In Europe and North America, broadcasters vigorously promote distribution of news and video content via diverse internet platforms. We invited Meredith Artley, Senior Vice President and Editor in Chief of CNN Digital Worldwide, and Eric Wolf, Vice President, Technology Strategy & Planning, Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), for a symposium within the NHK BUNKEN FORUM 2018. Ms. Artley emphasized the necessity of modern journalists who can respond to any types of digital services and presented the five principles of CNN Digital Worldwide including the importance of awareness of what you can control and what you cannot. Mr. Wolf reported that PBS was striving to evolve from public broadcaster to public media. And He said that PBS is aiming not only to develop digital services but also to improve nationwide broadcasting services. One of the examples is PBSKIDS. Takanobu Tanaka—coauthor of this article—presented the BBC’s digital strategy as well as the achievement of and challenges facing its channel for the youth, BBCThree, which had terminated broadcasts in 2016 and switched to an internet-only platform for content delivery.

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With low response rates posing a challenge to public opinion surveys, the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute is examining the potential of “Web Public Opinion Survey” (hereinafter “web method”)—a method collecting responses online from respondents randomly selected from the Basic Resident Register after sending advance letters by post. The research team carried out two experimental surveys, one in 2016 and the other in 2017, using the web method, which did not limit the collection to online and complementarily allowed some respondents to return the questionnaire by post. A conventional postal survey was also conducted to compare the results with those of the web method. The major findings from the experiment are as follows.-The web method can be effective for respondents selected by random sampling from the Basic Resident Register by applying appropriate survey design and survey materials.- For people aged 30 and older, the web method marked a response rate as high as that of the postal survey that had been conducted for comparison, but effects for improving response rates of younger generations were not observed.-The web method’s sample composition ratio of valid respondents does not substantially deviate from that of the Basic Resident Register.In addition to the above, we will also examine whether the difference in data collection modes causes differences in responses, and if so what the factors are. The study findings are to be reported in a future issue.

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The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute has been conducting since 2013 “surveys on school teachers’ media usage” in order to grasp the media environment at school across Japan and to get a full picture of the use of NHK’s educational services such as broadcasts, websites, and events. In 2017, we surveyed individual teachers of upper secondary school (full-time, part-time, and correspondence courses). This paper reports findings from the survey, centering on full-time school teachers of science, social studies, Japanese, and foreign languages. The survey finds there is an ongoing improvement in the media environment at high school classrooms that allows teachers to access to the internet and project the computer screen via projectors or other devices, regardless of courses or subjects. The usage of learning materials shows the following tendency. Media materials are used the most by foreign language teachers, followed in order by science, social studies, and Japanese teachers. Video materials such as broadcast programs are used the most by science and social studies teachers while audio materials such as radio and CDs are used the most by foreign languages and Japanese teachers.Teachers’ utilization rates of NHK koko-koza (TV/radio school programs for high school students) and “NHK for School” (website providing educational content and information) were 25% for science and 12% for social studies (both for full-time course teachers).It is also revealed that teachers who say they strive to provide proactive, interactive, and deep learning (improve classes from the perspective of active learning) are more likely to use media devices and media materials.

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The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute is a member of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), a cross-national collaboration group conducting surveys on social topics. The theme of the 2017 survey was “Social Networks and Social Resources.” From the results of the survey in Japan, this report focuses on contact with others, friendships, and the link between personal relationships and satisfaction with life.Looking at the relation between the frequency of SNS use and contact with others, those who use SNS frequently have contact with their close friends more often. Among the elderly, too, SNS users have more contact with their children aged 18 and older.Middle-aged and elderly men (aged 50 and older) showed a tendency to have shallow friendships. For example, while around 20% of the entire respondents said, “I have no friends to turn to talk about my problem” the figures are more than 30% for men in their 50s and 60s, respectively, and more than half for men aged 70 and older. Whereas around 40% of the entire respondents cited “close friend” for someone they can turn to “be there for you if you feel down and want to talk” as well as to “give you advice about family problems,” the figures are as low as 20% to 30% for men aged 50 and older.Regarding satisfaction with life, the more contact with others or friends, the higher percentage of those who are satisfied with life. This is especially remarkable for middle-aged men in their 40s and 50s. Their levels of satisfaction markedly vary depending on the number of advisors they can turn to when they have problems.

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