Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
"Americans Become Their Own Reporters, Editors"
"NEW YORK -- The state of journalism in America is changing faster than rapidly evolving technology, finds an extensive study of the media released today, and news consumers are increasingly becoming their own reporters."In effect, Americans are shifting from being consumers of news to pro-active partners in creating their own personalized news account each day, and traditional journalism is only part of that mix," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "This amounts to a new kind of American citizenship with more responsibilities for the consumer."The Project for Excellence in Journalism, an affiliate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, produced the report -- "The State of the News Media 2005" -- which was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.With traditional media continuing to lose audience, news organizations are tempted to cut back on news-gathering and change standards to compete with the new models. Traditional journalism, with its focus on substantiating facts, now competes with other models of news -- and these faster, cheaper and less accurate alternatives have distinct advantages in the marketplace, the report finds. What's more, blogs, or personal web logs, have added to this challenge with a new philosophy: publish first and assume the verification process will occur in the response and argument that follow."As people "Google" for information, graze across an infinite array of outlets, read blogs or write them, they are becoming their own editors, researchers, and even correspondents," the report states. "What was called journalism is only one part of the mix, and its role as intermediary and verifier, like the roles of other civic institutions, is weakening. We are witnessing the rise of a new and more active kind of American citizenship -- with new responsibilities that are only beginning to be considered."The study offers an overview on the state of the news media landscape and provides detailed chapters on nine sectors of the press: newspapers, magazines, network television, cable television, local television, the Internet, radio, the ethnic press and alternative media.For each sector, it examines audience, economics, ownership, newsroom investment, and public attitudes. It puts in one place all the major data about journalism as well as significant original research. Among the report's findings:The notion of growing partisan media has been overstated. While this new "journalism of affirmation" is growing, audiences are not splitting along ideological lines. Only cable and talk radio have done so. The audiences of most media reflect the population fairly well --except for age.Only three sectors of the media continue to show audience growth: the ethnic press, alternative weeklies and the Internet. In 2003 alone, 14 new Spanish language newspapers were launched.The newspaper industry had a tough 2004, with less than expected growth in revenue, circulation scandals, low stock prices and more cutbacks in newsrooms. At the same time, the industry still earned profits of more than 20%, according to analyst estimates.Cable news is measurably thinner in its reporting than broadcast news. Cable stories rely on fewer and less transparent sources, contain more journalistic opinion and reflect fewer viewpoints.There are clear differences between Fox News compared to its cable rivals. Fox News stories contain more sources and reveal more about them than those of its competitors, but its stories are also more one-sided and are more opinionated. Indeed, Fox journalists offer their own opinion in seven out of ten stories on the news channel, the report finds, versus less than one in ten stories on CNN and one in four on MSNBC.The news industry is taking a cautious pay-as-you-go approach to the Internet that seems likely to cede ground to non-journalism competitors. Even though online audiences are growing, Internet journalists are almost twice as likely as TV, print and radio journalists to report that their newsrooms have suffered cutbacks.There is little sign the major news Web sites are taking advantage of the technology of the Internet. Less than a third of lead stories on news sites studied included video links or allowed users to sort through data.Network news faces the biggest moment of transitional change in 2005 that it has faced since the 1980s, as a new generation of anchors and a new pressure for profitably changes the face of the networks.Morning news is becoming the financial engine of the networks. While evening news audiences continued to decline in 2004, morning audiences were flat. ABC's Good Morning America was growing, while NBC's Today Show was declining. Only the first 20 minutes of morning news tend to contain traditional news about significant events."The news is moving from being an organized, prepared lecture to a free-flowing conversation, with all the advantages and disadvantages that implies," said Rosenstiel. "The process is more open, but, paradoxically, it is also more prone to manipulation by those who want to shape public opinion. The cases of the government hiring commentators and creating faux Web sites are part of this phenomenon."The study, which contains detailed charts, graphs and citations, is available at www.stateofthemedia.org."