

Newsy: The News Is Broken, But We Can Fix It - edw519
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/09/newsy-the-news-is-broken-but-we-can-fix-it/

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JCThoughtscream
One of the fundamental problems with the current news business model is very
simply that there is strong fiscal incentive /to/ highlight differences over
similarities - the demographic split between Fox News and MSNBC is not, by any
means, a matter of serendipity.

Where does the money to pay journalists come from? Though audience fatigue and
inurement has somewhat disrupted the formula, news outlets still make their
money via basing their sales to advertisers on the quantity of audience they
can bring forth. Basic, sure - but this kind of business model fundamentally
encourages a confrontational approach to journalism versus an educational
approach.

When the point is to get as much attention as possible, the goal is no longer
to be informative, just alarmist. As we can see, this is well-reflected in the
hiring and editorial policies of the major papers and networks.

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albertsun
Traditional news organizations (magazines and newspapers at least, I can't
speak for TV or radio) erect high barriers between the news and content side
of their operation and the business and advertising side, specifically to stop
this kind of interference and fiscal incentive. They know that having a
business motive in the reporting damages their credibility and so they avoid
it.

At the same time, there is another wall between the editorial pages that
contain opinion pieces from the news pages that contain objective reporting.
Unfortunately, many people don't realize that this wall exists and that when a
columnist for a particular paper writes something, they are not representing
the viewpoint of everyone at that paper.

I don't think TV bothers trying to maintain these distinctions as almost all
TV news is opinionated and alarmist.

The journalists at most newspapers are still by and large impartial, the
problem is that the ones who now get the most attention are the loud,
impartial ones.

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akie
But, but.... isn't this what journalists are SUPPOSED to do in the first
place? Hearing both sides of the story, I mean?

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Locke1689
An extremely though provoking concept. I'm not sure what I think of it or it's
future yet, but it's definitely interesting. Thank you for posting.

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brandnewlow
It's techmeme for video, on the iPhone.

"Techmeme for video" is a fun idea.

They just need to find a way to automate it so it will scale.

