世論 What Japan Thinks

Unfortunately, the reports on japan.internet.com of surveys from goo Research recently took a turn for the worse with only one, not three, data sets being reported in detail. However, I will keep using them, but there will be more text and less tables. The first of these abbreviated surveys is on Twitter, with the focus being on getting information with, I suspect, the recent Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster being prominent in people’s minds when answering.

Demographics

Betweem the 12th and 18th of April 2011 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties. 15.9% in their forties, 15.2% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

I didn’t use Twitter to get any information, but I’m glad that not too many people seemed to have found information such as that from the French embassy useful.

Research results

Of the original sample, 25.6%, or 277 people, currently used Twitter to obtain useful information. How the remaining 74.4% was split is not reported. Of these 277, 75.8%, or 210 people, have viewed Tweets from private or public organisations. Let’s put that into a table:

Q1: Have you ever viewed Tweets from private or public organisations? (Sample size=1,082)

Yes (to SQ)	19.4%
No, but use Twitter	6.2%
Don’t use Twitter, don’t know what it is	74.4%

These 210 people were asked what kinds of Tweets they’d viewed; 157 had viewed corporate Tweets, 104 central government ministries, including the Prime Minister’s office, and 95 people local government Tweets.

Q1SQ: From which of these feeds have you obtained useful information? (Sample size=210, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Private companies	102	48.6%
Local government	47	22.4%
Central government ministries, including the Prime Minister’s office	37	17.6%
Research facilities	26	12.4%
Universities	19	9.0%
Hospitals, other medical facilities	11	5.2%
Foreign governments, related organs	10	4.8%
Foreign universities	7	3.3%
Foreign research facilities	7	3.3%
Educational facilities other than universities	5	2.4%
Other	7	3.3%
Haven’t got any useful information from any of them	51	24.3%

Dividing viewers by usefulness, we get that 65.0% of viewers find corporate tweeets useful, 35.6% central government, and 49.5% local government.