What can we learn from them, the brave souls long riding—or even just now wading into—the waves of the journalism industry in crisis—the people hoping to make careers there above the circling finance-industry sharks, behemoth tech-platforms riptides, currents of disdain let loose by people in power?
CJMD Co-Director Matthew Powers has previewed his book on the topic—The Journalist’s Predicament—in short pieces published at The Conversation and Seattle’s Post Alley.
From The Conversation piece:
When scholars of journalism study the effects of the shrinking press corps, they usually focus on how it hurts civil society. Vast swaths of the country are at risk of becoming “news deserts,” with limited access to reliable local journalism. This state of affairs makes it harder for people to make educated decisions and is linked to reduced political engagement, research shows. What’s more, fewer reporters means less oversight of those wielding political and economic power.
But to me, those concerns – while important – ignore another issue, one that extends well beyond the news industry. As I argue with Sandra Vera-Zambrano in our new book, “The Journalist’s Predicament,” fewer people are seeing a life in news as a worthwhile career. This reflects a broader problem – namely, the ways that relentless economic pressures are pushing people away from socially important careers.
From the Post Alley piece:
[I]ndicative of evolutions in journalism more broadly are the adjustments that so many [journalists] undertake to remain in the profession. In one, journalists find ways to manage the disappointments associated with a profession increasingly riven by tensions between its commercial needs and its social purposes. Some rationalize the dissatisfying work they do by finding ways to occasionally take on assignments that remind them why they went into journalism in the first place. Such efforts, they hope, will lead to a future in which they can more regularly do such work; at least some of their peers have advanced in exactly this way. Whether this transpires or not, this adjustment leaves intact a view of journalism that privileges long-form, in-depth reporting as the cornerstone of journalistic excellence.
A second adjustment redefines professional excellence to better adapt it to journalism’s commercial needs. Without rejecting long-form reporting, these journalists adopt a less explicitly civic vision. Rather than report on topics on which audiences are uninterested or feel helpless to resolve, they see themselves as practical advisers for people’s everyday concerns. From lifestyle and leisure to consumer affairs and politics, these journalists aim to hold audience attention by giving them the information they want, when they want it. In their efforts to match journalism’s social functions with its commercial needs, they seek to establish a new equilibrium between the two – one in which journalists’ work is valued primarily for its commercial viability.
The Conversation launched in Australia in March 2011. It’s now a global network of nonprofit outlets that publishes news and research, opinion and analysis written mostly by academics.
Post Alley launched in 2019, as what the founders call a “collective of displaced journalists, experts and informed citizens… aimed at helping fill gaps in local journalism and exploring new ways of delivering quality reporting and commentary.”
Man and Newspapers photo by wal_172619 via Pixabay