Website name, please
Major paper publishers start joint news Web site
Maybe I’m being picky because I’ve had a fever for 48 hours straight, but if you’re going to write an entire article about a “new Web site,” maybe you should include a link, or at least, the name of said website.
Also, why don’t the Japanese newspapers publishers just offer free access to their daily content as has become standard in the U.S. or U.K. or France? Seems like their goal (and probably Dentsu’s) is to maintain physical sales rather than move into the 21st century. If you start offering web content, people may actually use the internet in Japan, which we all know, would be a disaster.
January 31, 2008 at 2:06 pm
The name sounds like a disease (maybe related to your fever?).
あらたにす aka “新s”
http://allatanys.jp/
January 31, 2008 at 8:30 pm
From The Christian Science Monitor/Jan24,2008.
“Perhaps the biggest surprise in Asia is Japan’s enduring newspaper culture. Circulation has declined in recent years, but Japanese remain the world’s leading per-capita consumers of newsprint.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0124/p06s01-woap.html
January 31, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Which means they have money to expand into the internet, no? But if there were a giant ad agency that makes all its money on controlling the traditional mass media, I bet they wouldn’t want you to go so fast into new technologies…
February 1, 2008 at 2:55 am
have you seen how many mofos read sports shimbun on trains? paper is not going anywhere. and the sports newspapers put everything online including gravure photo shoot sessions for free!! nikkei is another story.
libraries are filled with jobless bums going through papers nicchuu
February 1, 2008 at 3:42 am
“people may actually use the internet in Japan, which we all know, would be a disaster”
Why would that be a disaster? So you don’t them to use internet?
Or you do want them to? (later in your comment you imply people should move into new technology internet).
Reading printed newspapers (on paper) and bound books is a much more satisfying experience than “surfing” the web for information which encourages superficiality. Stats by Aceface are actually very encouraging for Japan.
February 1, 2008 at 6:11 am
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/neuharth/2004-11-25-neuharth_x.htm
Above article is interesting. This discussion has got me wondering about Canada’s newspaper situation – our major papers like the Globe and Mail are neither selling well, nor putting adequate free material online.
Marxy, you seem pretty well convinced that the Japanese media are “manufacturing consent” most of the time. This is a hard position to argue against (but of course, it can also be applied outside of Japan). I’d like to ask, however – what is the best book or article that you have read on the subject of limits on Japanese public discourse in either Japanese or English?
February 1, 2008 at 12:13 pm
“Japan’s dailies do better than ours because they put more news in their newspapers. They are more reader-friendly and fair. They are more polite in their editorial comments or criticisms.”
That’s a hard thing to prove. I get the sense that Japan just has more of a “newspaper culture,” more sales people dedicated to really going door-to-door, etc.
“Marxy, you seem pretty well convinced that the Japanese media are “manufacturing consent” most of the time.”
I have heard some backlash against Laurie Anne Freeman’s Closing the Shop but I think she lays out the main problem with kisha clubs: they were invented as a way to limit competition between newspapers by preventing “scoops,” but the authorities abuse this system to make sure that unflattering information does not go to the public. The classic example is that the kisha club guys covering Tanaka Kakuei all knew about the Lockeed scandal but had no way of/interest in reporting on it.
I have yet to find an English-language book that adequately deals with the effect Dentsu’s power has on the media market. You don’t have to buy into any conspiracy theory to see how Dentsu would distort the market. They have 25% of the entire ad market and probably 75% of the best media. This is unprecedented in any other post-industrial economy. Their whole game is media buying (all marketing, PR, creative services are thrown in “for free”), so this gives them a lot of say over the content. (Anyone notice that the story about the Dentsu USA executive getting sued for sexual harassment did not make the Japanese papers… wonder why?)
There’s a book called 電通の正体 I own but have not read through it yet.
Again, I want to reiterate that you don’t need a conspiracy or dark cabal to explain limiting public discourse in Japan. When you have a deeply oligopolistic media and media buying system, these things come very easy.
February 1, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Freeman’s book is not very good because it never really outlines the major differences between Kisha clubs and the combination of backdoor press sources for big newspapers (keeping everyone else out) and often “funny” press conferences (plants, softball questions) that dominate the playing field in a country like, say, Canada. It also does not look at the much more critical shukan and gekkan-shi in any real way. These fill part of the role that is usually associated with US Newspapers (the feature-stuffed Sunday editions of which would be called a “shukanshi” if Japan’s media terms were being used a as a global standard).
While it is easy to guess about Dentsu’s effect, etc. it is also very hard to see its relevance in some cases (ie. did Dentsu try to limit Asahi and DPJ resistance to the Iraq War?) Two areas of big effect – music and fashion – are two of your particular interests so it is easy to see why you are concerned. However, I’m on the hunt for something that lays out a body of case studies (or systematic arguments of any type) of an irresponsible lack of information circulation in Japan (perhaps on certain crucial subjects). There is a general feeling (running across academic writing and blogs) that there IS a problem, but has anyone really laid it out in a way that can be engaged critically?
(“Cartels of the Mind” was pretty much panned so I don’t really feel like engaging with it too much)
Also, do you have a favorite book about soul-numbing consumerism?
February 1, 2008 at 1:11 pm
“It also does not look at the much more critical shukan and gekkan-shi in any real way.”
These do “investigative reporting,” but the context forces stories to be speculative, anonymous, and generally “ayashii.” The powers-that-be win by having all leaked information go into a category of “gossip rags” rather than in more authoritative, trust-worthy newspapers. You can’t say that just because they fulfill the same role that Japan has the same information flow. The medium is flawed.
Cartels of the Mind is boring and did not really say anything new.
Two areas of big effect – music and fashion – are two of your particular interests so it is easy to see why you are concerned.
Dentsu does political ads too. They also tend to limit information to the public about how the media system works, which would increase media literacy.
February 1, 2008 at 1:50 pm
“These do “investigative reporting,” but the context forces stories to be speculative, anonymous, and generally “ayashii.””
Not Gekkan-shi (like Sekai or Chuokoron), which, at their best, are about halfway between “Newsweek” and an academic journal.
“The medium is flawed.”
Not going to argue against this, but it is rather spectacular that nothing good / comprehensive has even been written about it in English. Seriously, do we really have to settle for “Dogs and Demons” on something that seems so important?
“Dentsu does political ads too.”
My understanding is that they do them well and they do them for everyone.
I agree 100% about Dentsu bombing out transparency about media dealings.
February 2, 2008 at 2:56 pm
“But if there were a giant ad agency that makes all its money on controlling the traditional mass media, I bet they wouldn’t want you to go so fast into new technologies…”
Why do the Japanese papers need to go online in the first place,if their circulations are 10 times larger than the western counterparts?
Papers like NYT or WaPO can acquire broader nationwide(even international)readership and more ad income by putting their web version. Not so in the case of Japanese papers,since most of the big papers already have nationwide readership and online may cost them decline of subscribers which eventually reflect upon economic hardship on door to door distribution shops all around the country.
And about DENTSU..
Dentsu does have power to make mainstream media hesitant to write about DENTSU.But that’s about it.
Now we have major havoc in relation with Japan Tobacco susidiary,JT foods for importing poisoned dumplings from China. Considering JT is one of the biggest client of DENTSU and I don’t see any media intrusion coming from big D,I have to say the power of Dentsu is pretty much hyped.
When Asahi scooped RECRUIT scandal in 1988,DENTSU couldn’t kill the story eitehr.
When Shukan Gendai scooped(by journalist believed to be one of the ghost bloggers for Kikko’s blog) that Kakumaru leader becoming a clandestine operator in JR East Japan,DENTSU,again a huge beneficiary from massive JR ads,couldn’t kill the story.
Instead JR East Japan threatened Kodansha to remove all the Shukan Gendai from KIOSK.
Kisha club:
Correction:Lockheed scandal was not uncovered by investgative reporting by Tachibana Takashi.Tachibana indeed WAS following after Tanaka kakuei’s money involving pork barrel politics,but the Lockheed scandal came open only after the investigation by a sub-comittee of the U.S senate Led by Senator Frank Church,not before.Therefore there are noways that Kisha club people could know all about them.
That I-knew-all-about-it-before-he-wrote-it-but-choose-not-to-write-about-it episode is just a factless rumor,if they are not confusing it with the other Kakuei related story that was on Bungei Shunjyu in same issue along with Tachibana’s article.
I could go on more and more on this.
February 2, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Thanks for clearing these things up.
I would argue that Dentsu sets the tenor of media coverage in a more abstract way. This needs more concrete examples though. You are right that they cannot kill stories for their clients.
Why do the Japanese papers need to go online in the first place,if their circulations are 10 times larger than the western counterparts?
Why does Japan even need the internet at all? Why did Gutenburg have to invent movable type printing? Why weren’t people with just pens and parchment?
February 2, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Another legendary “insider” post from Aceface. When is the book coming out?
Come to think of it, Marxy should also be writing a cultural history of Japanese fashion….
“Why does Japan even need the internet at all?”
There is a very good “medium is the message” argument kicking around academia these days that the net is bad for news – how many people are just clicking on that little “sports” tab up top without ever having a chance to stumble on good op-ed? Also, let’s face it, Japanese papers seem to do a pretty good job of putting critical international news on page one. In the USA, however, it seems like repetitive primary coverage (to be followed soon by banal presidential election coverage) is sinking the front pages of online newspapers. Going over to NYT now I see a Mardi Gras picture, Yahoo+Microsoft, a picture from “Over Her Dead Body”, some stuff about Clinton and Obama, and something about bombings in Baghdad next to some other thing about an NFL star’s dogs. This is all I get before I go searching or zipping off looking for whatever business or sports news, etc. I’d be better off going to Yahoo.
There is also the fact that people often get their news through filtered feeds or email notices – they PICK the news that they want to see. Don’t want to see anything about the Iraq War – no problem. At the very least, the Japanese papers (which sell at the rate of one for each ‘household’ in the country) force you to peruse a document that may take you in different directions.
It also remains that there are some spectacular limits on US public knowledge – over half of Americans (in a number of polls) believe that WMDs were found in Iraq. Internationally, this is considered to be a failing of the American press on the level of the initial Iraq War reportage. I’d argue that the Japanese press has not fouled things up this badly since the days of regurgitating daihonei happyo.
Back to the intersection of my and Ace’s earlier points – there may be a widespread assumption of limits on media in Japan but there is really no work out there that presents qualitative case-studies. If the limit is really only on a few things like Dentsu itself, certain products, etc. I’m not sure that this really counts as a stunning problem in international context. It certainly is a fascinating side of Japan’s consumer environment, but I don’t think that it extends to the political realm at present – the mass media seemed to enjoy raping Abe. Ordinary Japanese poll very knowledgeable about important international issues in many cases, etc.
February 3, 2008 at 12:23 am
Come to think of it, Marxy should also be writing a cultural history of Japanese fashion….
I would very much like to but there have been at least three books about Japanese fashion published in the last year. They are mostly photo-based, but I am not sure publishers are jumping for another. (I will review Style Deficit Disorder [book about Harajuku] soon on Neojaponisme). Also, I am going to take part in an upcoming UCLA conference on Japanese Pop Culture, presenting about fashion.
At the very least, the Japanese papers (which sell at the rate of one for each ‘household’ in the country) force you to peruse a document that may take you in different directions.
I think this is a weak argument, especially since the newspapers are all ideologically-distinct and coded. If you are reading Asahi, you probably are not a conservative. If you have chosen Sankei as your daily paper, I doubt you are part of the teacher’s union. Is the NYTimes really that more ideologically colored than Asahi?
If the limit is really only on a few things like Dentsu itself, certain products, etc.
I disagree. Television crosses the line between paid content, fakery, and “non-fiction” on almost every variety program. Programmers need media literacy to be low and the questionable ethical qualms to not be criticized in public. Faking a “reality show” is lying to the public.
If we accept that consumer behavior defines people’s lives (and people define their own lives through their consumer actions), then dishonest or otherwise falsely-objective reporting about products is a form of manipulation. I don’t think the newspapers in Japan are so guilty of this – it’s mostly TV.
When it comes to health and food, like the natto boom, people freak out about the deception. But the central problem of producers thinking they can “bend” reality to make better story lines is a more troublesome general issue. Producers’ allegiances are to the advertisers, agencies, and entertainment companies. Their job is to sell a specific message by any means possible, not to create objective review over those messages. If scripted words are being put into the mouths of “real students” on a show like Gakkou e Ikou! – who then become the “standard” for a viewing public – the question is then, who controls how reality is being made? Television is used as a way to check social convention, and if “non-fiction” “real life” events are being doctored, this is a problem.
Back to the newspapers/internet thing-
(1) If Japanese newspaper culture is so strong, offering online news is not going to hurt sales.
(2) Setting up online services is relatively cheap, especially if the offline side is still doing so well.
(3) Even if it’s not widely read right now, online news WILL be a necessary for any media company in the future (unless you believe the internet is a “passing fad.”)
From personal experience, I have been closely following a certain trade newspaper’s approach to the Net, and needless to say, they have no one in their organization who understands it at all. When nobody with any decision making power knows what RSS etc. is, let alone why you would put news on a computer, there is no real rush to “go online.”
I know Japan is supposed to be tech wonderland and all, but I find that a lot of people still have no idea about the revolutionary qualities of the internet. I almost feel like it’s a moral duty to put content on the internet, as it is a way to bring information to more people that transcends the former physicality of the medium.
February 3, 2008 at 1:08 am
“Also, I am going to take part in an upcoming UCLA conference on Japanese Pop Culture, presenting about fashion.”
Excellent. Note, however, that I said a “cultural history” which would be more about the determinants of taste and spread from high fashion sphere into mass, etc. The things that you usually write about are quite a departure from the mainly photo-based – “look at what Japanese kids are wearing!” types of titles (or web commentary) that are the norm elsewhere.
“I think this is a weak argument”
I was making reference to directions of information, rather than directions of ideology. I still think that the print paper gives one more of a chance to access a wider variety of subjects.
“I almost feel like it’s a moral duty to put content on the internet, as it is a way to bring information to more people that transcends the former physicality of the medium.”
That certainly is a valid position but it could also be that the net will heard people into an increasingly parochial pattern of information consumption.
“Television is used as a way to check social convention, and if “non-fiction” “real life” events are being doctored, this is a problem.”
Yeah, but you are still failing to show how this departs from, say, American reality TV abuses – everything from the %$#&ty socialization of ‘The Apprentice’ to the scripted softballing on something like Larry King to the blatant pitching of (paid) products on ‘The View’ to the movie ‘critics’ who think that everything from the parent company is ‘the thrill ride of the summer’. If this is a global norm and Japan is not an outlier, than it is something that we should be engaging on global terms (I mention this because it seems that the stakes are so much lower in Japan). Is there anything on Japanese TV as disturbing as “24″ (apart from “24″) – blatant attempt to provide a pro-torture counter-narrative to “real” news that becomes more real for many viewers….
“revolutionary qualities of the internet”
Does the net really have revolutionary qualities or is it simply inviting people into ever more parochial niches and subcultures that could smash for good the potential for democratic participation? Niches and subcultures are GREAT for consumption, so rather than being a agent of liberation, the net can be interpreted as part of a superstructure of oppression, can it not?
February 3, 2008 at 4:52 am
M-Bone wrote: “Does the net really have revolutionary qualities or is it simply inviting people into ever more parochial niches and subcultures that could smash for good the potential for democratic participation?”
In that sense, it isn’t a lot different from the way that the explosion of TV channels allows people to pick the programming they prefer. Watching ESPN and the Golf Channel seems like the same as clicking the sports tab on a news website. Generally speaking, cable channels haven’t caught on in Japan so it will be interesting if the selective approach that people can bring to the web translates into a greater interest in specific programming.
The British writer Alan Bennett often bemoans the abundance in televison the same way you seem to worry about the net:
“I really do feel – simply from seeing it happen in America first – that the more channels there are, the less influence there is. It becomes a delta. When there are four channels, or even five, things do get discussed. The only things that get discussed now are comedy programmes. ‘Little Britain’, or ‘Extras’, or whatever. It’s good that they are, of course. But inevitably, as the choice widens, so television ceases to be a social, cohesive force.”
February 3, 2008 at 5:10 am
I agree with Mulboyne. However, I also think that cable has the potential to produce some amazing critical TV – HBO’s “The Wire” is, in my opinion, some of the best TV ever done and touches on so many problems in American society that watching the whole thing comes close to giving you a BA in Sociology…. Interestingly, the fifth and last season is devoted partly to the decline of American news. Japanese cable has also produced some wonderful critical stuff like “Paranoia Agent” (Moso Dairinin).
I think, to a certain degree, “centralized” popular culture (like what existed in Japan in the 1950s) is not a great thing (however, Japanese PC in the 1950s did manage to make anti-war ideas mainstream, which is a huge plus in my opinion). Neither, however, is increasingly provincial consumption (ie. people getting all of their news from “Ain’t it Cool News” or “The Onion”). There should be a happy middle but it could already have been swept away by the internet tide. It is worth considering whether or not the decent level of public awareness on many issues in Japan is due to the focused scope of broadcast news (with most people going for NHK and Asahi) and the major dailies.
On a side note – in terms of the net facilitating a greater flow of information – the Japanese government has made Diet records searchable online. Anyone with an iota of interest can turn up prolific examples of ruling party politicians sticking foot in mouth or saying ridiculous things. Having this type of thing out there a tremendous resource (for the critical minority). The US has a limited version of the same thing, but there are certainly some areas of internet freedom of information where Japan is clearly ahead.
February 3, 2008 at 9:17 am
I still think that the print paper gives one more of a chance to access a wider variety of subjects.
At least for me, when I used to read analog newspapers as a teenager, I would always just skim for headlines and read what I was interested in. This is little different than what I do with Google Reader in the morning. I also check general news sites, so I wouldn’t say I more “out of touch” because of the net. I am most definitely digesting about 10x the information on a daily basis.
I really do feel – simply from seeing it happen in America first – that the more channels there are, the less influence there is.
Sorry to be all Marxist about this, but having centralized media – a stable set of channels and broad audiences – keeps media buying prices high and makes marketing “easier.” The spread of channels in the U.S. has reduced companies’ traditional advertising impact and has reduced media prices. (Also think about what TiVo has done to this problem.)
So let’s say, your nation had a central, monopoly ad company – almost like a branch of the government – who made all their money on the cost of media prices rather than line-item services (distinct costs for marketing, research, PR, etc.) and they can control the spread of media by allocating advertising to these new media. I doubt they would voluntarily help the internet and cable spread and see their own revenue model disintegrate. In the short term, they may make money on the net, but they will no doubt not be able to control the web as easily – too many companies, too many free agents – and it will lead to a breakdown of the mass market – reducing their big media revenues.
February 3, 2008 at 9:26 am
Related link from BoingBoing:
http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2008/01/whats-really-wr.html
February 3, 2008 at 9:49 am
Yeah, but you are still failing to show how this departs from, say, American reality TV abuses – everything from the %$#&ty socialization of ‘The Apprentice’ to the scripted softballing on something like Larry King to the blatant pitching of (paid) products on ‘The View’ to the movie ‘critics’ who think that everything from the parent company is ‘the thrill ride of the summer’.
The scale is incomparable. There is no television show like Oosama no Buranchi on U.S. TV. Most reality show “fudging” in the U.S. is done by clever editing, not prompting the actors with actual lines or plot points. (Getting caught for this leads to public trouble.) Maybe the actors play along, but these things are just not comparable. I’ve seen reality games segments in Japan where they set these impossible rules for the people and everyone ends u p at the finish line within 10 minutes of each other. How’d they do it? They didn’t follow the rules at all once they turned off the cameras!! Can you imagine an Amazing Race where they all are working together and cheating with the network’s help when the cameras turn off?
We’d need some actual objective numbers to settle this debate, I think. And there are American shows that violate these rules too. I just think it’s way more symptomatic of Japanese variety TV to just make up things and say it’s “real.”
February 3, 2008 at 10:44 am
“Maybe the actors play along, but these things are just not comparable.”
I think that you may be being a bit naive here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53032-2004Aug9.html
There are other allegations that much reality TV is scripted right down to the lines of the “characters”.
I was just watching “Hell’s Kitchen”. They have men’s and women’s teams competing. By some shocking reason they have basically been alternating the eliminations so the team numbers balance out.
The boxing press has been very, very critical of “The Contender” – ‘fixed’ (seriously encouraged if you want to judge for the show again) decisions for popular fighters that have been masked with clever edits.
The American “Iron Chef” is pretty much set up just like the Japanese one.
You did hear about that NBA ref scandal, right?
Springer was all staged (just like half of that stuff, with no transparency).
“The Queer Eye” was apparently all scripted.
Most of “Jackass” was scripted.
There is also this nonsense
http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/findings/vnrs
As for whether Becky or Ichiro finishes the race first, I can only really say that my wife’s family seems to know that it is all fake and just tunes in for the absolute stupidity of it. I’m personally a lot worried about the fictions on American TV that have left majorities believing that WMDs were found in Iraq and NOT believing in evolution. Bottom lines seem to be keeping these two from being hammered home.
February 4, 2008 at 2:23 pm
You were allowed to compose your post here because of:
1) A mainstream media in the U.S. reporting on the scriptedness of reality TV
2) A boxing press “critical” of a TV show
3) A PR “watch” organization
I would love to have such resources in my attempts to question Japanese TV.
I can only really say that my wife’s family seems to know that it is all fake and just tunes in for the absolute stupidity of it.
I am sure that the whole “natto” thing was a laugh because everyone knew it was fake from the beginning and they only watched Aru Aru Daijiten to “laugh.” Oh wait, they got really angry…!
February 4, 2008 at 4:14 pm
“I would love to have such resources in my attempts to question Japanese TV.”
Check The Shukan Bunshun,Marxy!
February 4, 2008 at 4:25 pm
They don’t have articles online, so I can’t offer links, natch.
In order to keep up with the high-tech of the Japanese market, I will have to keep faxing you guys stuff from now on.
February 4, 2008 at 10:47 pm
“I would love to have such resources in my attempts to question Japanese TV.”
But they do on “important” stuff.
Apart from the Post article, nothing that I mentioned ever made the rounds in something as mainstream as Shukan Bunshun. There has been a rush of magazine / mook / paperback publishing about media mistakes and taboos lately as well.
“Sorry to be all Marxist about this, but having centralized media – a stable set of channels and broad audiences – keeps media buying prices high and makes marketing “easier.””
Wasn’t my original comment – that niche media keep people stupid, pacified, and buying – also Marxist? I said pretty much what Adono did on the subject and he was card carrying at the time…. In any case, I see why you have cause to be worried about the lack of a push to go comprehensive online by Japanese newspapers (although they DO put a lot of good content online) but I can’t help but think as well that more RSS, more blogs, more alternative media sources, etc. may tear the public sphere asunder. More information can mean more ignorance.
February 5, 2008 at 1:14 am
You know,Things get pretty complicated if we bring in entire TV cultures into the arena of mediology.
Think about Britain,where people watch BBC(not that I’m too much a big fan of this station’s Japan reporting BTW) also subscribe trash like The Sun and Daily Mirror.
Not every Frenchman reads Le Monde,Le Figaro or Liberation.They often read France Soir.
Japanese National papers stand somewhere between tabloids and quality papers or to be more precise,a waterdowned version of quality papers,think of equivalent of U.S.A Today.
And Marxy’s claim of “the J-newspapers are all ideologically-distinct and coded”argument.
You just can not explain amounts of Asahi bushing in conservative Shukanshi like Bunshun or Shincho,if they are not targeted to Asahi readers.
Reading Shokun!(Yeah,I read Shokun! almost every month…),I’s assume most of the readers must be Asahi subscribers,since there are noways these letters-to-editors-crowd can bitch about Asahi in so much details had they not read it every single day.And speaking about myself,I’ve been reading that left-leaning trash every night and day since the very day I start to read.
You can’t bitch about’em,if you don’t read’em.
So the Syukanshis work to give you the second opinions about things you read to believe in papers.
They are antidotes.
Syukanshi perform as the mixture of tabloid and mockraker style investigative journalism. Something youn can get in the gentile national daily.
On the issue of publicsphere….
I think it was Van Wolfren speaking in 1993 that newspapers and media had took over entire political discourse in public sphere where in many counties occupied by the political parties,activiest,intelllectuals and students.
This I agree,especially with comparence with Van Wolfren’s native Holland’s situation.
So in my opinion,having more materials on the web from mainstrem papers would most certainly enrich blogsphere,but would not empower civic society of Japan that much.
Web already threatens Syukanshis where historically functioned as alternative media.
February 5, 2008 at 1:20 am
“Something youn can get in the gentile national daily.”
correction.
Something you can’t get in the gentile national daily
February 5, 2008 at 8:29 am
There has been a rush of magazine / mook / paperback publishing about media mistakes and taboos lately as well.
I am always excited when I see these in the bookstore, but disappointed when I look at the pages. They are pretty sensationalist. I’d like to see these issues be handled by more objective NPO-type organizations.
said pretty much what Adono did on the subject and he was card carrying at the time….
Adorno is more of a Neo-Marxist, more interested in the capitalist domination of the social ideology rather than in the nuts and bolts of corporate actions. I think it’s harder to prove that monopoly companies in the U.S. intentionally conspired to create a media space where niche content flows. (Clear channel’s stern playlist rationalization shows the opposite). Where it’s pretty easy to see how a monopoly media purchasing company in Japan can control the pace of new media development. I only got the idea for this when I heard actual stories of said company denying ads for online and forcing media companies to do print publishing.
February 5, 2008 at 10:39 am
“I think it’s harder to prove that monopoly companies in the U.S. intentionally conspired to create a media space where niche content flows.”
I don’t believe that there is any INTENTIONAL conspiracy. It may just be an integral part of post-industrial capitalism (equally applicable to Japan). I think that we disagree on interpretations of classical Marxism here (yes, I’m disagreeing with Marxy on Marxism). Marx never argued that religion – the opiate of the masses – was INTENTIONALLY created to dominate them. He also never denied that capitalists themselves had sincere religious beliefs. Didn’t he consider it to be part of a superstructure that supported capitalism as a stage of historical development, independently of any agency? Could niche culture not be considered in the same fashion?
February 5, 2008 at 10:47 am
Marxism may be a red herring here: you can use classic economic theory on monopoly capitalism to explain why D—-u is not going to push companies to new media in Japan.
February 5, 2008 at 10:54 am
By the way,
That I-knew-all-about-it-before-he-wrote-it-but-choose-not-to-write-about-it episode is just a factless rumor,if they are not confusing it with the other Kakuei related story that was on Bungei Shunjyu in same issue along with Tachibana’s article.
I looked at the Freeman book last night to see where I got this idea from, and her writing was vague on the issue. She says something like, “Once the story broke, kisha club journalists admitted that they knew some of the bad stuff Tanaka had been doing.” But you are right that this was probably not the actual Lockeed activity. Can we take away the larger point though?
February 5, 2008 at 11:32 am
“Marxism may be a red herring here: you can use classic economic theory on monopoly capitalism to explain why D—-u is not going to push companies to new media in Japan.”
Fair enough. I’m certainly not disagreeing with you on this. Just think that the new media transition is not necessarily a path to utopia.
February 9, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Hey why don’t you write a book in English about Dentsu and ship it out to foreign publishers?
September 27, 2008 at 5:56 am
This is another interesting article, I have read quite a lot of your articles on your blog over the last few days, they are really interesting and well written.I too am a blogger so i know how hard it can be to think of things to write, well done keep it up! Added this blog to my favourites