American journalism is at a transformational moment, in which the era of dominant newspapers and influential network news divisions is rapidly giving way to one in which the gathering and distribution of news is more widely dispersed. As almost Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala - via Columbia Journalism Review
This is a sincere attempt to address the unfortunate situation of downsized newspapers and television stations. The authors need to understand how Internet is programmed (free information in exchange for consumer psychographics); without that knowledge, everything presented here is conjecture. In jeopardy is why we report the news--to generate revenue or to afflict the comfortable? Nevertheless the authors try to persuade us that everyone is a journalist now, or can be, and gloss over the impact on democracy of fewer trained journalists, risking their lives in war zones and on the streets. Moreover, the technology touted here, especially in an economic recession bordering on depression, has resulted in a news media that comforts the comfortable (who can afford the technology) so that the afflicted is out of view as we click through the global mall.
Technology surveils and sells; without reporters on the street, where the disenfranchised dwell--from homeless to HUD--you get surface reporting. The solution? Try hiring more investigative reporters who can file online or in print; the platform doesn't matter. The training, however, does.