Journalism Reimagined: It’s Not Gone Yet
When I was in 6th grade, I learned to love Fridays. Not because the weekend was here, but because my teacher, Mr. Tamblyn, in Lake Oswego, Oregon, gave us a news quiz every Friday morning. And I was determined to ace the test. Sadly, it was clear then: I was a news junkie.
I read the daily newspaper over my sugar-bomb cereal and watched the nightly news with my parents, quickly learning that real life is stranger than fiction. I relished hard-to-believe news stories about escaped zoo lions running down the side of the highway, 1,000-pound pumpkins or a bridge collapsing because of a freak storm. So much so that, years later, an old boyfriend described my storytelling sessions as “Crockpot Quarterly” because no one would believe what I was telling them.
But I defended those stories. Mainly because I got a journalism degree in college and understood firsthand the pains involved in getting news stories published. The underlying goal of journalism is to remove as much bias as humanly possible. To publish a story, credentialed journalists must 1) verify and double-check facts using public domain sources; 2) interview three credible sources; 3) present both sides of any occurrence/issue with objectivity (after which the article or script typically gets ripped apart for clarity by the editor). More is involved, but those are the standard requirements, and it isn’t easy.
Shrinking Media Empires is an Old Story
Of course, gone are those days when all the news came only from mainstream commercial media outlets. Today, as Dr. David Ryfe, director of and professor in the School of Journalism and Media at The University of Texas at Austin, explained in a recent seminar, more than 50 percent of online traffic is owned by Meta, Apple, AWS and Netflix. People find out what is happening in the world from online platforms, and it’s safe to say the vast majority are not adhering to journalism’s methodology – which is why we’re all having a hard time believing anything we read or see.
Dr. Ryfe explained legacy media empires built on circulation numbers peaked in 2006 and have been shrinking steadily every quarter over the past 20 years. Today, the U.S. has the same number of journalists as in 1950, despite the population doubling. Circulations actually started to decline in the 1970s, long before the rise of the Internet. I can attest to this because I remember my journalism professors doubted the industry’s survival 30 years ago.
New Revenue Models Do Work
Fortunately, today’s new media continues to reinvent itself, but with a radically different revenue model based on engagement via sponsorships, subscriptions, grants/donations and events. This is more evident in the private sector, where demand for vetted, balanced reporting and content is high to legitimize investments and make critical business decisions.
New high-integrity journalism outlets include Axios, Semafor, Heatmap and The Dispatch. The podcast environment is another example of rapid growth based on a new model, where many producers who take pride in their hosts' credibility and content accuracy see significant growth. There are now more than 4.5 million podcasts worldwide, with listeners ranging from a few to over 90 million. The New York Times is another example of journalists reinventing themselves — the company invested in digital 15 years ago and now boasts the U.S.’ largest media website traffic.
It's not news that we live in a highly fragmented media environment, where the only time a sizeable portion of our population sees something simultaneously is during the Super Bowl or a national crisis or disaster. But as Dr. Ryfe points out, the news – or information that explains what’s happening in the world around us each day – has been around for thousands of years. Historically, early news was aligned with state governments, who have always sought a direct route to inform and/or control the masses. In fact, one of the first published newspapers was published by the Ming dynasty in China. Commercial journalism, based on circulation as we know it today, evolved no less than 100 years ago.
News distribution models and standards have come a long way. Despite competition from various information sources and the disruption caused by AI, I believe as long as there is a demand for trusted sources and credible personal perspectives on global events, there will be a need for journalistic integrity, in whatever form it finds itself next. UT continues to place more than 96 percent of its journalism students in jobs each year. The demand is still there.
We all want to tell stories that our friends and family believe. And we want to make important business and personal decisions based on hard facts. It’s why modern journalism came to be.