ABSTRACT
Journalism in Japan has undergone substantial change during the two decades from the mid-1980s to 2005. The most conspicuous result is the manner in which hard news, of political and social events and issues, is increasingly presented in a simplified and trivialised manner, drawing on entertainment formats pioneered in popular TV shows. At the same time, audiences and sources of news have been fragmented, mainly through technological innovations that have seen the Internet advance into the news arena.
