OUR VIEW: What happened to quality journalism
On Oct. 26, Rocky Anderson spoke at USU about the news media “spoon-feeding” the American people misinformation. Shallow reporting is helping the government perpetuate injustice, from America’s invasion of Iraq during the George W. Bush administration to drone strike during the Obama administration, he said.
We respect Anderson for his candor and agree with him that, overall, the quality of journalism in America is declining – but we can’t just point our fingers at journalists and say, “You need to work harder.”
The fact is, many journalists today are working harder than they ever have. There are just many fewer of them. The news industry is still shrinking from the effects of the Internet. Yes, newspapers and broadcast news outlets can make money from Internet advertising, but not nearly as much as they made in their old formats. The Internet is now decades old, but news media still haven’t found a way to stay in business beside downsizing reporters, editors and fact-checkers. We’re trying to cram the print and broadcast business models into a new format that just won’t support them.
Another threat to the future of quality journalism is the dwindling number of students considering careers in journalism. Time and time again, we at The Statesman have been discouraged from considering careers in journalism – even by advisors and professors within the journalism and communications department. The decline seems natural, now that there are fewer vacancies in news organizations to fill, but if individuals stop dedicating their lives to the ideals of journalism our society embraces, who will gather news? If the demand for quality journalism rises in the future, like Anderson hopes, will we be able to meet it with a withered supply of journalists? We all value unbiased, truthful news – but do we value it enough to buy a newspaper subscription? Do we value it enough to write letters to the editor, buy ad time or space from local news outlets, or donate to National Public Radio?
Right now, we may not value quality journalism enough to pay for it, and the less we pay journalists, the worse our news will get. The quality of news may get so bad that people will willingly pay for upstart news outlets dedicated to the kind of journalism traditional media is slowly losing – or Americans may stop caring about news. If we can’t find a way to pay newsgatherers competitive wages, the big businesses and big government will continue to move us away from democracy and into their pockets.