Customer Reviews

Closing the Shop

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Closing the Shop: Information Cartels and Japan's Mass Media. By Laurie Anne Freeman. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. 256 pp.

This excellent book lays bare the mechanisms of the information cartels in Japan that prop up the State, insulate the elite from sustained critical oversight and rob the polity of the journalistic integrity necessary for the maintenance of democracy. This is a daunting agenda and it is a tribute to the author that she carries it off and in the process makes a significant contribution to our understanding of contemporary Japan. Readers will certainly cast a more scrutinizing and skeptical eye towards the pabulum served up by the mass media after learning about how sources co-opt journalists and how the business of media has undermined the practice of journalism.

The transformation of the media into co-conspirators in the dumbing down of public debate and stifling independent thinking is a powerful indictment and here it is persuasively argued.This searing expose should also be taken to heart in regarding the media conglomerates that are now coming to dominate global media. One need only look as far as Time, Newsweek and the once venerable Far Eastern Economic Review to see how far standards have slipped and how the media is leading the race to the bottom. These famous name brands have been gutted and dumbed down so relentlessly that they bear even less resemblance to journalism than lite beer does to the original. At least they are less filling, often reading like corporate newsletters as they vie for "scoops" about computer games and run puff stories that will attract corporate advertising. It is lamentable that journalists have been brought to heel by the bean counters, and professional journalism everywhere is in retreat as a consequence of the business of journalism. Closing the Shop demonstrates why it is important for the public to be more vigilant about the media, but stops short of offering strategies for tackling this threat to democracy and accountability. The other quibble I have with this outstanding book is the author's reticence on the subject of the IT revolution and how this may affect the media cartels. Can the Web help weaken the power of traditional media cartels or will they also come to dominate