In chapter 6 of Digital Disconnect, McChesney covers the topic of journalism and the effects the internet has had on it. Needless to say, McChesney does not see the future of journalism as bright, and he has many reasons to feel that way. With the creation of the internet, and thus the ability for news to be printed online rather than in a newspaper, it has brought about the gradual decline of print journalism as news organizations move more and more of their content online. What we see occurring today with journalism is the dilemma that many businesses face at some point: efficiency vs. quality.
When you have any sort of product, the producer has the choice to either produce as much of the product as they can in the fastest amount of time, or take a little bit more time to produce the product and make it higher quality. Now, ideally you want to make the best product you can in as little as time as possible, but at some point you have to sacrifice some things to do that. As this relates to news, we see this happening in the sense that where journalism used to be about getting it right and deeply covering a story, the internet has now made it so that is more about being the place that reports it fastest rather than the most correct.
Because of the up-to-the-minute society that we live in, it is a battle between news stations to be the first to report when an important event occurs. However, because of this rush to get the story out, the details of the story are not always accurate until later on when more information is revealed. This article by Jack Mirinson on the Huffington Post is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Both CNN and Fox were forced to go back on their initial reports about the arrests in the Boston bombing of last year. Anderson Cooper, one of CNN's top reporters, is quoted as saying "Initial reports, so often are wrong." As this continue to occur more and more in the news, we will continue to see falsely reported news, and the decline of journalism will continue as McChesney outlines.
I thought one of the most interesting things McChensey talked about in Chapter 6 was the idea that because paid reporting positions are now mostly gone, politicians will now have a much easier time getting away with corruption without them being investigated by journalists as much. He sites three different political scandals in which he says they were all initially discovered by a newspaper reporter. This is just one of the things he says will be effected by this "death of journalism." My question is, what do you see as the biggest problem behind this decrease in the quality of journalism? What area will be affected the most?
While you do raise a good point that the factors of efficiency and quality play a role in determining the future of journalism, I also believe that the economy is an important aspect as well. In this day and age, time is almost as valuable as money, and while it is more efficient to receive information from the internet and other forms of technology (despite the degrading in quality), often times this information is free. I believe that most people will care less about information being lower quality if it is free, because they have a vendetta against paying for information if they could get possibly get the same quality for free. Additionally, our generation has now adapted a sense of "instant gratification", and while we could still receive high quality news for free, we are so accustomed to getting what we want "now" as opposed to, say, waiting a week for the Sunday paper. In this sense I believe that journalism isn't dying out as much as it is evolving to fit the standard of it's major audiences today
ReplyDeleteJournalism is one of my favorite topics to investigate and even take part in. I started getting into journalism last semester so I am familiar with some of the concepts McChesney was touching on. I think the biggest issue behind the decrease in the quality of journalism is that the whole field is losing credibility due to its need of speed. The speed, like you mentioned, causes inefficiency so the constant publication of misleading information makes journalism look phony to those viewing it. It is no question that the area that will be and already is being affected will be print journalism. I find it heart breaking that this is what is being sacrificed too. Print journalism is where the whole field began, and it is where readers can find the most quality pieces of news. Newspapers take time to publish, which means there is time to go back and edit information or add information. With the internet all you have to do is click a button for it to be spread to the world. This is what causes the incorrect portrayal of information, but most people prefer to read what comes out the fastest.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bethany about being really interested in the topic of journalism. This is an area that I'm pursuing right now and hopefully in the future. However, journalism as an occupation worries me because it is a diminishing field. Of course news will never die but the ways news is delivered is always changing. It is the job of a journalist to always keep up with it. I was taught in my online journalism class to always be a MOJO (a mobile journalist) who is ready on the go to work with various things like print journalism, movie maker, sound slide, InDesign, etc. It is a very versatile field that can be taken in many directions. However, anyone can become a journalist because a person doesn't need a degree to be one. For example, people encourage others to be a citizen journalist and report information for the greater good of people. So does this take away the importance of a journalist because of the fact that anyone can be a journalist? I wish that journalism could be appreciated more, especially print journalism, because it is a worthy field. It is how citizens become informed. I think people underestimate the topic of journalism and think it is not a credible field. However, I think many people forget that it is a journalist's first priority to provide accurate information for the public.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you highlighted the ongoing battle between stations over news speed. I think it is a shame that accuracy is often sacrificed leading to multiple revisions and update articles. I really wonder how this trend of speed news will change as more and more means of reporting news are created. I know that twitter is a very popular means for young people to gain news which is something that I wouldn't have even thought of in years past. Is short sentence going to take over from a newspaper article because it is more convenient and easier to do quickly? I am not sure but I really hope the integrity of the news remains intact and quality becomes more important than quantity.
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