La reacción de la NHK durante el Terremoto de Tōhoku de 2011

In this paper we propose an approach to the Japanese public broadcasting system (PBS), NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai). Particularly, we make a textual analysis to the live response to the Tōhoku quake of 3/11 2011 and compare it to the simultaneous signal of a Japanese commercial broadcaster, NTV (Nippon TV). Despite the violence of the tremor, the coverage from the public television offers to its audience immediate in situ footage from several regions and updated data about the quake coming from the Japanese Meteorological Agency. In contrast, in NTV’s signal the initial confusion gives way, first, to improvisation in the reporting and, then, to a spectacularity of the events that we find inappropriate with the public service that even commercial stations should serve in extreme circumstances. The result of this comparative highlights that PBS as NHK play a vital role as guarantors of the supply of quality information of proximity in the eventuality of an emergency threatening citizens living in a democratic society.