Citation
Johnson, Steve. "Study Shows Media Less Defensive, More Fearful, About The Internet." Chicago Tribune 12 Mar. 2007. 12 Mar. 2007 <http://www.chicagotribune.com>.
Summary
The Project for Excellence in Journalism conducted a study of media sources and news websites to determine their feelings toward traditional media and new (internet) media. It focused also on revenue gained/lost both in print and online. Four years ago, these old media companies weren’t giving enough thought to the internet as a news source, but now, the report says, they’re scared of it. The director of the PEJ, Tom Rosenstiel, says this is progress. He thinks this fear will force them to turn to the internet in response to the steady decline of print and TV news.
Old media sources are losing revenue because they’re losing readers. They’re thinking of new ways to generate revenue. One way they could is by only allowing subscribed users to view the content of their website, but the report shows that users are unlikely to want to pay for news content on the internet.
Additionally, the most popular news sites (Yahoo, MSNBC, CNN) do not provide in-depth coverage of stories. Instead, they are “Jacks of All Trades,” meaning they cover everything, but not really well.
Quotes
- “In four years, the defensiveness about the Internet has given way to abject fear,” Rosenstiel says. “And journalists now see the Internet as a possible salvation and not this horrible threat to their standards. They are experimenting wildly, but no formula has emerged and maybe even less of an idea of how to pay for it.”
- Some of the accepted wisdom about the Internet as dialogue rather than lecture isn’t borne out on the sites as a whole.
“What we found is that it’s still a lecture, except that to some extent I can now customize the lecture,” he says. - …the news organizations seem, at least, to be facing up to reality.
“People think if anything’s going to save them, it’s going to be that screen,” Rosenstiel says. “How, they haven’t figured out. But now they think this is a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Review/Analysis
This article was helpful to me in pointing out some of the trends in news Web sites. News web sites, while they are not technically blogs, are just a touch away. Print and other traditional types of media, like television, are losing viewers, but this isn’t news. I thought it was very interesting that Rosenstiel pointed out that media people being fearful was a good thing. I agree with him. If they fear the new media and the internet as a viable source of media, that means that it is a viable and powerful news source. This opens doors for potential bloggers or citizen journalists to put their two cents in on pertinent news.
Rosenstiel also addressed the changing face of news Web sites. He mentioned that they may have different looks, much like the morning news looks as compared to the evening news or how a weekly periodical is different from a daily newspaper. I think it is important to analyze and understand that, with time, internet news will change, just as television news has changed since it first came out. I think that with this change will come more credible news sources online and they will become more respected.
