Television Networks and Local Government Played a Key Role

Overall, when looking at the category of location in these interview data, it would seem that the loci of linguistic mediation were extremely varied. One striking feature of this category, though, is that significant levels of linguistic mediation in the 2011 disaster were carried out under the auspices of television networks and local government offices. In other words, when participants in this study said they needed translations or interpretations, it was in the context of television news broadcasts, the websites of news organisations, and the websites of Japanese local government offices. Note, too, that participants did not talk about needing radio or various forms of social media translated or interpreted at the time. This finding is surprising based on the numerous mass media reports on the significance of social media in the disaster and based on the importance attributed to radio and - to a lesser extent - social media in surveys conducted in Japanese focusing on the experiences of Japanese nationals of the 2011 disaster (see, for instance, Mitsubishi Research Institute 2012).