Posted on 01/01/2010 3:28:06 PM PST by abb
As the media landscape continues to skew to online from print, more news outlets may feel financial pressure to test just how much readers care about professional credentials.
Looking into the media furor over swine flu last spring, I interviewed a UCLA epidemiologist, who told me it was best to assume "a posture of humility" in trying to assess how deadly the H1N1 virus would be.
"This is a virus we haven't seen before," said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley. "We don't really know what will happen."
I've thought often in recent months about those words, which just as easily might be applied to viral change infecting the news media.
We don't know exactly what's coming in the news business, only that change is coming fast. But if 2010 is anything like the year just ending, expect to see: more opinion, more partisanship, more (amateur) voices in the mix, more niche websites, less original reporting, less separation between news and advertising, and fewer paid journalists on the beat.
Information in the broadband, iPhone world will be more accessible, more quickly. Many consumers will find outlets that slice and dice information by subject, ideology and tone in ways they find pleasing. But with the citizenry increasingly fitted into a series of silos, the challenge of coming together for a civil, coherent conversation will grow greater.
The technological disruption shaking professional media, though, has empowered a new information army.
When mainstream reporters were driven out of Iran around last June's presidential election, everyday citizens took up the story, using cellphones and Twitter accounts to beam tales of voter fraud to the world. YouTube images of Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, bleeding to death on the streets of Tehran, made it hard for us to turn away from brutality and repression.
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(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The WSJ’s only actual conservative content is their op-ed pages - the rest of the paper is as doctrinaire liberal as the NYT - and just as ignorant of facts. The only thing the WSJ knows better than other papers is the ins and outs of Wall Street. But when the business issues they’re describing aren’t taught in an Ivy League school, or in a major J-school, they’re just as stupid and silly as the NYT. Some of their articles on the ag sector, for example, are knee-slapping hilarious.
I'm perfectly serious. Journalists today have no ethics, and today's major media reportage is not journalism, but liberal propaganda.
"The SPJ has been excellent in that aspect, even donating to conservative papers to make up losses from liberal activists trying to suppress the free press."
I have no idea what "the SPJ" is, or how you think it enters into the discussion. Nor did I refer to it in the indicated post.
But with the citizenry increasingly fitted into a series of silos, the challenge of coming together for a civil, coherent conversation will grow greater.
When the writer speaks of "the challenge of coming together for a civil, coherent conversation," what I hear is the challenge of channeling the public discourse into the left-wing trough which is natural to AP journalism.Show me someone who claims objectivity rather than confessing to the reasons why he might not be objective in spite of his good intentions, and I will show you a propagandist.
And if that shoe fits the journalists you have been listening to, what does that tell you?
Rainey at least gets to the nut. It’s all about who gets to do the ‘telling.’ They used to be listened to because they had the only microphones and printing presses. Now, not so much.
Thank you for your admissions.
"SJC" is not mentioned in my post, nor in yours that I tagged to, nor in the article posted. What the **** are you talking about??
What I'm "admitting" is that your writing is crappy.
Your incorrect statement is mitigated by your admission of ignorance on the topic.
No they are cheap whores.
Sorry, but it is poor writing to not spell out your acronyms - don’t blame Wonder Warthog for not knowing what you are talking about when you mention ‘SPJ’ without first spelling it out.
Thanks, DB. Precisely the point I was going to make. For all I know, "SJC" might stand for "San Juan Capistrano". The letters "S", "J", and "C" can stand for a lot of different things....all legit.
Gee, if someone is writing with pretentious authority about professional journalists, then it seems rather obvious. One wouldn't insult a poster who railed about the federal judiciary by believing he might not know what the SCOTUS is, and one would assume that a FReeper pontificating broadly and harshly about professional journalists would be familiar with the Society of Professional Journalists, its membership, and its activities.
Note that The Bulletin had to cease its daily printing in Philly. Note that The Rocky Mtn. News went before The Denver Post. Note that The Washington Times fell by greater percentage than The Washington Post. Note which papers died in Cincy and Houston. Et cetera.
Conservatism or balanced doesn't sell any better than liberalism. America is going for illiteracy and "news nuggets."
Dingy, a major rule of good writing is to ALWAYS spell out your acronyms. The above might get past your first response, but not your second. I'm not a reporter, and don't know what organizations they have, nor am I interested in the same. I'm talking about the facts on the ground, as evidenced daily by what I see in the media. If a "Society of Professional Journalists" exists, then it's either failing miserably, or has a very strange idea about what professional ethics are.
But this is about none of that, this is about your desire to play head games. Now kiss off, twit.
Gondring, can you give us an example of a “conservative” daily that you think is doing poorly? I’m curious as to what you think such a publication is. When it comes to daily news, Fox News is doing quite well where CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and others are nosediving. For those opining on news daily, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and many others who are considered by most to have a conservative take on the news of the day are also doing very well.
America is going for illiteracy...
Are you equating not reading Time magazine to desiring to be illiterate, or are you just assuming that because liberal publications are losing their readership that this must mean people are somehow becoming more illiterate?
It's difficult to find ones that haven't already gone under, isn't it? The Bulletin of Philadelphia is no longer daily, but I believe it has started up print again on a weekly basis.
When it comes to daily news, Fox News is doing quite well where CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and others are nosediving. For those opining on news daily, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and many others who are considered by most to have a conservative take on the news of the day are also doing very well.
Exactly. As I pointed out, the problem isn't ideology, but illiteracy. More and more people are getting "news" from Jon Stewart and Hollywood, and they are getting only a shallow view. The shift from print to these forms has helped liberalism, despite the glee felt over the demise of liberal publications. Many conservatives are gloating over battles won whilst the war is being lost.
Are you equating not reading Time magazine to desiring to be illiterate, or are you just assuming that because liberal publications are losing their readership that this must mean people are somehow becoming more illiterate?
No.
I, along with other smart folks like Rush, know better than to invest in Americans' literacy. If I'm wrong, you should be able to make a killing by investing in conservative print news. Personally, I recognized the trend 20 years ago, and I proposed online publication in the early 90s and got out of print news totally more than a decade ago.
I value journalism and will pay. I don’t value liberal activism and will not pay for it.
I fear that your view is held by few younger Americans. :-(
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