The crisis of journalism and the Internet

This was a very interesting article and it made a lot of points that I was once unaware of. The first of which is the myth that the Internet has caused the collapse of journalism around the world, curtailing a ‘crisis’.

This crisis of journalism according to McChesney is not due to the Internet. It is due to the fact that media conglomerates are on a never-ending quest to find greater profit in a capitalist society, that extreme cutbacks have incurred on both reporters and resources. In fact, the decline of journalism has gone on long before the Internet came into play.

Since such massive cutbacks are going on in the media today, investigative journalism has decline greatly – so instead of investigating the guys on top, the media is now relying on celebrity and scandal news. Seriously… this is the kind of stuff that no one actually cares about.

With the accountants winning over the idealists, the journalism profession is slowly dying. There are more lies seeping into the news from corporate interests, serious political reporting is at a serious decline and international journalism is becoming quite rare. In the 2008 presidential election, a few of the candidates barely got any time with reporters and television networks.

Ron Paul, a Republican candidate that stood for great ideals in favour of the American people, and was against big corporate interest barely got any time on large media networks. Candidates such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain were in the spotlight. Political reporting is more of a regurgitated piece from every network that is less in the best interest of American citizens.

It is sad to see that the journalists who work and strive to tell the truth and work for the general population end up being freelancers or get a job unrelated to their field. It is upsetting that dominant and corporate values are supported in a public service.

McChesney writes that the only way to fix this crisis in journalism is to realize that the Internet is just another avenue to get the news out. The Internet is not something that is out to destroy traditional media. In fact, it is the fault of the need to find greater profit in any measure, than to fund investigative and international journalism.

The only reason why the American media never saw 9/11 coming was because of cutbacks. In order to save money, media owners were closing down their foreign bureaus around the world. Bureaus in Russia, many other countries, and most importantly of all – Afghanistan – were shut down to save money to generate greater profit.

Because of this action taken by media owners, the American media was blind to a terror that still haunts the country. I agree that the Internet is not at fault. Professional journalism is at a decline and there is far too much entertainment news out there. Serious investigative journalism needs to take place, otherwise just like pre-9/11 America, we too will be blind.

If there’s one quote from McChesney that sums up my thoughts about this topic, here it is.

“Citizen journalism and social reformation will flower in a marriage with enhanced professional journalism, not as a replacement for it.” (pg. 65)