direct relationships with the viewers and audiences through social media, the survey addresses how compatible this is with the journalistic principles of impartiality or objectivity.The survey confirms that aggregators such as Yahoo! enjoy a significant share in Japan. It is also found that although the increase in smartphone use is accelerating, especially among young people, Japan has the highest proportion among the surveyed 16 countries of those citing “television” for accessing news first in the morning, which assumingly reflects its high proportion of the aged population. In addition, Japan shows a relatively high level of acceptance of journalists' “personal opinions,” which starkly contrasts with the results of Western European countries.
