2020 Volume 19 Issue 1 Pages 19-28
The usefulness of the information by 238 local community FM broadcasting stations during disasters was reported by several papers and books, but some persons, such as the hearing-impaired or foreign residents, with limited access to information via radios exist. In this research, a questionnaire sent to community FM radio stations in Japan, and asked about the use of social media like Facebook at normal and disaster times and about information sharing to the hearing-impaired and to foreign residents. 146 radio stations out of 169 are using social media at normal times and 107 do so at the time of disasters. If the radio stations realize the possibilities of social media to share information to such people and the people realize the written information on social media, the radio stations could be new platforms to support a diversified society.
