Journalism Trends Blog Post

Non-profit journalism is when organizations depend on private donations and grants to pay for funds. This type of journalism has the goal of informing, not the goal of making money off their work. It is a type that many journalists are wondering if it will thrive and help the field of media.

According to Freepress, the job cuts and negative changes in journalism due to the Internet have led to a rise in “non-profit journalism organizations as one of the industry’s most promising developments.” The non-profit organizations have been rising up through members of the public, technologically minded journalists and retired reporters. Many media outlets have already switched to non-profit and have seen great success in engaging people and winning awards because they are able to cover “issues the mainstream media have largely abandoned.”

The article says that since 2008 there has been an increase in applications for nonprofit status and the IRS has been holding all of these applications until it decides on the outcome. Their decision will basically declare if all journalism should be done for profit or not. Freepress says if they decide it should it is a problem because “the market has shown it will not support the full extent of news we need.”

This article was informative and unique with the information on the action of the IRS but may be less objective because it is a non-profit organization itself and does not note why the IRS might not consider non-profits to be beneficial.

Economic & Political Weekly’s Journalism: Profit over People article sides with the idea that media now focuses more on the money they can gain than on the content and stories within the paper. The writer lists percentages of advertisements of things he could not afford (37 percent) verses hard news in The Times of India and questions what he is really paying for by buying the paper.

The article says how publishers have become more a business and focus on keeping the advertisers happy rather than the consumers of news. It says, “The press’ prime responsibility is to its readers, a responsibility to inform” and that the lust for money should not alter the integrity the press has from the Constitution. This article was honest and brought to light the customer’s point of view just how corrupt some news outlets have become by focusing on income and profit rather than outpour of quality information.

I think this is a very important issue and that non-profit should grow in the journalism industry to help maintain the integrity of the press for three reasons:

· It will help keep all areas of news circulating

· It will allow for more job opportunities

· It will keep the focus on the news, not the money

It is important to keep all versions of news available to the people. Consumers want to be informed on more than just politics and the economy, sports and entertainment and beats will need to remain. As media changes, if journalism becomes just about profit, these areas will become less important and possibly eliminated.

Non-profit will allow for more job opportunities because as jobs shift with technology improvements, the focus on the job shifts will be what is best for the readers not which employee is costing the organization the most. More opportunities and more areas of work will be open as well because of the variety of news being covered.

Lastly and most importantly, the focus for non-profit organizations will always be how to get the news out to the public, not on how to make the most money. The whole foundation of journalism is to be voice of truth and tell the stories of accurate events to readers. Its purpose has always been to inform others, not to gain profit for ourselves.

Even in India this is occurring, meaning the issue of protecting the authenticity of journalism is global, not just within our nation. Non-profit can help protect the field.