August 2011

First Implementation in Japan: Nationwide “Deliberative Poll”

Public Opinion Polls and Broadcasting Media Are Being Redefined

Keiko Murakami / Hiroshi Aramaki

One can doubt that respondents in public opinion polls, in the firs place, do not necessary have enough knowledge and opinions on questions they are asked. If this is the case, can we regard those responses as an authentic “public opinion”? What approach should the media that report the result of public opinion polls take regarding this problem? What can they do to solve this? In order to examine these issues, the authors conducted a “deliberative poll” which has been drawing attention in Japan in recent years.

As the name suggests, a “deliberative poll” is a combination of an opinion poll and a deliberative, or discussion forum. Specifically speaking, in this method, first, a conventional opinion poll on political issues or policies is hold, and respondents of the poll who want to discuss given themes are invited to a deliberative, where changes in opinions of participants before and after the discussion are studied. If people’s perception and knowledge elucidated by opinion polls is a “mirror,” discussion will serve as a “filter.” With this attempt, we would like to raise a question that decision making on political issues and policies should involve such public opinions filtered by deliberative.

More than 40 deliberative polls have been conducted around the world since 1994. In many cases it was reported that participants’ opinions somewhat changed after the deliberative. Our survey, the first nationwide deliberative poll in Japan, also showed the same tendency. The theme of the survey was pension issues, and, for example, those who support the idea of using consumption tax as revenue source increased by about 20% after the deliberative, and those who chose “funding method” as an ideal pension system were approx. 70% before the deliberative but decreased by about 30% after the discussion.

This survey method has been deeply involved with public service broadcasting since it was first introduced. The BBC of UK and PBS of US have broadcast deliberative as debate programs participated by citizens. It is to say that public broadcasters play a certain role in sharing the debates and accompanying changes of opinions not only with participants but also widely with public in general. NHK did not broadcast the deliberative this time, but has also been seeking ways to integrate citizen’s debates and public opinion polls or awareness surveys simultaneously or afterwards.

Deliberative poll would question the conventional method and status of public polls as well as the conventional behavior of broadcasters that have provided debate forums as TV shows. The authors examine these points by reviewing our deliberative poll.

The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research