Journalism is dead.
Cause of death? Neglect.
When I say that we killed journalism, I include myself because I’ve been complicit. We have suffocated journalism because we didn’t always like what she had to say. Truth is uncomfortable that way. Instead, we traded honest journalism and reporting for a hot take headline, a story that entertains us, or even because we have become so impatient, we want a story before all the facts are confirmed. Due to the demands of corporate advertisers, who desire our business, journalism was given the ultimatum: adapt or die. In the world of the instant information highway, the slow diligent work of journalism that prides itself on thorough research of facts to present truth has become roadkill from the racecar of social media where the clock is ticking to see who will be first to report a story, not who will do the best work.
I believe that our desires for convenience and partiality are the two prime motives behind our neglect, which has led to the death of journalism.
Trading Diligence for Convenience:
In a society where news arrives by the tweets of those that would have a blue checkmark by their handle, those who do real journalism can’t keep up with that level of speed. Why? Because as any journalist or reporter would tell you, research and fact-checking take time, and when people will trust someone’s opinion as a fact, it only makes the job of a journalist that much more difficult.
Data pulled from the Pew Research Center reported that between 2008 to 2018, the subscriptions of local newspapers fell 62%. These are local news sources such as the Boston Globe’s reporting on the Catholic Sex Scandal, which more people would recognize from the film Spotlight starring Michael Keaton. A more recent example would be the Jeffery Epstein story with a four-part limited series on Netflix. But who did the investigative work to expose what Epstein had been doing? It was a local journalist at the Miami Herald. Yet in the past decade, local papers such as these have seen more than half their subscriptions vanish, why?
We, as readers, quit investing in them. We stopped buying our local newspaper. We don’t sit down to watch the local news broadcasts anymore. We skim social media, read a few headlines, and decide we are qualified to evaluate the state of our community and world. While at the same time, these local reporters and journalists burn the midnight oil to provide a voice to the voiceless. These individuals are striving to bring unbiased, factual stories to our television and our doorstep. How can they compete when we prefer to tune into national networks that share clips on social media of two correspondents having a shouting match? When was the last time you sat down and read an article from your local newspaper?
When did you last sit down for the evening news? As I write, there is real journalism taking place, but we as the general public have the audacity to leave them venomous voicemails and hate mail because we don’t like how the news was covered. And for some reason, these men and women still get up the next morning and go back in to work to inform the public of news. We killed journalism when we quit seeing journalists and reporters as human beings, but as sources of entertainment and affirmation, and when they don’t fill those desires, we attack them from behind a screen. Do they mess up? Yes, but so does everyone else at some point or another. What are we left with, though, when we give up on good journalism?
Trading Truth for Partiality:
A recent Gallup poll stated that 41% of Americans trust mass media, which is up from the 32% in 2016, which should not be a surprise to anyone considering that a large piece of then-candidate Donald J. Trump’s campaign was in branding many of the major media outlets as, “fake news.” If the president’s definition of news is similar to Webster’s Dictionary as being interesting enough to the general public to warrant reporting, then I would agree, most major media outlets do present “fake news.” Since the trial of Casey Anthony doesn’t fit into that definition, and Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem doesn’t meet that standard either. What both these stories have in common, though, is the development of sensationalism. Major outlets invite guests to play the role of judge and jury in a case in such a way that has the country pass its own verdict instead of the judicial system appointed for the task. Instead of going to the source of the story, people publish editorials, and outside guests come in to discuss motive and intention.
The reality is this: We are the cause of fake news because we quit caring about the truth. We care more about the information that we want to hear, not what warrants reporting. The famous news anchor Walter Cronkite would put it this way, “In seeking truth, you have to get both sides of a story.” Instead of a debate worthy of this country, we have isolated ourselves into circles that present facts through opinions we want to hear them through. Tribalism rules the news, and you’re either with someone unconditionally and without question, or against them believing them to be idiotic, and evil.
The same Gallup poll, in 1976, states that the percentage of Americans who trusted their mass media was 72%. In forty years, we seceded 31% of our trust, and I think we only have ourselves to blame. We embraced entertainment over education, and I believe we are worse off for it.
I recently ran a social media poll seeking feedback to prepare for this article. I posed the question, “What do you think about today’s news/media/journalism?” While I know that most of my social media friends and followers would certainly fall more into a conservative category, I am glad to say some of my more liberal friends also engaged with my question. And not one person had a favorable opinion to offer! No one! The one thing that seems to be agreed upon in this country right now is that no one is pleased with journalism. The overall census is that it’s biased, untrustworthy, and exhausting. One even made the observation, “Objective journalism is too hard to find. Opinion pieces are presented as fact.” But why should journalists take the effort when we invest our time, social media platforms, and conversations around the stories that are sensational, but not genuinely newsworthy?
Final Thoughts:
The reality is we do still have a choice. I know the title of this article says that journalism is dead, and I believe that at this time, it is. But only to an extent, as a friend of mine who works as a local journalist told me, “I don’t think she’s dead, just on life support.” A free press is the responsibility of the people to uphold and maintain. If we continue down the path we are going; journalism will rest six feet under. However, there is another option to band together to revive what we have lost. That option requires both sacrifice and cooler heads to prevail.
For the revival of journalism, it takes both an investment and call for good journalism, based on facts, not opinion. While modern media capitalizes on the dollar of advertisers, we must put our money where our mouth is. Make intentional investments in the places doing the work of honest reporting. Instead of a mountain of books you use to decorate your house, instead of reading, buy a subscription to your local newspaper. Maybe even find a nationally recognized one to invest in as well. Good journalists rely on good readers, or they either starve or find a new profession. Support honest journalism when you see and read it. Share it with your friends and family, post it on your social media platforms. When you see good journalism, do your part and put your voice behind it in support. And when I say honest journalism, that doesn’t just mean stories that affirm your view of the world, but stories that challenge you to defend what you believe with facts, not just a feeling.
In Marvel Comics storyline Civil War, there is a comic panel with Captain America issuing a speech that I think is best to close with, both as an encouragement to all the journalists and reporters out there continuing the good fight for truth, but also for us as their readers to stand beside them in the pursuit of truth.
“Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world, ‘No you move.’ ” – Captain America
Sloan Stephenson 