InterBEE REVIEW2016

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81■What roles do the media play during a disaster?The NHK’s Mr. Kengou Shibata positions national network broadcasting at the center of this and has been advocating public media recently. He is aiming to promptly convey informa-tion covered by NHK using all forms of media (e.g. news tickers, data broadcasting, radio, Internet radio, websites and apps).Kumamoto Telecasting Corporation’s Mr. Nobuhiko Arizumi expressed his gratitude for the support Kumamoto received from all over Japan and the world. Everyone in his company thought hard about what it is possible to do as a local station. Against this backdrop, the decision was taken to deliver news close to the local victims and to leave the news delivered to the rest of the country to affiliated stations who came to provide support.TBS Radio’s Mr. Takeshi Sanjo believes that radio can serve as the last stronghold for victims of disasters (e.g. those in evacuation shelters, those suffering a power outage, the elderly and the blind). Moreover, there is also a means called “radiko” in commercial broadcasting in which wide FM is being set up throughout the country to allow listeners to hear the programs of AM stations in FM.Shimoda Cable Television’s Mr. Kunihisa Matsumoto believes that cable television has a major role to play by providing detailed information on daily life in close contact with local residents during a disaster. The company has been praised for calling for the assembly of fire brigades and delivering fire and river information on a 24-hour basis in past disasters.Yahoo Japan’s Mr. Ryo Hata provides translated content for foreigners in addition to supplying information using a smart-phone app and L-ALERT. There is a challenge of how to provide information in regards to the fact that the information required by disaster victims changes at that time on search services.LINE’s Mr. Kiyotaka Eguchi said that the LINE service was created on the occasion of the Great East Japan Earthquake. There are many services that were created thinking of the ability to use them during a disaster, such as stamps to simply convey your feelings to others and an “already read” function, to allow communication between those on friendly terms.■How to make use of the challenges in the Kumamoto Earthquake in the future?False rumors spread by SNS during the Great East Japan Earthquake and also during the Kumamoto Earthquake (e.g. a rumor that a lion had escaped from a zoo). Net literacy educa-tion is necessary. It is also possible to judge the credibility of a sender from his/her profile and his/her previous tweets. It is very important to deliver correct information with an even stronger force than false rumors on legitimate routes in order to eliminate hoaxes.Was L-ALERT utilized? The challenge is to request the stan-dardization of rules on a country-wide basis to cover local governments when a disaster occurs due to the lack of input personnel. When those in local governments feel the effect of information dissemination by L-ALERT, it leads to them prioritizing input. However, this is the role of those in the media. There are hopes for L-ALERT to effectively utilize the information in L-ALERT to cover other things.In the case of a disaster that can be predicted ahead of time, it is possible to minimize damage by preparing in advance. However, unexpected disasters require regular training. It is also necessary to train for combined disasters (e.g. an earth-quake and flooding). It is also important to have training under a scenario in which a disaster occurs late at night when there are extremely few responders. It is also believed that joint training involving local governments and the media should be considered. Furthermore, it is no doubt important to hold drills concerning the mutual complementation of the media.■The wave of AI is engulfing all industries around the world.Finally, Professor Mr. Osamu Sudoh, who works in the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo and who served as the moderator of this discussion, said that the battle in the future era will be decided by how to provide digital as services through the cloud and AI. The BBC is also consider-ing new strategies with the integration of its broadcasting and Internet businesses. Inter BEE this year was centered on the broadcasting industry. However, it is essential for the govern-ment, the private sector, broadcasters and scholars to con-sider the convergence of the Internet and broadcasting systems with an even larger point of view. He then finished by expressing a desire for recognition that disasters are an extremely important topic.