Massive earthquakes hit Ishikawa Prefecture on January 1, 2024. In my previous post, I mentioned about an NHK broadcaster who first reported this series of events. After a while, her way of warning about the tsunami drew people’s attention on X. Broadcasters have traditionally reported about earthquakes calmly so that TV audience do not get unnecessarily upset. However, this time it was different from usual. The broadcaster read warnings about the earthquake with emotion and her strong voice on purpose, which succeeded in gathering viewers’ attention.

It was after the 3.11 earthquake that NHK changed its way of reporting about alerts of disasters. Because the announcement was too clam, there were a lot of people who did not go to the evacuation center and lost their lives. This lesson has made the present NHK

It is common to think that the more pressure and tension people have, the more people make mistakes. Thus, people try to calm down and act rationally. This is true and important under usual circumstances. But, in an emergency situation, the mass media have the responsibility to make people feel tense and tell them to go to a safe place. It is difficult to say which is the best way to report alerts, but I guess the new policy of NHK saved more people.