A recent
article discusses a report on traditional news media's decline. Blaming the internet for sloppy journalism due to speed of web blogs presenting information. At least that was the gist I came away with.
Among the factors at work in the decline of traditional media:
¥ Too many news outlets are chasing a static or shrinking audience.
¥ Much of the investment in journalism is in telling news, not in collecting it.
¥ There is much more "newsgathering in the raw," less double-checking of facts and putting those facts in perspective, in journalism than before.
The lack of vision or embrace in pursuing new avenues continues to haunt the elite. Very few in print media have
TAPPED into the potential. As technology broadens it's horizons to the masses, the old media will either adapt ( as some have ) or go the way of overly large cold blooded reptiles.
One thing the above article did not mention in great detail is that web logs offer another aspect cable news scrambles for. On the ground reporting from around the world. Man/Woman on the street commentary.
Bonus laugh:
"Big Three networks' evening broadcasts. ..NBC's popular Today, ...Meet the Press, to CBS' 60 Minutes ...while giving viewers a solid news report."
Yeah, right solid
The question to be asked, are web logs as a way of future news viable financially? Print media probably, but television? I can't see it happening until broadband becomes universal and cheap. I can see it becoming a new industry, if invested in widely. Still that vision is a long way off. For now, I think it's fair to say web logs are entering into a golden era. Still available to anyone who has internet. Safe for the moment from being bought off like the old time neighborhood radio stations.