William Powers, media critic at the National Journal, had a piece in the L.A. Times that's worth taking a look at. This was my takeaway:
If those old [media] outlets continue to offer strong, reliable journalism — a craft that's not as easy as it looks — they will survive. And if they fail, others will rise up to replace them. The new marketplace punishes errors, but it also rewards those who get it right. Increased scrutiny and skepticism will make the media stronger, not weaker.
You can read it all here.
–Howard Weaver
The paragraph that follows is a keeper, as well.
ReplyDelete"If those old outlets continue to offer strong, reliable journalism -- a craft that's not as easy as it looks -- they will survive. And if they fail, others will rise up to replace them."
Powers doesn't say enough here about our need to change how we frame and deliver news, information and commentary. But he's dead-on, in my opinion, about the human need for it. If newspapers, indeed, vanished (and the best of them won't), free societies wouldn't rest until they had constructed a suitable replacement. They'd have no choice. A free press is essential to this way of life. That's worth remembering as we find solutions to the rest of our issues.
I'll talk to myself some more to add that this is the paragraph I meant to quote (though both are relevant):
ReplyDelete"Some journalists are worried that the profession is dying, but this is classic newsroom alarmism. As long as there is a popular hunger for truth -- a constant of human society last I checked -- there will be work for people who want to dig it up."
It's hard to imagine people in this country losing all hunger for the truth. Some right now are comfortable to the point that they no longer look hard for it. But at some point, even they'll find that they need it. And as they do, we need to be there.