Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Should news by a public good?

Post contributed by Jonathan Guess -

In a recent article Trevor Buttworth, a writer for Forbes.com, predicted that the mindset about journalism will be shifting shapes in the near future. And the reasons for this are a bit more complicated than one would think at first glance. Recent performance by the the democratic system and the US government in general has left many people very unhappy with the way our system is working.
  People are not buying into the mass media bias anymore. We all realize that we have to take all of the news we get from mega-outlets like Fox News and MSNBC. The bias is as obvious as the sky is blue; so where are we going to go for good, unbiased news in these modern times where there are so many different sources?
  The where isn't what I'm trying to get at, its the why. Why are people changing their perceptions of the importance of journalism? It is "a public good, not a private good. It is," said Buttworth "like military defense, physical infrastructure, education, public health, and basic research.... it is something society requires, and people want, but the market cannot generate in sufficient quantity or quality. It requires government leadership to exist."
   Who'd a thunk it, journalism doing what it is supposed to do, state the facts no matter what they might be or who they may be about. We can only hope that this is where journalism progresses, as a policing tool in stead of a money making machine. After all, keeping the government in check will bring in the big bucks anyways. So why not?

Source -  The Future of JournalismForbes.com

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