Journalism’s Survival Guide
By Janelle Bradley
Journalism needs a reboot in order to rightfully preserve democracy. There are so many flawed business models and practices that deter from the main purpose of the profession. Any professional that participates in the journalism industry need to keep in mind the privilege they possess in being able to facilitate the access to information and be a gatekeeper for society.
That’s Not Our Business
News outlets and other media companies are to not be wary being in business with entrepreneurial giants. Along the way this business model is flawed because it always potentially has the red flags of having conflicts of interest. The prime example being Jeff Bezos owning the Washington Post. This monopolization of the journalism industry receives a double edged sword for the fact that the news outlet gets the funding that it needs from the multi-billionaire, but in the long run it severely compromises the news, information and content circulating within the business world. The public now has one less source to rely on because the Post is now owned by one of the most powerful men and it’s new job would be to act as a public relations firm to their boss.
Technological Dystopia
Journalism is the profession of communication. Even with the developing technologies making tedious tasks faster and easier, journalism must stay organic to it’s roots and maintaining human interaction for journalism to be fruitful and properly flourish. Don’t allow bots to break news you can’t be accountable for at the end of a news cycle, because someone programmed the bot to yield the results. There have been many accounts where bots are providing false news. Don’t apply algorithmic filters to the public searches because you think you know their life and what’s best for them.
No Estimation of Your Audience
Tying into companies trying to know what’s best for their audience, do not make approximations and estimates on the views and likes or dislikes of a person. The news doesn’t care to be liked. Everyone has the right to all the information they can muster do not assume their views or values and cast a bubble around them. It causes a disproportionate representation of the news and it limits one’s access to information and to take appropriate actions in society.
Eli Pariser emphasizes this and basically says that these algorithms have been feeding us a steady diet of relevant information. But what we need is a balanced diet that also include information that is uncomfortable, challenging, and important.
Representation
If your mission statement claims that you are diverse and that you feel diversity is an important part of your media company or news outlet then allow for your newsroom to actually reflect that. There are so many different voices not only within the journalism industry but the world, and you can’t serve everyone if your staff is homogeneous. Everyone has access to information today with social media and the internet but you as an outlet must be the noise cancel headphones that citizens look for when they want good reporting, how else to achieve that than through a diverse newsroom?
This is a brief guide to possible steps that can be taken to save journalism. As a journalist in this day and age you must be conscientious as you facilitate the information that the world consumes.
