Kurt Andersen: Journalism faces a lot of challenges. I’m not sure that what are seen each day as the great challenges, the death of the newspaper, for instance, or it’s being supplanted by online media, is the greatest challenge.
I think that there being a set of facts that we can all agree on is the great challenge of journalism, at least in the near median term – that journalism doesn’t entirely evolve to the left-wing version of facts, or the right-wing version of facts or the Islamic version of facts, and the western version of facts. There will always be the left, the right, the different cultures, different sensibilities who have their own little journalistic silos of their version of the truth. And while we can never get back – I’m not sure we went to get back – to the pre-Internet, pre-cable table version where there were three networks and New York Times, and they told us the truth from on high, I do think, and I do hope that we can maintain some shared sense of “here are the facts” and we here in some little place are engaged in a good faith search for the truth.
The “the truth,” as a thing, has gotten a kind of bad reputation from various sides by virtue of various critiques over the last 30 years. But I still think that that is what needs to power and drive journalists. And I hope that the institutions that allow that to happen in a robust way will figure out a way to maintain themselves, by whatever economic model.
Recorded: July 5, 2007.
Discuss
Anna Matsen on January 20, 2008, 10:12 PM
I think it's pretty well acknowledged that "spinning" all news in one direction or another warps our perception of what's really going on. So many people claim they want the truth, the facts; but then why is spin media so popular?
What would it take for people to get really motivated about avoiding spin and demanding real fair coverage? Is it a matter of people not knowing (or not caring) what fair coverage is any more? Do people crave the gossipy nature of news told from an angle set to favor their own prejudices (never mind the actual gossip of celebrity "news")? Or, is there a real demand from the general public for fair news coverage, but the media conglomerates who own it all simply won't allow it (presumably because fair media is against their interests)?
But more important than the cause is how do we get rid of it? How do we blunt the "angles" and pare down news to its most verifiable essentials? How do we motivate the news owners and the news audience to hold mass media to higher standards of objectivity? That's what I'd like to know.
Anna Matsen on January 21, 2008, 3:12 AM
I think it’s pretty well acknowledged that “spinning” all news in one direction or another warps our perception of what’s really going on. So many people claim they want the truth, the facts; but then why is spin media so popular?
What would it take for people to get really motivated about avoiding spin and demanding real fair coverage? Is it a matter of people not knowing (or not caring) what fair coverage is any more? Do people crave the gossipy nature of news told from an angle set to favor their own prejudices (never mind the actual gossip of celebrity “news”)? Or, is there a real demand from the general public for fair news coverage, but the media conglomerates who own it all simply won’t allow it (presumably because fair media is against their interests)?
But more important than the cause is how do we get rid of it? How do we blunt the “angles” and pare down news to its most verifiable essentials? How do we motivate the news owners and the news audience to hold mass media to higher standards of objectivity? That’s what I’d like to know.
Kirk LaPointe on May 13, 2008, 4:17 PM
I hate to take any thread away from creativity and move it into economics, but the future of journalism depends on finding a new business model to ensure the public service nature of journalism is preserved.
The beauty of conventional media is its ability to cross-subsidize
-you do certain things that draw audiences, and you do certain things because they're important to do, and they aren't always the same things. But one pays for the other, in essence.Many of the new economics emerging in journalism are based on models that seem aligned with what people want, and not necessarily what they might need, to know.
Now, no one wants the preaching-from-the-mountain model of journalism, but there are valuable functions of journalism that involve revealing important truths
-things on the menu that no one might choose unless served.What's important in the time ahead is to find ways to pay for the work that isn't necessarily going to move the needle on audience or circulation, but will have a softer value involving reputation or credibility. In other words, the journalism creating a sustainable model.
As the advertising-based models of journalism evolve digitally into much more targeted content aimed at specific audiences, the future of journalism will depend on finding ways to generate high quality that isn't necessarily highly demanded.
It might be through narrower subscriber-based models, it might mean underwritten models with independent financing, or it might mean allocating a certain portion of revenue to generate content withou a pre-determined market. But if we don't find these new models, the public service work of journalism will be harder to sustain.
www.themediamanager.com
Kirk LaPointe on May 13, 2008, 8:17 PM
I hate to take any thread away from creativity and move it into economics, but the future of journalism depends on finding a new business model to ensure the public service nature of journalism is preserved.
The beauty of conventional media is its ability to cross-subsidize
-you do certain things that draw audiences, and you do certain things because they’re important to do, and they aren’t always the same things. But one pays for the other, in essence.Many of the new economics emerging in journalism are based on models that seem aligned with what people want, and not necessarily what they might need, to know.
Now, no one wants the preaching-from-the-mountain model of journalism, but there are valuable functions of journalism that involve revealing important truths
-things on the menu that no one might choose unless served.What’s important in the time ahead is to find ways to pay for the work that isn’t necessarily going to move the needle on audience or circulation, but will have a softer value involving reputation or credibility. In other words, the journalism creating a sustainable model.
As the advertising-based models of journalism evolve digitally into much more targeted content aimed at specific audiences, the future of journalism will depend on finding ways to generate high quality that isn’t necessarily highly demanded.
It might be through narrower subscriber-based models, it might mean underwritten models with independent financing, or it might mean allocating a certain portion of revenue to generate content withou a pre-determined market. But if we don’t find these new models, the public service work of journalism will be harder to sustain.
www.themediamanager.com
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