One of the key aspects of our case study is considering the impact new and digital media is having on journalism and the vital role news plays in society.
We need to explore the important role news reporters play in revealing corruption in politics and society. We've got some excellent video resources to work with on this topic. Both of our videos refer to the 2016 Best Picture winner at the Oscars - Spotlight. This is director Tom McCarthy's film based on the true story of Boston Globe reporters investigating widespread child abuse in the Catholic Church. We highly recommend you watch this film as part of your ongoing case study work on News.
John Oliver on journalism
British comedian John Oliver presents a show called Last Week Tonight on HBO in America. Last year, he put together a report on the decline of journalism in America and its replacement by 'clickbait' stories rather than real news.
Shirky on news: don’t build a paywall around a public good
Clay Shirky is a professor at New York University and a worldwide expert on digital and social media. He's a vital media theorist for our case study on News and he makes a compelling argument for the role news plays in society. Interestingly, he argues against paywalls - presenting an alternative to David Simon's Build The Wall argument that you have already studied and posted to your blog.
Go to the Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky presenting to Harvard students. Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation).
1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?
Accountability journalism encompasses traditional investigative reporting, but much more. It includes fact-checking political speech, digging into digital data, and aggressive beat coverage to reveal as much as possible about what is really going on in every aspect of American society – from national security, government, politics, business and finance to the environment, education, health, social welfare, sports, and the media industry itself. Shirky argues that accountability is what keeps corruption of people under control. He talks about the report by A leading news source for Massachusetts 'The Boston Glove' which investigated Father John Geoghan, who was a priest and pedophile who had been employed by the Catholic Church. Without professional journalism cases like this would not have been found out due to the immense cover-up initiated by powerful people.
2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?
Advertisers initially had to overpay for advertisement services, simply because there were no other alternatives. However because advertisers were forced to overpay for the services they received, because there weren’t many alternatives for reaching people with display ads, the newspapers essentially had the kind of speculative investment capital to do long-range, high-risk work. "There was a time when Ford went to The New York Times during the rollover stories and said, “You know, if you keep going on this, we may just pull all Ford ads in The New York Times.” To which the Times said, “Okay.” And the ability to do that — to say essentially to the advertiser, “Where else are you going to go?” — was a big part of what kept newspapers from suffering from commercial capture."
3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?
In newspapers, all the content would be bundled together and couldn't be altered to suit each readers needs, although people would still have the ability to pick and choose what they read it is still a lot more difficult. Comparatively, consuming content through the internet, clever methods can be used to ensure the user is seeing something they are likely to be interested in - print simply cannot compete in the same way. "if you’re running a website and somebody’s on your website and they just done a crossword puzzle and they seem to really like it, what’s the next thing you’re gonna show them? Is it news from Tegucigalpa? No. It’s another crossword puzzle"
4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?
Had the internet been widespread in 1992, Shirky suggests there would be a difference in kind in terms of assembling an audience. "I put it on a mailing list, suddenly a hundred people read it, and they forward it, and they forward it." The people could hid their actions all they want but with the internet it is much easier to share the content, it continues to be shared and shared until it reaches a point where the corrupt can no longer control the response.
5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls?
A paywall is an arrangement whereby access is restricted to users who have paid to receive the content. Shirky argues against them because he feels that a paywall is a violation of contract to make use of the news as an audience. He says that a paywall is simply a restriction. Even though the public need accountability journalism, they still aren't going to pay for it especially since there's a lot of republication and reuse of paid content on free sites such as Wikileaks.
6) What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?
A social good is something that benefits the largest number of people in the largest possible way positively. Journalism can be described as a 'social good' as news stories and investigative journalism can bring corruption to light and also inform the audience of what is going on in the world. For example, the Church sexual abuse scandal being exposed and stopped benefited all of us.
7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?
A terminal device is the prosthetic component that is designed to substitute hand function. Shirky believes newspapers are irreplaceable in their production of accountability journalism. Instead, we should expend any effort/resources we can, in order to keep ourselves from having to replace them. He believes "you can only replace newspaper with newspapers themselves" However, there is currently a digital revolution taking place in the current media landscape, the current shock in the media environment is so damaging to the 20th-century model of news production, that time spent trying to replace newspapers is misspent effort.
8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?
Personally, I feel that it is vital for major media brands such as New York Times or the Guardian to thrive. This is because their accountability journalism will never be replaced by online sources. The time and skill used to investigate serious potential crimes for the newspaper can bring justice to wrongdoings and catch even those in power which the internet cannot do in the same way. In other words, the quality journalism and exposure of corruptness is essential to society.
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