On-site reading by announcer

Okayama Broadcasting Co. Ltd. established an initiative to provide sign language interpreters for news and sports games for inclusive society. Outreaches through recitation have been delivered to about 25,000 children by announcers. They held original story recitations to disaster-stricken elementary schools by heavy rain in 2018. 

Children's frank reactions are a rare opportunity for announcers who usually speak for the TV camera. Okayama Broadcasting Company Co. Ltd. announcer's Reading Session began in 2011 as a program the announcers visited elementary schools to introduce literature to children.

This program has been organised for 10 years. This program brought the joy of reading to children, and it also brought learning experiences for the announcers who deliver various messages. As they visit different places, they meet people and experience history and culture. 

One of the most significant of these encounters was with UNESCO's Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) policy. We participated in the UNESCO World Conference on ESD held in Okayama City in 2014, where we were designated as an "Okayama ESD Project Priority Action Organization. Various domestic and international initiatives served as a learning experience, and the idea of "how to face local issues" through literature sprouted in each of our announcers. Since then, they have worked on various original works. "Momotaro Afterward," which depicts Momotaro's return from Onigashima Island, appealed for a multifaceted view of things, and "The Tale of a Sunaperi" raised environmental issues from the perspective of the creatures of the Setouchi region, and also from the perspective of SDGs.

Though 10 years of outreaches, announcers have noticed the importance of activities to create reading environments where no one left behind. 

The Okayama Broadcasting Company has been trying to improve information accessibility for any people.

Okayama Broadcasting Co., LtdOpen in a new window

Yoshio Shinoda, Executive Director of Announcer's Reading Session

General Manager of Announcement Office and General Manager of Information Accessibility Promotion Office

Reference: 2021 Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association Award, Special Recognition Category, "Broadcasting and Publicness," Grand Prize

Winner of the 2021 Matsunosuke Takahashi Memorial "Text and Print Culture Promotion Grand Prize