The news media
gets a bad rap these days. Fake news. Bias. Smaller newspapers. Less resourceful,
shrinking news staffs. A social media world, through rumor and gossip, provide
awkward, 24/7 competition. Is a society in trouble in the media is weekend?
Absolutely.
A new book explores how the news media is moving towards extinction. Ghosting The News: Local Journalists and the Crisis of American Democracy by Margaret Sullivan
demonstrates the news apocalypse that we are living through.
More than 2,000 American
newspapers have vanished over the past 16 years. Many more are
in a state of ruin, weakened by small advertising revenue and a public that
doesn't value real journalism enough to subscribe. People think they can get
their news online for free. Local journalism is what is hard to find and it
is what keeps the politicians in check, businesses is honest, communities
informed, nonprofits in the public eye.
Some suggest a
government subsidy for journalism will be needed, so that poses an ethical
conundrum. Can we have a free media that is influenced by or dictated to from the
government? Those who will pull the purse strings in essence edit the very news
we seek to have distributed.
Newspapers have always
needed to be more than just a police blotter messenger. They tie their readers together through their words, not just in the news reported but in the op-eds,
feature stories, and local profiles that they run with the other staples such
as lottery numbers, sports scores, weather, comics, puzzles, obits, etc. The Internet
does not do a very good job of replacing the local newspaper.
So what can be done
about this loss of local journalism?
Local television and
radio stations not completely fill the void and localized website by green amateurs won't do it either. No, the local newspaper is very much needed.
Some combination of subscription fees, advertising, donations, and government
grants will be needed to save newspapers from complete obliteration. The
newspapers will need to bring something to the table too.
They'll have to show
their usefulness and uniqueness with great reporting, interesting writing, and
useful stories. It will need to be bigger than the napkin size editions that
they are putting out today and they will need to be hawked.
Newspapers politely wait for people to discover them or hope that those who have always read them will stick with them. They need to use a PR campaign, calling upon society's influencers and shakers to endorse the reading of local newspapers.
Newspapers politely wait for people to discover them or hope that those who have always read them will stick with them. They need to use a PR campaign, calling upon society's influencers and shakers to endorse the reading of local newspapers.
Newspapers right now are
really in danger of going the way of the typewriter. Plus they
are far more expensive than the Internet. And the economy's dual Great Recessions bookending the past Dozen is not helping either.
Newspapers used to be
the backbone of America's information network. They may not return to that lofty position, but they are
better than just being birdcage liner. With help from readers, the community and the
government, newspapers might be able to thrive again.
Our nation, now more than ever, needs a healthy, vibrant media.
Our nation, now more than ever, needs a healthy, vibrant media.
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