The Reconstruction of American Journalism

I just read through the document, The Reconstruction of American Journalism by Leonard Downie, Jr. and Michael Schudson. I found it a bit disturbing.

The article discusses the current transition of traditional media in light of the Internet, and the future funding of traditional media.

“As this report will explain, credible independent news reporting cannot flourish without news organizations of various kinds, including the print and digital reporting operations of surviving newspapers. But it is unlikely that any but the smallest of these news organizations can be supported primarily by existing online revenue. That is why we will be exploring a variety and mixture of ways to support news reporting, which must include nonmarket sources like philanthropy and government.” (emphasis mine)

The authors recommend creating government-sponsored news organizations (tax exempt and government funded – in part or in full) as the solution to this problem.

In addition, they want universities to train students in “enterprise and accountability journalism, which by definition bring new information to light, can grow into society-changing work not that dissimilar to academic research that makes original contributions to knowledge in history and the social sciences.” (emphasis mine)

My question is: if government funds the news media, who is going to watch the government? Will we be able to criticize the government if they control the media? Isn’t this a problem in China?

Also, is it the role of news reporting to “change” society? What happened to news reporters simply reporting the news? Using the media to “change” society sounds like propaganda to me. Do we really want government-sponsored, propaganda-based news?

You may (or may not) agree with the current government or like some of the current media offerings, but what will happen when we get a new batch of politicians? How will these people restrict free speech in the process of “supporting” news reporting and “providing” independent reporting. How will this or a new administration want to “change” society using the media or restricting the use of media? You can’t just look at one administration. These rules will evolve as the government evolves, either for good or for bad.

I, for one, am tired of our government bailing out failed and/or outdated companies using taxpayer money. We didn’t bail out the manual typewriter manufacturers or the stagecoach manufacturers. I’m sure jobs were lost, but progress created new jobs in the same or in new industries. If the traditional media dies, a new media industry will take its place. New jobs will be created and media will still be independent of government. Then let’s spend our government money on reeducating those who lost jobs so they can compete in the new industries.

If we keep bailing out automobile manufacturers, banks, and newspapers with government funding, we may keep the same jobs, but will it be worth it? What will we lose in the process?

Update: Snooper has commentary

Originally posted on EmptyNestMom Goes to College

The Prize as Propaganda: President Obama and Amira Hass

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
…And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

 

William Butler Yeats wrote The Second Coming just after the first World War but it is an apt commentary on almost everything, including President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize and Amira Hass’s upcoming Courage in Journalism Award.

Unsurprisingly, one of four Courage in Journalism awards to be presented by Christiane Amanpour and Irshad Manjie, among others, will go to the Israeli journalist, Amira Hass, whose critique of Israel constitutes a veritable Blood libel. Hass describes Israel as an “apartheid” state. Her columns in Ha’aretz, a left-leaning Israeli newspaper, are often stomach-turning…Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>

 

‘Citizen Journalism’ vs. Journalism

Dan Wooding has an article today on GoodNewsDaily.net entitled, ‘Citizen Journalism’ is transforming the news business. But is it good or bad?

When I first entered secular journalism in London, England, back in the late sixties, my colleagues warned me against the dangers of “Citizen Journalism.”

In those days, you had to have a National Union of Journalists (NUJ) card to even been get a job on a newspaper and the perks of being a union member were terrific.

We “worked” a four-day week and were pressing for a three-day week because of the “stress” of the four-day week. We got seven weeks paid vacation and wanted even more time off.

My newspaper, the Sunday People, wouldn’t allow us to use electric typewriters as that would make it too efficient.

While on assignment, reporters were not allowed to take photographs as that would deprive our unionized photographers of their living.

No wonder, we didn’t want “Citizen Journalism” as we just wanted “professionals” to ply our trade and, because if they did, we would lose much of our power in shaping the thinking of our readers.

But Rupert Murdoch changed everything in Fleet Street, the center of British journalism, where I “worked.”

His transformation was called the “Wapping Revolution” and in 1986, the owner of News International, moved production of his major titles (The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and The News of the World) from Fleet Street to Wapping, set in London’s Docklands area, and in so doing, he set about an irreversible chain reaction in the structure of journalism in the UK.

It was one of the most dramatic industrial disputes of the last century…

[...]

Reading the tweets from the streets of Tehran as protestors rail against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad, and the intractability of the theocracy of the mullahs, is like entering an entirely new category of reporting. It goes beyond the ground-level observations and interviews of even the finest reporting to deliver something close to a longitudinal study of mass consciousness…Continue reading on GoodNewsDaily.net >>

Also, be sure to follow @GoodNewsDaily on Twitter.

Conservative Journalists! (Yes, seriously.)

From The Phillips Foundation:

$75,000, $50,000 and $25,000 JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIPS OFFERED BY THE PHILLIPS FOUNDATION FOR 2009

Washington, DC, October 20, 2008 — The Phillips Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2009 Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship Program. Print and online journalists with less than 10 years of professional experience are eligible. The Foundation created this program to provide fellowships for projects by journalists who share the Foundation’s mission to advance constitutional principles, a democratic society and a vibrant free enterprise system.

The Phillips Foundation awards $75,000 and $50,000 full-time fellowships and $25,000 part-time fellowships to undertake and complete a one-year project of the applicant’s choosing focusing on journalism supportive of American culture and a free society. In addition, there are separate fellowships on the environment, on the benefits of free-market competition, and on law enforcement.

In 2008, the Foundation awarded the following eight fellowships.

• Full-time fellowships to: David Donadio for “The Free Press in the Free Market: A Study of How the Internet is Transforming the Newspaper Business;” Travis Kavulla for “Africa’s New Christianity and the Future of American Influence;” Emily Krone for “Unchartered Territory: Can Entrepreneurial Charter Schools Achieve the Scale and Sustain the Quality to Transform the American Public School System‌;” and Lygia Navarro for “Civil Society and Democracy in Latin America.”
• Part-time fellowships to: Cheryl Chumley for “National Heritage Areas: A Blot against Property Rights or a Boon for the Nation‌;” Matthew Continetti for “The Single Society: The Social Transformation Changing American Business, Politics and Culture;” J. Peter Freire for “The University Shakedown: How Universities Take Donations but Refuse Input from Donors Based on the Myth of Academic Freedom;” and Jonathan Last for “The Fertility Rate and America’s Future.”

For a list of all 76 fellowship winners and their projects since inception of the program in 1994, visit www.thephillipsfoundation.org/fellowship_profiles.

Three Phillips Foundation Trustees serve as judges: Thomas L. Phillips, Chairman of Eagle Publishing, Inc.; Robert D. Novak, long-time national journalist and syndicated columnist; and Alfred S. Regnery, Publisher of The American Spectator.

The Foundation is looking for journalism projects which are both original and publishable. The winning projects will be delivered in four installments with the potential to be published sequentially in a periodical or as a book.

Applications must be postmarked by March 2, 2009. The winners will be announced next May at an awards dinner at the National Press Club in Washington. The starting date for the fellowships will be September 1, 2009. Applicants must be citizens of the United States.

For an application, visit www.thephillipsfoundation.org, or contact: The Phillips Foundation, 1 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 620, Washington, DC 20001, Attention: John Farley. Phone: 202-250-3887, ext. 609. E-mail: jfarley@thephillipsfoundation.org.

(Hat-Tip: blog, p.i.)