The significance of public broadcasting has been questioned due to the digitalization of global media platforms and it has been pointed out that public broadcasting will have no future unless it can clarify what kind of value it has for our society. In 2020 NHK Hokkaido began broadcasting a TV show "A travel journey with Local Friends" using a completely different approach. Instead of a TV director, local players in rural areas take in charge of conceiving the content of the program. The program receives a thousand of messages a year from viewers and its awareness is significantly higher in rural areas than in urban areas, boasting a recognition rate of more than 57% in the areas visited by the program. It is worth mentioning that representative players of local autonomy have grown up among the program participants.
This study aims to explore the possible new value of public broadcasting through participant observation of the production and post-production activities of this program, focusing on the network of relationships among human and non-human actors in the local area. Based upon actor-network theory, the result indicates that local players have developed a sense of local autonomy with transforming own agency, that made them to be involved in local activities. Along with building trust with the station director through the production process, they have expanded the network of relationships through the post-production activities. Thus, this program shows the possibility of becoming a new way to broadcast from the perspective of local people with trust building between public broadcasters and local residents.

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