Slightly seedy magazines like Gendai are forced to do the only real reporting in the country. It’s so pathetic
That’s rich, coming from a Hong Kong newspaper, which was recently taken over by CCP with ZERO freedom. Let’s sing Glory to Hong Kong, shall we?
Well, the media has always been self-policing with its kisha clubs, but I imagine the 2013 state secrets law that was past has been a rather large nail in the coffin of press freedom.
A student told me she was disappointed after her internship in a media company. They specifically told her that they don’t do investigative journalism. That explains why certain news aren’t mentioned until it makes international news first. Therefore, they keep their mouth shut or they lose access in the future.
Investigative jerrrr………na…..what?
>Watanabe agreed that the Japanese media’s lack of independence “is deeply worrying as this is a key element of democracy, and it’s embarrassing to be the worst in the G7 for press freedom”, but he said he was optimistic for change. “Young Japanese do not get their news from the traditional media, the television or the newspapers. They get it through social media,” he said. “Old media is less powerful than it was, and that is only going to accelerate as the population changes.
>“I am hopeful that we can get away from the very narrow world view that most Japanese have today because, in a globalised world, that is going to be increasingly important.”
In most of the rest of the world, the youth getting their news from social media is a cause of great concern and anxiety. Schools around the world are having to implement media literacy programs to combat the risk of mis- and dis-information fueled by social media. How bad must things be in Japan for Watanabe to see this trend as a cause for optimism, especially given that as far as I’ve seen there is no media literacy program in Japanese schools?
Soon as I saw the ranking I figured this was it. If you think this exists only in media here think again. Plenty prices are set and deals made simply because no one wants to rock any boats.
Something something nail thats sticks out…
The Japanese mass media is insane and they are even taking advantage of their declining ranking. The biggest reasons for the decline in the press freedom ranking are problems with the media itself, such as the cross-ownership system (whereby a particular company can influence a large number of media outlets under its umbrella) and the existence of press clubs. However, they blame the politicians for the problems, and it seems as if nothing has been done to improve the situation.
The freedom of the Internet, as measured by Freedom House, is one of the highest in the world, so you can get better information there more often (7th in the world).
they don’t want to rock the boat, but they are comfortable in their current position, so they use politicians as scapegoats to avoid focusing on their own problems.
“they don’t want to rock the boat”
You can say that about so much of Japan.
Shhhhhh. You’re rocking the boat too much!
If each county had a boat, Japan’s would be quite smooth.
I think this is the main reason why I’ve never been able to get into Japanese language podcasts. They don’t do investigative journalism like in so many American podcasts that I enjoy. Their news podcasts are so dry and matter of factly.
NHK: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20240103/amp/k10014308261000.html Half of the missing are from Wajima which was engulfed in a massive fire trapping people…
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Slightly seedy magazines like Gendai are forced to do the only real reporting in the country. It’s so pathetic
That’s rich, coming from a Hong Kong newspaper, which was recently taken over by CCP with ZERO freedom. Let’s sing Glory to Hong Kong, shall we?
Well, the media has always been self-policing with its kisha clubs, but I imagine the 2013 state secrets law that was past has been a rather large nail in the coffin of press freedom.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Secrecy_Law#:~:text=The%20Japanese%20secrecy%20law%20covers,them%20would%20get%20five%20years.
A student told me she was disappointed after her internship in a media company. They specifically told her that they don’t do investigative journalism. That explains why certain news aren’t mentioned until it makes international news first. Therefore, they keep their mouth shut or they lose access in the future.
Investigative jerrrr………na…..what?
>Watanabe agreed that the Japanese media’s lack of independence “is deeply worrying as this is a key element of democracy, and it’s embarrassing to be the worst in the G7 for press freedom”, but he said he was optimistic for change.
“Young Japanese do not get their news from the traditional media, the television or the newspapers. They get it through social media,” he said. “Old media is less powerful than it was, and that is only going to accelerate as the population changes.
>“I am hopeful that we can get away from the very narrow world view that most Japanese have today because, in a globalised world, that is going to be increasingly important.”
In most of the rest of the world, the youth getting their news from social media is a cause of great concern and anxiety. Schools around the world are having to implement media literacy programs to combat the risk of mis- and dis-information fueled by social media. How bad must things be in Japan for Watanabe to see this trend as a cause for optimism, especially given that as far as I’ve seen there is no media literacy program in Japanese schools?
Soon as I saw the ranking I figured this was it. If you think this exists only in media here think again. Plenty prices are set and deals made simply because no one wants to rock any boats.
Something something nail thats sticks out…
The Japanese mass media is insane and they are even taking advantage of their declining ranking. The biggest reasons for the decline in the press freedom ranking are problems with the media itself, such as the cross-ownership system (whereby a particular company can influence a large number of media outlets under its umbrella) and the existence of press clubs. However, they blame the politicians for the problems, and it seems as if nothing has been done to improve the situation.
The freedom of the Internet, as measured by Freedom House, is one of the highest in the world, so you can get better information there more often (7th in the world).
they don’t want to rock the boat, but they are comfortable in their current position, so they use politicians as scapegoats to avoid focusing on their own problems.
“they don’t want to rock the boat”
You can say that about so much of Japan.
Shhhhhh. You’re rocking the boat too much!
If each county had a boat, Japan’s would be quite smooth.
I think this is the main reason why I’ve never been able to get into Japanese language podcasts. They don’t do investigative journalism like in so many American podcasts that I enjoy. Their news podcasts are so dry and matter of factly.