"Will The Mainichi Site Revamp Help Overcome WaiWai?"
Anna Kitanaka
British Born Japanese Journalist
Will The Mainichi Site Revamp Help Overcome WaiWai?
Mainichi Daily News
This may be rather old news now, but it is interesting to see the new revamped Mainichi Daily News English site.
In the wake of the WaiWai scandal, Mainichi were shamed and shunned, not only by angry (read: right-wing) activists, but also the advertisers that were bombarded with calls to boycott the Mainichi until they repented for their WaiWai column/crime, which the newspaper now say “went far beyond the bounds of common sense.”
The humbled Mainichi have re-established themselves as a ‘respectable’ news site, solemnly promising: “We are determined to do our best to serve as an international media organization that dispatches accurate and appropriate news about Japan to the world.”
To prove this, they have adopted a new masthead, in Gothic font (to signal seriousness?), as well as a new site design.
Instead of the cute Japanese girls they had prior to the scandal, today they feature a photo of the five LDP presidential candidates smiling joyously, a smiley photo from the Paralympics games and a photo of a train.
They also have a feature on healthy Japanese cooking, as well as a ‘Haiku of The Day.’
So they are trying to change their image—become the respectable and reliable newspaper it now vows to be. But with the WaiWai debate still fresh in the minds of both Japanese readers and foreign ones, the Mainichi is likely going to have to sit through a long castigation period until it finally gets the respect it now needs.
New Mainichi Apology: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/20080720/0901.html
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Well, I praise MDN for
Well, I praise MDN for finally translating Mainichi Shimbun editorial and op-eds. But now that they want to look as a 'respectable' news source, I find the 'revamping' quite boring (yeah, even more than The Daily Yomuiri). And in order to be 'interesting' again, they don't need to resort on sensationalist, tabloid 'translations'. I don't see the "woman's point of view" they claimed on the 20 July's apology. So, MDN is playing a role in the "castigation" Ms Kitanaka writes about. Maybe it's just a matter of time, I guess...
Julián Ortega Martínez
WaiWai
Yeah, I also find the new site boring.
It had a little niche before, with WaiWai included, but now is just the same as many others. I think I'll review from time to time, and the cooking might be good. JapanToday now is much more interesting :)
I guessed I liked the little window into Japanese tabloids, real or not.
R
No Sudoku and no WaiWai = no
No Sudoku and no WaiWai = no need to visit the Mainichi site anymore.
Sudoku
We don't have WaiWai but we have Sudoku:
www.japaninc.com/mgz_september_2008_sudoku
Good new site
I think that the new site is interesting. That's fun that after angry (read: right-wing) activists protest against the old version, we now have left perspectives to read on it.
Glad to know that politics opinions are not dead and happy that the Mainichi Shimbun wants to share their opinions with english readers.
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