I feel better about the state of journalism now than I have in quite some time. That doesn’t necessarily mean that newspapers are suddenly going to begin hundreds of reporters back. That’s probably not going to happen. It doesn’t mean that the old system of scarcity is going to return, because it’s not. But you do have traditional news organizations placing bigger bets on online, trying to create revenue models that can work.
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One trend that’s becoming prevalent worldwide is photographers/photojournalists being specifically targeted by so-called security services. They call it censorship don’t they?
Newspapers may be adjusting but what about the journalists that don’t require much adjustment (i.e. the ones on television)? I have to say, watching a sampling of “cable new reporting”, national network news and local news each week leaves me with only one conclusion: money and ratings (i.e. entertaining viewers) means a lot more to television news bosses than being informative and covering their stories with the proper amount of depth. Or even covering the right stories / the stories that are truly important as opposed to thinly veiled PR pieces or trivia-as-news.
The only good reporting in the United States right now (on television) is on PBS and HDNet. They’re the only ones who are selective in the stories they cover and who cover them in detail, with views from opposing sides without spin or creative editing. In other words, if you’re trying to educate yourself on current events, those are the only two places on TV you’re likely to give yourself a fair chance of doing that. Everywhere else you’re getting half a story or less.
I wish I could believe the newer generations read a good newspaper every day but I know better, so unfortunately we as a people don’t have that to fall back on if we’re talking about an “educated” population making educated decisions at the polls and elsewhere.
Am I cynical, maybe, but I think about the younger generation, and how the world revolves around them. The news to them is what they see as news worthy. I think if it doesn’t fall within their orbit it really doesn’t matter, whereas the generations previous to my kids generation wants to know about world affairs and politics and more. Yet we don’t spend like they do, we are more physically conservative and don’t yield as easily to the marketing as we used to so the target has changed. Then again maybe I am way off?
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