

Ask HN: Good idea to save journalism? - pj

I just had this thought. Journalism is about bringing answers to people. Right now, journalism makes money through advertising, so they have to find the questions everyone wants or the ideas that are so new, people don't know to ask the questions.<p>But there are lots of valuable answers to questions that aren't asked by the masses.  For example, I want to know everything there is about a particular competitor or business leader.  A journalist could go do the research and compile an article that answers my question.<p>Would this end-to-end journalism, where individuals or companies have questions they are willing to pay to be answered help journalists provide their information in a more valuable way?<p>Is this being done already?  I know you can pay for reports from companies like Gartner, Forrester, etc.  Perhaps bringing that business model to the individual journalist could help...<p>I don't know if this is even the right forum for figuring this sort of thing out, but I know the topic of saving journalism has been in the air around here.  Thoughts?
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TomOfTTB
You aren't talking about Journalism you're talking about research and you can
already hire a researcher.

Journalism isn't about finding answers it's about finding truth. Despite what
people think of him now Richard Nixon was a tremendously popular President
(the electoral vote count in '72 was 570 to 17) so most were not asking for
him to be exposed. But Journalists did and it was exactly what they should
have been doing.

The problem with Journalism now is it's been corrupted. Now we have Liberal
MSNBC and Conservative Fox News and they both are just spin machines for their
side's agenda. That's where tech comes in because people simply don't trust
Journalists anymore so they are looking more and more to other sources.

As for saving journalism I don't think true journalism needs it. My favorite
modern example of true journalism is Bob Woodward's book "Plan of Attack".
During the 2004 election it was recommeneded by both the Bush and Kerry camps
and it was a best seller because of it.

Because truth appeals to everyone.

~~~
yummyfajitas
I don't think the truth does appeal to everyone. If it did, then most people
would view a mix of media from different viewpoints.

But that just isn't what people do. Most liberals read the NYT and NPR while
conservatives watch Fox and listen to Rush. I think most people just want
their viewpoints confirmed.

~~~
TomOfTTB
I don’t think that’s true. To give an example of what I mean look at Fox News.
FN maintained their support for George W. Bush throughout his Presidency. But
most Conservatives started to turn during the last half of his fourth quarter.
That wouldn’t happen if people weren’t looking for the truth beyond their
bias.

As a matter of fact, if you got the Fox News viewership together I think you’d
find most would say they seek out FN because they feel the regular media is
biased and want to hear the other side of things (they might subconciously be
seeking out like minded news but at least their concious mind is looking for
unbiased news). The fact that they need to seek out another biased source to
get information indicates to me that they’re seeking truth and just can’t find
it.

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Flemlord
I think journalists should be treated like most other professions and have
certificications and standards that must be maintained. I'm sick of turning on
Fox News (or CNN, for that matter) and watching their anchors spew out
factually inaccurate commentary that gets passed off as "news". I think that
if journalists make false statements then they should get "disbarred" or lose
their license to practice journalism.

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grandalf
I'd define journalism (not cynically at all) as having the objective of
filtering through all the stuff that is going on and telling us what is
important AND what is not important.

In essence it's not what was not in the paper at all but what was in the 2"
article on D4 that makes the strongest statement about journalistic values. We
know what's on page A1 -- it's the big story that everyone would hear about
even w/o journalists. But the stuff that is buried is where the paper pats us
on the head and says "let someone else worry about that little detail".

I'm thinking of trying to figure out a way to make some sort of tag cloud view
based on the above -- maybe showing "important" stuff on the left and
"unimportant" stuff on the right. Both statements are equally significant and
subject to the same editorial discretion.

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anamax
IMHO, the way to "save journalism", for journalists to make money, is for
journalists to actually do good, unique, and valuable. (Yup, all three. If
they can't do all three, then the last two.) You know, the stuff that chin-
tuggers always talk about but rarely do.

I recommend www.buzzmachine.com for discussion on this topic.

BTW - Journalism isn't suffering from a shortage of ideas. It's suffering from
a shortage of folks willing to actually do. (Part of the problem is that many
of the powers that be "paid their dues" during a golden age as far as money
and power goes.)

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dkokelley
Niche journalism. I like it.

I'm not an expert on journalism, but I think this is happening to some degree
already. Major TV stations have industry analysts covering their industries. I
suspect that any more drilling down would result in journalists not having
enough 'good' stories to be economical for them. Journalism works for the
journalists because they can gravitate towards the stories wherever they are
happening. Journalism for hire is probably closer to private investigators,
corporate spies, or market research firms.

~~~
pj
That's right, niche journalism. Could be called research. Perhaps a community
of people could ask questions and they could contribute a certain amount of
funds to the answer. When the amount of money people are willing to pay for
the answer gets to the right amount, then a journalist "adopts" the question
and finds the answer.

The community who wants the answer could evaluate the truthiness of the
article/research and the article writer could gain credibility. Perhaps they
could even leave the article up and people in the future could pay to see what
was written.

It's not unlike the situation now with custom web development. Hackers are
paid to write code. These journalists would be paid to write articles.
Similarly, lots of problems the Hacker will solve require research and
analysis becore the problem can be solved effectively.

Seems like a marketplace problem.

------
vaksel
The problem that journalism is facing is that their market is over saturated.
You can get the same news from thousands of sources

~~~
spitfire
There'll be huge consolidation in the "generic" news market that's for sure.

But there IS still a market for in depth quality journalism, you just have to
pay for it. The atlantic, new yorker are examples. People will pay for high
quality journalism. The problem is that most journalism is scraping the bottom
of the barrel.

To give an example of high quality journalism Here's what I subscribe to:
<http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/>

_\- Laphams quarterly._ Quarterly journal that covers a topic through
essays/letters/speeches of those from the past. The war issue has churchill,
patton, george orwell, sun tzu, etc. The money issue henry ford, aristophanes,
jane austin. The insight is excellent.

<http://www.economist.com>

 _\- The economist._ A classic that covers business and the world in a no
bullshit way. They. Don't. Do. Gimmicks.

<http://www.monocle.com>

 _\- Monocle_ a briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design. This
magazine has me addicted and paying $150/Yr. Why? The first issue had an
interview with the ceo of lego on innovation. Every single issue there's
thoughtful intelligent reportage on some interesting but non-obvious subject.
(Like Lego, or japanese retail, or the falkland islands). There's something
intangible about the magazine, it deserves a look.

In summary, is journalism dead? No. Most are just incompetent at it. Become
competent at creating a quality product and you can make money.

~~~
stcredzero
_The economist. A classic that covers business and the world in a no bullshit
way._

I have to say, the podcast "Global Forecast from the Economist Intelligence
Unit" is insightful, dares to make predictions, and seems to know what the
heck they are talking about.

(BTW: "speeches" - no 'a')

------
Zev
_A journalist could go do the research and compile an article that answers my
question._

I think the position you're looking for is "librarian"

~~~
pj
A librarian is close and I love them and use them a lot. It still takes time
for me to read the books and comb through that info to find what is relevant
to the particular question.

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aurumaeus
Why save journalism at all? It's not in any danger. Some big companies that
used to have monopolies on journalism _are_ in danger, that's all.

~~~
pj
It's not journalism I'm trying to save, but rather the journalists. I suppose
in any industry, the cream of the crop will always have jobs. I was trying to
think of a way to help journalists continue doing what they love: writing,
researching, finding truth... while aligning that desire with something of
value to the world.

I think the value of traditional journalism is declining. What we
traditionally label journalism is actually just entertainment these days.
Their goal is lots of eyeballs, not truth or any of that.

But there are people who do need truth or answers and would be willing to pay
someone to help them find it. I saw a "Market Research" category at elance,
that might be the ticket...

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brm
<http://spot.us> is trying something interesting but I simply dont know if
their scope is large enough

~~~
pj
I think this is quite in line with the idea actually.

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steve_mobs
the problem with journalism is the disruptive technology of the internet to
its old distribution system and how it changed the way we consume news.

