Robert McChesney The Future of Journalism & Democracy (lecture)
Remember that old song “Love and Marriage?” “Goes together like a horse and carriage. You can’t have one without the other.” It’s kind of that way with journalism and democracy. It’s long been axiomatic that a feisty and vibrant press is essential to the healthy functioning of democracy. Journalists are the public’s eyes and ears as they monitor the activities of the powerful. Their inquiries, investigations and reporting are vital to what the Founders of the country called an informed citizenry. Jefferson and Madison never thought freedom of the press would be the private preserve of a handful of rich media barons such as Rupert Murdoch. The weakening of watchdog journalism is having negative effects on democracy. What can be done to revitalize the Fourth Estate?
Robert McChesney is co-founder of the Free Press, a non-profit organization working to increase public participation in media policy debates and a creator of the National Media Reform Conference (www.freepress.net). He is professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He’s the author of numerous books including "Rich Media, Poor Democracy," "The Political Economy of Media,” and co-author with John Nichols of "The Death and Life of American Journalism.”
CD-1880
- KBOO
Comments
The future of journalism
On the changing face of journalism and the newspaper business, Bob Gibson, Executive Director of the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, recently said: “I think our journalism and our politics are changing at an ever-increasing rate. The rapid change in journalism is very unsettling to the business. They are finding new business models that can work for newspapers in the internet age. Radio and television are also cutting back as advertising has shifted. They have to find working business models. They’ve also started cooperating with non-profit groups.... I think new partnerships are going to change the way the media is covering the news and the way the platforms are for reporting the news.... Everyone is trying new business models because old print newspaper empires will die if they view themselves as old print newspaper empires. They are either in the news business or in the newspaper business, and if they are in the news business they will adapt a new business model and survive. If they are in the newspaper business, they’ll just go out of business.” (Gibson appeared on the Charlottesville, VA, interview program Politics Matters with host Jan Paynter discussing journalism http://bit.ly/pm-gibson)