Local News Isn’t Dying, It’s Being Killed By Greed
Dan Kennedy: “There are two elephants in the room that are threatening to destroy local news. One, technological disruption, is widely understood: the internet has undermined the value of advertising and driven it to Craigslist, Facebook and Google, thus eliminating most of the revenues that used to pay for journalism. But the other, corporate greed, is too often regarded as an effect rather than as a cause.”
Why News Orgs Should Crack Down On Social
I think it makes all the sense in the world for journalists to bring the same sensibility to social media that they do to their day jobs. Providing tough, fair-minded coverage is a discipline that is undermined once you disclose your own biases. It’s not just that your audience’s view of your work changes; it’s that you change, too.
Dan Kennedy, journalism professor at Northeastern University, on what his new book The Wired City taught him about local journalism: “We need a variety of experiments — for-profit, nonprofit, cooperative ownership and voluntary efforts. The challenge all of them face is that serving the public is no longer enough. Rather, the public they serve must first be assembled — and given a voice.”
