{"id":106,"date":"2023-12-12T21:28:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T21:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1300communicationandpopularculture\/chapter\/newspapers-and-digital-news\/"},"modified":"2024-08-07T04:35:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T04:35:46","slug":"newspapers-and-digital-news","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppsccom1300communicationandpopularculture\/chapter\/newspapers-and-digital-news\/","title":{"raw":"Newspapers and Digital News","rendered":"Newspapers and Digital News"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"]\"Silhouette Mahatma Gandhi. Image by Vinoth Chandar, CCBY. Source: Flickr.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\u201cIn the very first month of Indian<\/em> Opinion<\/em>, I realized that the sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countrysides and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within. If this line of reasoning is correct, how many of the journals in the world would stand the test? But who would stop those that are useless? And who should be the judge? The useful and the useless must, like good and evil generally, go on together, and man must make his choice.\u201d \u2014 Mahatma Gandhi from his book The<\/em> Story<\/em> of<\/em> My<\/em> Experiments<\/em> with Truth, 1982<\/em>\r\n

Threats to Ethical Journalism are Threats to Democracy<\/h2>\r\nSince the website Newspaper Death Watch<\/a> was founded in early 2007, at least 15 metropolitan daily newspapers have kicked the ink bucket. The \u201cdeath watch\u201d site focuses on [pb_glossary id=\"485\"]m<\/strong>e<\/strong>tr<\/strong>opolitan daily<\/strong> ne<\/strong>wspapers<\/strong>[\/pb_glossary] \u2014 those that cover large cities or a few geographically connected smaller cities. Since small-town newspapers come and go more often and typically do not set the news agenda for hundreds of thousands of people, they are not tracked by the site. Nevertheless, any time a newspaper stops publishing it removes a vital community resource.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"Journalists Journalists gather information at a pre-planned news event by Esther Vargas, CCBY. Source: Flikr.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen people lament the decline of newspapers, it is not only the ink on paper they worry about. The loss of news-gathering staff and editors hurts democracy because our political system is built on the assumption that citizens need information to make informed decisions, to vote and to communicate with elected officials. In the United States, the professional news media are under attack by politicians, particularly those on the extreme right. As the song goes<\/a>, \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got \u2019til it\u2019s\u00a0gone.\u201d Mistrust of the free press leads to the destruction of free speech and the erosion of personal<\/a> liberty<\/a>.\r\n\r\nIn the book The Elements of Journalism<\/em>, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel write of the clampdown on the media in Soviet-influenced Poland in 1981. The Polish government declared martial law and stopped the free broadcast of news, replacing it with state-controlled media. When the state media shows came on, people protested by walking their dogs to city parks and discussing current events. They also used video cameras to create their own documentaries. They used journalism made by regular people, known as [pb_glossary id=\"378\"]citizen\u00a0journalism[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong>, to express their desire for freedom and to stay informed. Kovach and Rosenstiel argue that the Polish people used journalism to support democratic liberty.\r\n\r\nIt should not have to come to this in America. Free speech and the norms of professional journalists are worthy of popular protection. We live in a digital media environment awash with information. Only a portion of the messages on social media come from professional news organizations that work to reinforce their stories with balanced fact-seeking and fact-checking. Preserving carefully reported, factual news is in the interest of the republic. The [pb_glossary id=\"532\"]s<\/strong>low journalism<\/strong>[\/pb_glossary] movement seeks to protect accuracy and care in journalism. Consider learning more about this form of news: It is both a professional movement within the mass communication field and a social movement.\r\n

News Norms<\/h2>\r\nAs was briefly mentioned in Chapter 1, ne<\/strong>ws norms<\/strong> are the standards that guide professional journalists. The term \u201cnorm\u201d refers to a behavior that rational people agree is (or should be) considered normal in society. Journalists are open about their information sources. When they do not disclose the name of a source, they explain as much about the person as they can and they explain why they are not able to say more. Journalists have two major truth strategies that they employ: [pb_glossary id=\"496\"]objecti<\/strong>vity<\/strong>[\/pb_glossary] and<\/strong> [pb_glossary id=\"550\"]transpar<\/strong>ency<\/strong>[\/pb_glossary]. The objectivity norm refers to efforts to keep individual biases out of the published news and to consider the information presented by sources with an open mind during the information gathering process. No one is completely objective, and no news outlet is, either. Note the difference, however, between opinion content and news content coming from news organizations.\r\n\r\nNewspapers will often publish opinions, and this is within the norms of journalism so long as it is labeled as such and it presents a fact-based opinion. Differentiating between opinion content and news content can be difficult for audience members. It is the responsibility of news organizations to explain what they are doing. This is the transparency news norm put into action. Demonstrating transpar<\/strong>ency<\/strong> in information gathering and publishing requires showing audiences how the news is made. In some cases, it even means inviting audience members to join in the process of reporting professional news stories. Transparency goes beyond presenting two or more extreme points of view on a news topic and calling it fair. Instead, journalists explain the epistemology of news, or how they know what they know. The evolution of news norms is in part a response to the challenges audience members face in trying to figure out whom to trust.\r\n

Evolving Ethics<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"A A man glances over his newspaper and his glasses by Nicolas Alejandro, CCBY. Source: Flikr.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAnother norm in newspapers and digital journalism that is rapidly changing is the absolute separation of news and advertising. It used to be called the separation of \u201cchurch and state\u201d in news: Keeping advertising influence apart from news judgment was as essential to the practice as was the actual separation of church and state in American governance. To retain an objective point of view when covering a community, journalists often tried to ignore news organization revenues and their sources. Now, as news organizations become smaller, journalists often have to be aware of advertisers\u2019 identities and their interests in particular audiences. Journalists have to care about the business.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
It goes against codes of ethics to publish news information in direct support of an advertiser, but journalists are increasingly paying attention to what stories and topics are popular. Reactions to this development vary widely. To some, this is the death of ethics in the industry. To others, the idea that advertising and journalism were ever completely separate is a joke. Advertisers, at least in local news environments, are community businesses. They are stakeholders just as other readers are. They should be included as sources of information and opinion. At issue is how much power local businesses should wield, when they should be able to wield it, and <\/span>whether anyone is harmed when they do. The calculus should perhaps be different for national news organizations who are swayed by huge multinational firms when journalists pay too much attention to the wishes of advertisers. <\/span><\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
The concern under this new ethical line of thinking for local journalism is that now advertisers will hold even more sway than they did in the past because revenues are down and news organizations are looking somewhat desperately to sustain the work. Journalists have to work to build audiences without falling into sensationalism and without allowing advertiser influence on news content. It is a daily battle, but it will likely be essential for news organizations moving forward. Appealing to audiences, however, does not mean choosing partisan favorites and feeding audiences what they want. This is a recipe for allowing bad faith into professional news content.<\/span><\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Cable News, Bias and Polarization<\/h2>\r\nThe rise of partisan cable news channels has helped to create echo <\/strong>chambers <\/strong>where news consumers can find and then primarily rely on information that confirms their biases. Social media algorithms also feed echo chambers by showing us more content from people we already agree with. These algorithms tend to serve us content resembling what we have already enjoyed in the past<\/a>, thereby creating a [pb_glossary id=\"435\"]filte<\/strong>r bubble<\/strong>[\/pb_glossary]. All in all, this makes it a challenge for us to consider other points of view. Combined, echo chambers and filter bubbles in a partisan information environment can create separate realities depending on the politics of groups being served.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"250\"]\"A A reporter with 2M TV prepares to speak with Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, U.S. Army Africa commander, at the Marrakech Security Forum in Marrakech, Morocco, by Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Davis, U.S. Army, CCBY. Source: Flikr.[\/caption]\r\n

The hyper-partisan, divided media landscape creates a problem for news organizations striving to be objective. No matter how they report the news, the facts they present may seem to run contrary to the disinformation or highly-opinionated information people are used to seeing on their social media feeds. In a world flooded with information overload, two important concepts to understand are disinformation and misinformation. Disinformation<\/strong> occurs when individuals purposefully present false and\/or inaccurate information to deceive an audience (think \"fake news\"). This concept is related to misinformation<\/strong> where false information is unintentionally presented in a misleading way, but without the deceptive intent. This is not to equate disinformation and misinformation with opinion content. The two are not equivalent. Deeply-held opinions can still be based on facts. Disinformation is dangerous because it is presented in bad faith. That is, the people presenting the information know it is not true and present it regardless. This is several steps beyond having an opinion. This is lying. It happens in echo chambers and sometimes bleeds into otherwise objective news outlets disguised as an equal side of a partisan argument. Misinformation is dangerous if an audience member does not double-check their facts to ensure they fully understand a situation or news story. That individual may go on to make a decision about voting, a significant event in their lives, or even make a judgement about a societal group.<\/p>\r\nWhat is lost when news consumers fail to think critically about the news and opinion information presented to them is not only the prestige of the newspaper and digital news industry but also the shared narrative. People used to disagree with different opinions being presented in the news, but they generally agreed that what they saw on the news was actually happening. Audiences could disagree on prioritization of information and they could take issue with the frames applied to the news without questioning whether anything and everything was \u201cfake.\u201d Now there is a tendency to trust what is emotionally appealing rather than what is rationally argued or factually accurate. The problem with this should immediately be obvious to anyone following 21st-century American news and politics. People are swayed by passion and opinion, and it is incredibly easy to feel informed by consuming massive amounts of information from social media streams even if those streams are filtered to appeal to our emotions.\r\n\r\nPeople are often overwhelmed when trying to rationally comprehend constant flows of emotional information. The challenge for news consumers is to build and select the best filters. We must take an active role in filtering our own information rather than allowing social media and search engine algorithms to reassure us constantly. It has always been a citizen\u2019s responsibility to be informed. It has never been easier to find information. It has also never been more difficult to navigate information flows, to borrow a concept from noted sociologist Manuel Castells. The idea that we live in an environment of information flows is meant to differentiate our information environment from previous ones where the spread of information was not both instantaneous and massive. Before the global spread of the publicly available high-speed internet access and near constant access to mobile data we had to seek out information. Now, it envelops us. Instead of pulling information into our lives like water onto dry land, we are up to our necks in information and few of us are strong swimmers.\r\n

The Importance of Journalism<\/h2>\r\nThe good news is that teaching people to be media literate can do something to mitigate this situation. This may be an essential role of journalists in the future. The challenge for contributing to an informed society is no longer to bring people new information but rather to help people to navigate information flows. If the task previously was to source and carry potable water for people, the job of journalists in the future may be to help people navigate oceans of saltwater themselves until we can find fresh water together.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"]\"Panelists Yanjun Zhao, Patrick Howe, Paul Fontaine, Lisa Lynch, Juliette De Maeyer, Claudia Silva, and Alex Avila at speak at the 2014 ISOJ on the UT-Austin campus, Apr. 4, 2014 by Gabriel Crist\u00f3ver P\u00e9rez of the Knight Center, CCBY. Source: Flikr.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nNewspapers and their digital counterparts do not seem poised to do this work alone. The loss of jobs in the past 20 years has been devastating. Local television news outlets are often trusted more than national news outlets. If nothing else, audiences can see that the people delivering our news live in the same community, root for the same sports teams and are subject to the same weather and traffic. Generally speaking, though, local television stations do not employ nearly the number of reporters that newspapers did when they were strong.The bread and butter for local television news is breaking news and events coverage. Reporting consistently on in-depth issues takes resources and will require a shift in focus for most local television news outfits. In 2016, there was a rise in investigative journalism in television newsrooms<\/a>, but having an I-team is not the same as having a half dozen reporters covering City Hall, the statehouse, the local education scene and the business community. Local general assignment television reporters often get<\/a> their<\/em><\/a> news<\/a> from newspapers<\/a>. Television reporters then look to update a story beyond what was published in the newspaper. The term for this is [pb_glossary id=\"456\"]in<\/strong>termedia <\/strong>agenda<\/strong> setting<\/strong>[\/pb_glossary], and it has been seen at the national level as\u00a0well as the local level. For television stations to capitalize on the trust audiences have and help them navigate the information environment, the industry will have to evolve quickly.\r\n\r\nDigital news organizations will also try to pick up the slack. In the 21st century, we have seen the rise of news organizations originating on the Web or as mobile apps. The challenge for BuzzFeed, Vox, Axios, the Huffington Post, and other online news operations is to be taken seriously and to maintain strong enough revenues to stay afloat. The digital media environment is notorious for being good for Google and social media and bad for everyone else.\r\n

The Future of Digital News<\/h2>\r\nThe future of newspapers and digital news organizations, including the future of broadcast news (as it will be the next to be affected by digital convergence), may be to have news outlets splitting themselves into two-headed monsters. They must keep up with breaking news and be where audiences are in the network society to serve as guides in the sea of information, and they must also be socially responsible community members serving as a check on power by doing original in-depth reporting.\r\n\r\nTools such as Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Adobe Analytics, and others help newsrooms track how they are reaching audiences. The threat is that these tools will direct newsrooms rather than the news information itself being each organization\u2019s compass. As a vast industry, journalism can serve with a renewed sense of purpose if it orients itself to guide rather than lecture media consumers. People eventually learn when they have been lied to, and we have the ability to create a record of who told the truth and who did not. In order to hold people\u2019s attention, we need to perform the services they need most.\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"
\n
\"Silhouette
Mahatma Gandhi. Image by Vinoth Chandar, CCBY. Source: Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn the very first month of Indian<\/em> Opinion<\/em>, I realized that the sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countrysides and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within. If this line of reasoning is correct, how many of the journals in the world would stand the test? But who would stop those that are useless? And who should be the judge? The useful and the useless must, like good and evil generally, go on together, and man must make his choice.\u201d \u2014 Mahatma Gandhi from his book The<\/em> Story<\/em> of<\/em> My<\/em> Experiments<\/em> with Truth, 1982<\/em><\/p>\n

Threats to Ethical Journalism are Threats to Democracy<\/h2>\n

Since the website Newspaper Death Watch<\/a> was founded in early 2007, at least 15 metropolitan daily newspapers have kicked the ink bucket. The \u201cdeath watch\u201d site focuses on m<\/strong>e<\/strong>tr<\/strong>opolitan daily<\/strong> ne<\/strong>wspapers<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 those that cover large cities or a few geographically connected smaller cities. Since small-town newspapers come and go more often and typically do not set the news agenda for hundreds of thousands of people, they are not tracked by the site. Nevertheless, any time a newspaper stops publishing it removes a vital community resource.<\/p>\n

\"Journalists
Journalists gather information at a pre-planned news event by Esther Vargas, CCBY. Source: Flikr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When people lament the decline of newspapers, it is not only the ink on paper they worry about. The loss of news-gathering staff and editors hurts democracy because our political system is built on the assumption that citizens need information to make informed decisions, to vote and to communicate with elected officials. In the United States, the professional news media are under attack by politicians, particularly those on the extreme right. As the song goes<\/a>, \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got \u2019til it\u2019s\u00a0gone.\u201d Mistrust of the free press leads to the destruction of free speech and the erosion of personal<\/a> liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the book The Elements of Journalism<\/em>, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel write of the clampdown on the media in Soviet-influenced Poland in 1981. The Polish government declared martial law and stopped the free broadcast of news, replacing it with state-controlled media. When the state media shows came on, people protested by walking their dogs to city parks and discussing current events. They also used video cameras to create their own documentaries. They used journalism made by regular people, known as citizen\u00a0journalism<\/a><\/strong>, to express their desire for freedom and to stay informed. Kovach and Rosenstiel argue that the Polish people used journalism to support democratic liberty.<\/p>\n

It should not have to come to this in America. Free speech and the norms of professional journalists are worthy of popular protection. We live in a digital media environment awash with information. Only a portion of the messages on social media come from professional news organizations that work to reinforce their stories with balanced fact-seeking and fact-checking. Preserving carefully reported, factual news is in the interest of the republic. The s<\/strong>low journalism<\/strong><\/a> movement seeks to protect accuracy and care in journalism. Consider learning more about this form of news: It is both a professional movement within the mass communication field and a social movement.<\/p>\n

News Norms<\/h2>\n

As was briefly mentioned in Chapter 1, ne<\/strong>ws norms<\/strong> are the standards that guide professional journalists. The term \u201cnorm\u201d refers to a behavior that rational people agree is (or should be) considered normal in society. Journalists are open about their information sources. When they do not disclose the name of a source, they explain as much about the person as they can and they explain why they are not able to say more. Journalists have two major truth strategies that they employ: objecti<\/strong>vity<\/strong><\/a> and<\/strong> transpar<\/strong>ency<\/strong><\/a>. The objectivity norm refers to efforts to keep individual biases out of the published news and to consider the information presented by sources with an open mind during the information gathering process. No one is completely objective, and no news outlet is, either. Note the difference, however, between opinion content and news content coming from news organizations.<\/p>\n

Newspapers will often publish opinions, and this is within the norms of journalism so long as it is labeled as such and it presents a fact-based opinion. Differentiating between opinion content and news content can be difficult for audience members. It is the responsibility of news organizations to explain what they are doing. This is the transparency news norm put into action. Demonstrating transpar<\/strong>ency<\/strong> in information gathering and publishing requires showing audiences how the news is made. In some cases, it even means inviting audience members to join in the process of reporting professional news stories. Transparency goes beyond presenting two or more extreme points of view on a news topic and calling it fair. Instead, journalists explain the epistemology of news, or how they know what they know. The evolution of news norms is in part a response to the challenges audience members face in trying to figure out whom to trust.<\/p>\n

Evolving Ethics<\/h2>\n
\"A
A man glances over his newspaper and his glasses by Nicolas Alejandro, CCBY. Source: Flikr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another norm in newspapers and digital journalism that is rapidly changing is the absolute separation of news and advertising. It used to be called the separation of \u201cchurch and state\u201d in news: Keeping advertising influence apart from news judgment was as essential to the practice as was the actual separation of church and state in American governance. To retain an objective point of view when covering a community, journalists often tried to ignore news organization revenues and their sources. Now, as news organizations become smaller, journalists often have to be aware of advertisers\u2019 identities and their interests in particular audiences. Journalists have to care about the business.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It goes against codes of ethics to publish news information in direct support of an advertiser, but journalists are increasingly paying attention to what stories and topics are popular. Reactions to this development vary widely. To some, this is the death of ethics in the industry. To others, the idea that advertising and journalism were ever completely separate is a joke. Advertisers, at least in local news environments, are community businesses. They are stakeholders just as other readers are. They should be included as sources of information and opinion. At issue is how much power local businesses should wield, when they should be able to wield it, and <\/span>whether anyone is harmed when they do. The calculus should perhaps be different for national news organizations who are swayed by huge multinational firms when journalists pay too much attention to the wishes of advertisers. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The concern under this new ethical line of thinking for local journalism is that now advertisers will hold even more sway than they did in the past because revenues are down and news organizations are looking somewhat desperately to sustain the work. Journalists have to work to build audiences without falling into sensationalism and without allowing advertiser influence on news content. It is a daily battle, but it will likely be essential for news organizations moving forward. Appealing to audiences, however, does not mean choosing partisan favorites and feeding audiences what they want. This is a recipe for allowing bad faith into professional news content.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Cable News, Bias and Polarization<\/h2>\n

The rise of partisan cable news channels has helped to create echo <\/strong>chambers <\/strong>where news consumers can find and then primarily rely on information that confirms their biases. Social media algorithms also feed echo chambers by showing us more content from people we already agree with. These algorithms tend to serve us content resembling what we have already enjoyed in the past<\/a>, thereby creating a filte<\/strong>r bubble<\/strong><\/a>. All in all, this makes it a challenge for us to consider other points of view. Combined, echo chambers and filter bubbles in a partisan information environment can create separate realities depending on the politics of groups being served.<\/p>\n

\"A
A reporter with 2M TV prepares to speak with Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, U.S. Army Africa commander, at the Marrakech Security Forum in Marrakech, Morocco, by Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Davis, U.S. Army, CCBY. Source: Flikr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The hyper-partisan, divided media landscape creates a problem for news organizations striving to be objective. No matter how they report the news, the facts they present may seem to run contrary to the disinformation or highly-opinionated information people are used to seeing on their social media feeds. In a world flooded with information overload, two important concepts to understand are disinformation and misinformation. Disinformation<\/strong> occurs when individuals purposefully present false and\/or inaccurate information to deceive an audience (think “fake news”). This concept is related to misinformation<\/strong> where false information is unintentionally presented in a misleading way, but without the deceptive intent. This is not to equate disinformation and misinformation with opinion content. The two are not equivalent. Deeply-held opinions can still be based on facts. Disinformation is dangerous because it is presented in bad faith. That is, the people presenting the information know it is not true and present it regardless. This is several steps beyond having an opinion. This is lying. It happens in echo chambers and sometimes bleeds into otherwise objective news outlets disguised as an equal side of a partisan argument. Misinformation is dangerous if an audience member does not double-check their facts to ensure they fully understand a situation or news story. That individual may go on to make a decision about voting, a significant event in their lives, or even make a judgement about a societal group.<\/p>\n

What is lost when news consumers fail to think critically about the news and opinion information presented to them is not only the prestige of the newspaper and digital news industry but also the shared narrative. People used to disagree with different opinions being presented in the news, but they generally agreed that what they saw on the news was actually happening. Audiences could disagree on prioritization of information and they could take issue with the frames applied to the news without questioning whether anything and everything was \u201cfake.\u201d Now there is a tendency to trust what is emotionally appealing rather than what is rationally argued or factually accurate. The problem with this should immediately be obvious to anyone following 21st-century American news and politics. People are swayed by passion and opinion, and it is incredibly easy to feel informed by consuming massive amounts of information from social media streams even if those streams are filtered to appeal to our emotions.<\/p>\n

People are often overwhelmed when trying to rationally comprehend constant flows of emotional information. The challenge for news consumers is to build and select the best filters. We must take an active role in filtering our own information rather than allowing social media and search engine algorithms to reassure us constantly. It has always been a citizen\u2019s responsibility to be informed. It has never been easier to find information. It has also never been more difficult to navigate information flows, to borrow a concept from noted sociologist Manuel Castells. The idea that we live in an environment of information flows is meant to differentiate our information environment from previous ones where the spread of information was not both instantaneous and massive. Before the global spread of the publicly available high-speed internet access and near constant access to mobile data we had to seek out information. Now, it envelops us. Instead of pulling information into our lives like water onto dry land, we are up to our necks in information and few of us are strong swimmers.<\/p>\n

The Importance of Journalism<\/h2>\n

The good news is that teaching people to be media literate can do something to mitigate this situation. This may be an essential role of journalists in the future. The challenge for contributing to an informed society is no longer to bring people new information but rather to help people to navigate information flows. If the task previously was to source and carry potable water for people, the job of journalists in the future may be to help people navigate oceans of saltwater themselves until we can find fresh water together.<\/p>\n

\"Panelists
Yanjun Zhao, Patrick Howe, Paul Fontaine, Lisa Lynch, Juliette De Maeyer, Claudia Silva, and Alex Avila at speak at the 2014 ISOJ on the UT-Austin campus, Apr. 4, 2014 by Gabriel Crist\u00f3ver P\u00e9rez of the Knight Center, CCBY. Source: Flikr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Newspapers and their digital counterparts do not seem poised to do this work alone. The loss of jobs in the past 20 years has been devastating. Local television news outlets are often trusted more than national news outlets. If nothing else, audiences can see that the people delivering our news live in the same community, root for the same sports teams and are subject to the same weather and traffic. Generally speaking, though, local television stations do not employ nearly the number of reporters that newspapers did when they were strong.The bread and butter for local television news is breaking news and events coverage. Reporting consistently on in-depth issues takes resources and will require a shift in focus for most local television news outfits. In 2016, there was a rise in investigative journalism in television newsrooms<\/a>, but having an I-team is not the same as having a half dozen reporters covering City Hall, the statehouse, the local education scene and the business community. Local general assignment television reporters often get<\/a> their<\/em><\/a> news<\/a> from newspapers<\/a>. Television reporters then look to update a story beyond what was published in the newspaper. The term for this is in<\/strong>termedia <\/strong>agenda<\/strong> setting<\/strong><\/a>, and it has been seen at the national level as\u00a0well as the local level. For television stations to capitalize on the trust audiences have and help them navigate the information environment, the industry will have to evolve quickly.<\/p>\n

Digital news organizations will also try to pick up the slack. In the 21st century, we have seen the rise of news organizations originating on the Web or as mobile apps. The challenge for BuzzFeed, Vox, Axios, the Huffington Post, and other online news operations is to be taken seriously and to maintain strong enough revenues to stay afloat. The digital media environment is notorious for being good for Google and social media and bad for everyone else.<\/p>\n

The Future of Digital News<\/h2>\n

The future of newspapers and digital news organizations, including the future of broadcast news (as it will be the next to be affected by digital convergence), may be to have news outlets splitting themselves into two-headed monsters. They must keep up with breaking news and be where audiences are in the network society to serve as guides in the sea of information, and they must also be socially responsible community members serving as a check on power by doing original in-depth reporting.<\/p>\n

Tools such as Google Analytics, Chartbeat, Adobe Analytics, and others help newsrooms track how they are reaching audiences. The threat is that these tools will direct newsrooms rather than the news information itself being each organization\u2019s compass. As a vast industry, journalism can serve with a renewed sense of purpose if it orients itself to guide rather than lecture media consumers. People eventually learn when they have been lied to, and we have the ability to create a record of who told the truth and who did not. In order to hold people\u2019s attention, we need to perform the services they need most.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

definition<\/span>