Abstract
This is the 15th year of the Trial Project on Academic Use of the NHK Archives—a project that aims to make past broadcast programs produced by NHK available for academic studies. The purpose of this endeavor is to regard past broadcast programs as historical and cultural assets and return their benefits to society in the form of academic use. So far, researchers have marked more than 250 views of programs at the NHK Archives, more than 120 academic papers have been produced, and more than 100 presentations have been made at academic conferences. Nevertheless, while we have seen steady research achievements, the status of the project within NHK is still (trial), and it is also true that there are notable setbacks, such as the limitations on viewable content have been increased since 2016. We can also see a gap between NHK and researchers in how they perceive research findings, or research “achievements.” This paper reports the “presentations of research findings” held in October 2022, discusses the trend of the academic-use trials in recent years, and presents recommendations on what should be done to make the future developments of this project more fruitful. While we leave researchers to identify what constitutes an “achievement,” we also argue that NHK should do what it can do to enhance the value of broadcast programs in academic research.
