Amid the dramatic change of media environment surrounding children, such as the dissemination of smartphones among them, this research project team conducted an extensive survey to study the whole picture of children’s media use, specifically what kinds of media and digital devices they use on a daily basis and how they utilize digital materials for learning at home. The authors present the results of the survey in three parts. This month’s report focuses on the basic media use by children, based mainly on the results of a web panel survey. Comparing real-time TV viewing and use of internet videos, the former is higher among the children in primary school and younger, but the presence of internet video becomes more prominent as the children grow older. And the internet videos’ presence is particularly notable in terms of the increased use of video streaming services and the longer time spent watching them. Children’ independent use of smartphones facilitates the use of social media, games, and many other digital services, in addition to internet videos, but the timing of the penetration depends on each content, and some are used not via smartphones. Furthermore, the survey finds that TV viewing is often enjoyed with the family and that parents also perceive it as such. While the survey shows the deep penetration of digital services into children’s daily lives, television’s distinctive features and roles were also indicated.

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This paper explores gender issues within Japanese media organizations and what can be done to address them, based on a panel discussion of journalists and experts in October 2023. The discussion, “Exploring the Significance of Diversity within the Japanese Media—How It Impacts Gender Issues,” was held as a part of the “BUNKEN FORUM 2023 Autumn.” The panel looked at whether Japanese media are responding to the changing expectations of the public who are increasingly more aware of the importance of diversity and gender equality. The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute has conducted annual on-screen gender representation surveys of Japanese television programs since 2021. Chapter I outlines some of the latest findings from the survey first published in “The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research” (October 2023), along with discussions by the panel on how the on-screen gender imbalance relates to off-screen gender imbalance. Chapter II presents the report by a panelist, Keigo Kawasaki (former trade union leader of a national newspaper, The Mainichi Shimbun) who highlighted the existing gender gaps in the workplace through the results of a survey of the trade union members. Chapter III summarizes the observations of Michiko Tadamatsu, an expert on corporate governance and diversity management, in regard to why diversity is imperative in organizations, especially the media. Chapter IV presents some examples of how diversity in the newsrooms has the potential to reshape their reporting and, in turn, bring new awareness and changes to society.

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This two-part series reports the latest developments at the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) of France—one of the largest broadcasting and audiovisual archives in the world—as well as the French legal system and elicits insights that could contribute to promoting the usage and utilization of broadcast archives in Japan. With almost 50 years since the establishment of the institute, the second part of the series explores the history of legislation, including the French Broadcasting Act, which supports the activities of INA and highlights the legislators’ determination not to hesitate in changing the law, even forcefully at times, to maintain the balance between INA’s high public nature for preserving and utilizing national heritage and its commercial aspect of being a distributor of audiovisual footage. Since its establishment, INA had been engaged in a fierce “tug-of-war” with public service broadcasters over copyright ownership, which once led to the deterioration of management until the amendment of the Broadcasting Act in 2000 enabled the institute to sign COMs (contracts of objectives and means) with the state government, which stabilized INA’s remit and revenue sources. When rights handling issues for archive utilization became more challenging with the advent of internet society, a “rebuttable presumption of permission” system was introduced in 2006, which allowed INA to significantly reduce the rights handling costs for performers. This resulted in a prolonged court battle against dissatisfied performers, which was settled, however, as the European Court of Justice made a decision to endorse the system in favor of INA. In summarizing this series, the author presents the three aspects of broadcast archives: public goods, broadcasting goods, and commercial goods. Then, by focusing on the broadcast archives’ value as public goods and with a view to expanding the role of the Broadcast Programming Center of Japan, the author makes recommendations for legal amendments in Japan.

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The APAC Trusted Media Summit 2023 took place in Singapore in December 2023, hosted by the Google News Initiative and its partners. Around 680 people from 32 countries/regions in the Asia-Pacific region participated and shared the issues and insights regarding mis- and disinformation. With the year 2024 marked as the “year of election” in which leaders will be chosen in various areas of the world, the attendees developed an increased sense of crises and vigilance against false information known as “deepfakes,” through the actual use of audios and videos produced by generative AI. The participants also reaffirmed their convictions that fact-checking will foster healthy elections—a foundation of democracy. It was also underlined that an effective method to achieve this is collaborations with other organizations. Meanwhile, as fact-checking groups are struggling with severe financial conditions, how to sustain their organizations was discussed as a shared concern. Furthermore, activities to promote media literacy for the youth attracted the attention of participants.

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