On November 18th, 2015, a talk event on the theme “The Future on Digital Media” was held at the Apple Store Omotesando. Speakers were Hiroshi Fujiwara, Yoshikage Kajiwara (creative director) and Issey Enomoto (editor, writer). Now that technology has evolved with the spread of developing social media networks, what kind of changes might digital media achieve from now on, and what is the direction for future digital media? This report covers that day’s conversation with a full transcript.

Photo_Apple Store, Omotesando (c) Kensuke Tomuro | Text_RoC Staff

（Part 2Continued fromPart 1here

Fujiwara : Well, the top page of RoC looks something like this, divided in to articles for each category. For example, for people that like movies, click on where it says Movies in the morning.

Kashiwara : Now its on a Mac so that we can show everyone but since it has been optimised for an iPhone, by all means check it by hand on your iPhone. Because Fujiwara considered and configured the design assuming that would be seen on an iPhone, it looks beautiful and looks the best this way.

One interesting point is that it’s also bilingual, translated when we write by a person instead of a translation engine, which is slightly different from other digital media, isn't it.

Fujiwara : Personally I use SNS and think it necessary that everyone should, but don’t think it necessary for media when presenting opinion or something important. I don’t think we can necessarily change the world or conventional media for example, but as one way to start with, I hope this is something we can do.

Enomoto : I want to hear about this more, but Hiroshi’s question makes a a good point. What’s the aim of RoC and where does it want to head towards in the future? For example, are we going to increase the number of authors in the future or increase the categories? That kind of thing …

Fujiwara : Categories are unlikely to increase but things like special articles such as ‘Special Features’ we would like to increase these. Also, in terms of the direction not to go in, as I believe that media and product sales should be divided, we won't go in the direction of product sales. I'd rather disseminate a core of information that is more useful, and information found when travelling, like a city map.

Kashiwara : When I go abroad, I think it’s interesting that information can be called up directly based on where I was and the area. From that, an online ‘FEATURE’ article generally covers a topic of interest that the author explores in-depth. I think a profound portion of media repeats this approach thinking that it may be interesting.

Fujiwara : Also ‘smaller minorities' will have a big feature, if there the interest.

Kashiwara : Yeah, thats right. We're happy to work with our favourite brands, like Nike or Levi’s. I think you can do a lot of things working with people adept at enjoying the work this way, not simply so-called professionals.

Fujiwara : Returning to the story, I wonder whats the future is for digital media?

Kashiwara : For example, ’Tabelog’ is said to be unaware of so-called ‘forums’? It’s inevitable but opinions never fade away, even when people that eat something simple then write a review about how delicious the food was. I use it as a way of sharing address information without worrying about how good or bad reviews are, something we should all do. Wisdom comes from experience that way. It’s not necessary to accept all the characteristics of the media. If we accept everything, as Fujiwara said, it collapses under the weight of negativity and these opinions then dominate.

Fujiwara : Digital media, it’s so convenient but impossible to trust everything it says. It’s important to trust the information from people you know when using it yourself. None of the blogs like Facebook appear entirely truthful and so there use requires care, and as the future becomes even further opinionated they become even harder to know what to believe. Of course not everyone believes in such a thing.

Enomoto, what do you think about the future of media? Are you hiding something from us?

Enomoto : It’s not hidden (laugh), but as I said at the beginning, the editing-side of things still in a state of ‘trial and error'. In the past, we were information hungry but magazines changed that. Now is an important time as amidst this saturation of information we need to keep refining what this sort of noise is. In that respect, filtering content in RoC by either ‘category’ or ‘person’ makes it really contemporary, I think.

Kashiwara : Media Curation already exists but that curation is only partial and not that reliable. That aside, you would better off checking something like Yahoo! News on your own. Although I feel this is no different now as it was before, with the pervious example about how to bathe in the information, it’s now become about how to swim in it. Though of course it’s not the intention that RoC be the answer to this at all.

Fujiwara : I think if anything, RoC to be where you'd have a very analogous sense of how digital media will evolve, even if you don’t need such things or enjoy them right now.

Enomoto : Is it about time for some questions from the audience?

Fujiwara : People forced to raise their hand and ask a question will be recruited (laugh) Anything, anyone? Ah, there’s one over there.

(Audience) : I see the Instagram of Fujiwara everyday, what do you think about the separation between this and what continues to originate from RoC?

Fujiwara : My relationship with Instagram is very detached, theres never any written information, and if ever someone asks question, I never reply. I erase old photos. My motto there says, “the archive lasts forever” (laugh), so if anyone searching finds anything, photographs will disappear almost immediately. I don’t really want to see my past photos too much. So with Instagram, only things were cut from time to time. But for RoC, their placement is a lot easier to understand, being based on their look and feel.

(Audience) : Thank you.

Fujiwara : That was a good question.

Enomoto : A simple one from me. What’s the origin of the name, ‘Ring of Colour’?

Fujiwara : I wanted something that represented a cluster. And, I wanted to use the word ‘Ring’ and start from there. When thinking of what would follow, ‘Ring of Colour’ came from the idea of representing each persons personality with a different colour.

Enomoto : I see.

Fujiwara : So, that about all the time we have Isn’t it. Thank you everybody for coming today.