“Thinking About the Crisis of Journalism” Workshop Series

Session 6: A Government-Issued Voucher System for News Organizations

Declining newspaper readership, declining TV viewership, declining consumption of online news. The number of people who consume news is shrinking, and among them, very few are still willing to pay for it. Yet the role that journalism plays in society remains critically important. It is clear that news organizations must evolve in order to adapt to the needs and habits of the public. At the same time, gathering, verifying, processing, and distributing news all incur costs. How, then, can news organizations operate sustainably? One proposal that has been discussed for several years is for the government to regularly provide citizens with a fixed amount of money in the form of vouchers, which citizens would then use to pay the news organizations of their choice. This workshop will explore that proposal.

From this session onward, proposals will follow the format below.
3 minutes: Overview of the proposal (elevator pitch)
10 minutes: The issues
10 minutes: Details of the proposal

Presenter: Virgil Hawkins (Osaka University)

Date and time: Thursday, March 26, 2026, 18:00–19:30

Target audience: Media professionals, researchers, university students, graduate students, and the general public

Participation fee: Free of charge

Venue: Osaka University Nakanoshima Center, 7th floor (Seminar Room 7A)

*Only the lecture portion will be streamed via Zoom.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82878399401?pwd=RTNzSDZBOHJPQ0RaRHNXbUJSRk5nQT09

Meeting ID: 828 7839 9401  Passcode: 3GqAhF

Registration: Same-day participation is welcome, but to help us estimate the number of participants, please register in advance via the link below if possible.

https://cloud.globalnewsview.org/apps/forms/embed/rtstwYyZXeJ77qRmzTQsMeGW

What is the “Thinking About the Crisis of Journalism” series?

This series is a workshop-style event where media professionals, researchers, students, and members of the general public come together to address the increasingly serious crisis of journalism in Japan today. Each session focuses on one concrete proposal as a starting point for exploring ways to improve the situation. Using the proposal presented at each session as a springboard, participants engage in dialogue to examine its feasibility and challenges from multiple perspectives, and to consider in practical terms what journalism should look like in the future. Information about sessions from the 7th onward will be announced separately.