Oct 21 2010
What to do (Part 2)
In my last post, my questions centered around what actions could be taken by the institution of journalism to reverse the downward spiral it seems to be taking.
The first question I asked was what are other potential revenue outlets that could support the industry besides advertising. Right now, ads are the bandage that is protecting journalism. However, that bandage is not promoting healing and eventually it will fall off. I want to say another avenue would be to streamline journalism and make it a purely an online entity. However, while that might increase the number of journalists it would also take away the jobs associated with the “atom” side of journalism. While I brought this up in class yesterday, looking at it again I can see a more over arching problem within; and this can be applied to other industries as well. Part of the trade-off for moving to the internet to cut cost is some of those cut costs come from jobs that are required in the world of atoms, but not the world of bits. For journalism, it is the printing portion. Another example is the music industry. The internet provides so much exposure for artists that recording labels are essentially obsolete. I doubt these are the only areas suffering from this issue, so maybe instead of asking how to financially support the journalism industry a better question would be where those who would lose there jobs are going to find work. Instead of stalling the flood, perhaps it would be better to run ahead and secure a position stop the flood entirely. Instead of focusing on finding money, focus on creating jobs for those who will need them and establishing the training they will need.
The next question I asked was more of a what if scenario about what journalism would look like if profit was not the driving force. I am not asking people to look back and reminisce about “the good old days”. Instead I am asking people to look back and see what has occurred in journalism since the sixties to gather knowledge that could potentially be used to help the industry today and in the future. For example, how were newspapers et al. financially structured in the past and how has that changed over the years; are there any changes that are no longer needed or are only benefiting a few? I do not have the answers to this nor any knowledge regarding this situation. This is just an example of something to look at.
My final question regarded the potential coordination between local blogs and larger news organizations. According to the article, there are some partnerships in the works. Since the internet has made it possible to obtain hyperlocal news, these partnerships show promise. Local journalist can provide local news while larger organizations with more access can focus on more national and international news. The downside is this scenario could not be supported like Wikipedia. Eventually local journalists would need to be paid. However, if there is some promise then this is worth looking into and experimenting with. Risks will need to be taken to get the full story of the situation. I presume that is what journalists are told in school.