Long form journalism has almost always been funded by corporate goodwill, overcharged advertising, state funding or tax writeoffs. What if long form investigative journalism is simply never going to be a good business offering? What then?
Long form journalism has almost always been funded by corporate goodwill, overcharged advertising, state funding or tax writeoffs. What if long form investigative journalism is simply never going to be a good business offering? What then?
Barry:
I think you are making a very important point. The “what” could be citizen journalists and it could also mean the return of college journalists at the undergraduate, graduate and faculty levels providing investigative reporting as part of research. The non-profit motive would take the extreme profits out of the business and return to more the ideal of an “objective press” and not the yellow journalism pioneered by Hearst and taken globally by Rupert Murdoch here in the states with Fox. You can see the dangers already. Btw. I would like to continue this talk offline on LinkedIn so please feel free to connect with me. I am a professor and I love the questions that you are proposing and I will bring it up as part of my class next year as part of the unit on the future of the print industry.
Chris Heidelberg Ph.D.
Loyola College in Maryland
hmm. within the arts, you could say:
the arts have almost always been funded by corporate sponsorship, commercial brand relationships, state funding or tax writeoffs [ok, not often, except in the case of film]. What if the arts are simply never going to be a good business offering? What then?
i had never considered the same argument applying to journalism.
i wonder where it’ll end up…
@artsdigitalera
@Chris
Thanks! I’m not sure I think non-profit journalism is the best answer – though it’ll inevitably be a part of the future of journalism. A lot of great journalism came from publications that ate money, that publishers kept because they gave them prestige and political influence. I’d like to see some of that stick around, but I’m not sure it will.
@Fee
It just worries me that people are talking about selling journalism, when historically it’s never been a great business investment. I do wonder if the cramming of journalism into an inappropriate business model has some parallels with the push towards creative industries in the arts.
Barry:I think you are making a very important point. The “what” could be citizen journalists and it could also mean the return of college journalists at the undergraduate, graduate and faculty levels providing investigative reporting as part of research. The non-profit motive would take the extreme profits out of the business and return to more the ideal of an “objective press” and not the yellow journalism pioneered by Hearst and taken globally by Rupert Murdoch here in the states with Fox. You can see the dangers already. Btw. I would like to continue this talk offline on LinkedIn so please feel free to connect with me. I am a professor and I love the questions that you are proposing and I will bring it up as part of my class next year as part of the unit on the future of the print industry.Chris Heidelberg Ph.D.Loyola College in Maryland