Journalism and The Music Industry: It’s all about crappy hits.

“Shrinking newsrooms are asking their remaining ranks to produce first accounts more quickly and feed multiple platforms. This is focusing more time on disseminating information and somewhat less on gathering it…”

This point stuck out at me while reading.  It makes sense and I’m not sure I would have drilled down to this level on this concept on my own.  But on some level, I’ve been thinking about this point for a while regarding journalism.  Since reporters are spending so much time trying to disseminate information through so many different platforms and the work forces at major news sources are smaller, investigative journalism suffers.

The current economic model does not support investigative journalism.  Newspaper sales are down, advertising revenue is down and money coming in from a news source’s internet presence is minuscule.  Newspapers don’t have the money and resources to put tenured, well-paid journalists on a story for weeks or months without those reporters having something to publish.  It reminds me of the main concept of the documentary we just watched “Before the Music Dies.”  Our industries demand an immediate hit, a quick product to distribute to the public.  A product to turn a quick dollar.  Quality is lost.

Yes, television news still conducts investigative journalism.  Yes, major newspapers are able to continue investigative journalism.  But what about small town newspapers.  How are small town governments being held accountable?  What is the state of access to information in areas where the local newspaper has gone bankrupt?

It’s ironic.  In an age in which we’re more connected than ever, it is easier to spread basic news by word of mouth than ever before.  Yet that is what our news agencies seem to be giving us…basic news.  I wonder if the principles of economics will apply to the state of journalism in the future.  If investigative journalism isn’t conducted regularly, will it become a commodity?  Is it already?  Has all journalism always been a commodity?  In a society in which investigative journalism isn’t conducted, will it one day become so valuable that we’ll pay for it?