To those outside America, it may not be apparent that American Journalism has collapsed. By “collapse”, I mean the people inside no longer trust it and actively avoid it. Alternate news sources are sought such as the Internet. American news has been in decline for quite some time, but we are now witnessing the floor opening up from them. Have you seen the ratings from CNN?
Historically, people do not pay for information. People do pay for financial information. This is why financial papers used to be colored so they couldn’t easily be copied. This is why analysts get paid an obscene amount of money. If I were a journalist, I would focus more and more on the business side of things. Business side of things always matters. People will pay for that. People will not pay for the “social side” of things.
Another major problem is that all American journalist schools teach Woodward’s work on the Nixon administration to be the ‘pinnacle’ of journalism where it is actually the opposite. All Woodward did was be manipulated and led around by “Deep Throat”. Any journalist who is easily manipulated is no journalist at all.
Why do people hate journalists? It isn’t so much that they hate journalists as they hate news writers being manipulated. It is the manipulation they hate. When someone can “buy a favorable review”, readers are going to hate the journalist because he/she showed how easily manipulated he/she is. If the journalist tries to manipulate the readers, that is also a main cause for resentment.
Before the Internet, we thought these newspaper writers and all were actually reporting and writing many of these stories. What we discovered, with the Internet, is that many just took the wire from AP and just “re-wrote” it.
Then there was the Jayson Blair scandal where a New York Times reporter just “made up” stories.
So with that said, take a look at this story from Reuters:
Nintendo Co (7974.OS) plans to launch a new version of its DSi hand-held videogame player with a larger screen in Japan as early as this year to kick-start sluggish demand, the Nikkei business daily said on Tuesday.
This is a news story on what another news story says. Now, there is nothing wrong with that except to point out there is more and more news stories on news stories. Note that the business daily is making the news here.
Nintendo, which cut the price of its popular Wii video game console last month, has been looking to bolster demand for the DSi, whose monthly sales have slowed to a third of their peak levels following its launch about a year ago.
You would read that and think DSi sales are collapsing. Of course sales slowed from its launch. Every hardware’s sales slowed from its launch.
Nintendo unwisely cutting the price of the Wii has just thrown gasoline on the “Nintendo is doomed” division. The Wii price cut has nothing to do with the DSi, but note how the article writer throws it in. I think the Wii price cut did hurt the Wii’s image.
Nintendo’s hand-held, which now has a 3.25-inch screen, is struggling against competition from Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone, whose screen is about the same size.
There is no source for this. The writer thinks it is happening, therefore it must be happening. Remember when the DS was “struggling” against the PSP?
“A bigger screen alone does not count for much,” said KBC Securities analyst Hiroshi Kamide, adding that Nintendo needs better graphics quality and a more powerful chip to run multimedia-type games and become more competitive.
“Nintendo is under pressure from iPhone and iTouch.”
Kamide is worse on Nintendo than Pachter is. You might ask how this is possible. Here is Kamide a year ago:
Casual gaming growth has been the primary driver for the industry over the last three years, the key player being the Nintendo DS. We believe DS hardware demand has now peaked globally. A downturn in software demand is likely to follow, as casual gamers are ‘happy with their lot’ and do not need to consume more. We feel that the same predicament awaits the Wii console with its similar market expansion angle. Titles such as ‘Brain Training’ and ‘Wii Fit’ do not act as ‘gateway drugs’ to turn non-traditional gamers to core repeat users. We feel this is a structural industry issue that cannot be easily changed.
What does Kamide know about Nintendo and the DS? Nothing apparently. The DS is most certainly not collapsing in Japan.
The larger screen size to make it easier for older adults fits Japan (who is rapidly aging) does fit the pattern Nintendo has taken with the DS. The larger stylus in the DS Lite was also to make it easier for older adults.
The problem is not the analysts as it is the journalists who quote them. Kamide clearly doesn’t know what he is talking about because his comments to reporters are not his job. It is, in fact, outside his job. He is just a bean counter. (Bean counters do not run businesses, they cannot see into the future). The problem is the journalist who takes the analyst’s opinion, which is totally outside his field, and put it on a pedestal as an “expert analysis”.
It would be like asking a biologist his opinion on the change of orbits of the moon and putting this opinion on a pedestal because “he is a scientist!” Yeah, but he is a scientist of biology, not physics you idiot. The same goes with all the quoting of “analysts” from pretty much any industry.
As someone who doesn’t play his DS because I get worn out fast looking at the tiny screen, I welcome the new DSi. I haven’t bought a DSi because of no Virtual Handheld. I might re-consider now.