Kirk here with a bit of media news. Seeing William’s recent post about an article in the Kumanichi Shimbun (thanks William!) reminded me that the newspaper ended publication of its evening edition (yukan) a few days ago. The article says that the evening edition had continued for 69 years. I heard on TV that the one factor in the yukan’s demise was the internet, which has reduced the need to get a second edition of the paper to learn about the latest events.
I’m a fan of and moderately heavy user of the internet, but I worry about what it’s doing to journalism and public culture. You may be aware of recent reports about how Facebook knew it having a negative impact on many young girls but didn’t take significant action to curtail the problem. Fake news often spreads more quickly than and crowds out real news. Similar problems abound. I have very mixed feelings about this platform. 😕