Assignment #1 Journalism and Democracy

The balance between corporate capitalism and the maintenance of a modern democracy in the news is a difficult challenge felt even by today’s smallest newspapers. In a time before advertising revenue existed as the blood flowing through the vein of news, papers were free of monetary tyranny. The news was capable of freely enacting its role as a fourth branch of government. But with modern times comes modern challenges, including the funding to keep the news above water.

In 1920 Walter Lippmann wrote that, “The news of the day as it reaches the newspaper office is an incredible medley of fact, propaganda, rumor, suspicion, clues, hopes, and fears, and the task of selecting and ordering that news is one of the truly sacred and priestly offices in a democracy.”

A well known journalist of the early 20^th century, Lippmann was very outspoken about the balance between journalism and democracy, and the delicate intertwining of their roles. And while this remains a topic of debate one hundred years later, the battleground has shifted. In a time of media convergence and an elusive revenue stream, the modern newspaper is no longer capable of fulfilling its role as a check on democracy. However, that’s not to say that the news is solely a puppet to the rich and powerful. Instead the game of balanced reporting and an unbiased stance becomes steadily more difficult. It’s a game newspapers are losing.

In an article by the Associated Press published in late July entitled ‘New York Times 2Q profit drops 82%’ the Times announced an 11% drop in advertising revenue concurrent with a missed profit estimate given by analysts at Thomson Financial. This trend follows the experiences of other newspapers across the industry with an overall 7% drop in advertising revenue according to Journalism.org and their ‘State of the News Media’ report. The same report details the failure of the once strong business model for news. It says:

“With the print-only business model broken, newspapers have no choice but to develop the multimedia content of their web sites, harvest online advertising wherever they can find it and invent profitable side businesses. Does that add up to enough money to support a volume of quality work in the public interest?”

In one word, no.

Today newspapers must function as businesses. The sole function of any business is to generate revenue for the services or products they provide. It is via this function that they are able to continue to provide those services. If one link of this perpetual chain is broken the process becomes an ever-sinking demise. At present the closed loop of business success is not inclusive of the newspaper industry. They are therefore faced with two options: either sacrifice the quality of created work in search for sustainable profits or accept the loss of business, and eventually their newspaper, as an honorable defeat. Metaphorically, the captain always goes down with the ship.

Therefore we find the paradigm of the newspaper industry. In its search for survival, it cannot serve its purpose in maintaining a modern democracy. However this does not exist as any fault of the industry itself. Instead a finger can be pointed at technology, or the economy, or several other legitimate reasons. Regardless of the circumstance newspapers must find a way to adapt themselves and they must do it quickly. A desire for information ensures the existence of news forever; it is only a matter of discovering the best way in which to provide that service. And as with any business, the company that finds the solution stands to make millions.