4 ms·

I am constantly baffled at the sweeping statements that get made about modern journalism. In the "days of yore" the quality of journalism was higher? Journalis

I am constantly baffled at the sweeping statements that get made about modern journalism. In the "days of yore" the quality of journalism was higher? Journalists regularly omitted things from reporting that was widely known to support popular political narratives or their own ideas of what good outcomes would be, "for the good of the country". Investigative journalism is alive and probably better than ever before despite being less profitable than wildly irresponsible opinion masquerading as journalism. Look at the Pulizer Won by the Boston Globe for 2021, lifesaving investigative journalism that is expensive and difficult- and exactly the sort of thing that the Golden Age would have never dug up.

revolvingocelot 5y ago
>Journalists regularly omitted things from reporting that was widely known to support popular political narratives or their own ideas of what good outcomes would be, "for the good of the country". To paraphrase Mitch Hedburg, sure, they used to. They still do, but they used to, too. But now there are fewer of them. >Investigative journalism is alive and probably better than ever before despite being less profitable than wildly irresponsible opinion masquerading as journalism. This strikes me as kind of a crazy claim, but in the grandparent I was bemoaning the decline of functional local journalism. The rot hasn't really, truly hit big newspapers in big cities; the parent's citation of the continued existence of the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting kinda doesn't change the realities of the local news, the decline of which is evident, well-studied, and heralds corruption of both democracy and mere finance.[0][1][2] I've linked blog-level readings, but feel free to scrutinize the links in the Global Anti-Corruption Blog article [0] for more academic analysis on the topic. Look to groups like Alden Capital [3], which buy up and destroy small-town American news sources. You'll find that those disappearing local papers used to pen most of the original reporting in the US. It's so fucking evident that mainstream institutions like PBS and NPR and even Netflix recognize it -- namely, "The Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" [4] on exactly what I'm talking about. [0] https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2021/01/25/the-decline-of-small-newspapers-means-higher-risk-of-local-corruption-in-the-u-s/ https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2021/01/25/the-decline-... [1] https://niemanreports.org/articles/less-local-news-means-less-democracy/ https://niemanreports.org/articles/less-local-news-means-les... [2] https://www.wgbh.org/news/commentary/2018/06/06/a-new-study-measures-the-cost-of-corruption-when-the-local-newspaper-dies https://www.wgbh.org/news/commentary/2018/06/06/a-new-study-... [3] https://www.npr.org/2021/10/18/1046952430/the-consequences-of-when-a-hedge-fund-buys-newspapers https://www.npr.org/2021/10/18/1046952430/the-consequences-o... [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icNirsV1rLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icNirsV1rLA
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Outside NYC and Washington, DC, I'd argue that the rot has hit major cities, unless you can name a good US large-city daily outside the NYT, WaPo, and possibly WSJ. LA Times might possibly qualify. Other than that, I'm stumped. Any city of < 1m population ... yeah, it's dead.
- JamisonM 5y ago
  I thank you for the reply and I don't dispute the deterioration of of local journalism and its negative effects. I thank you for the links and I will read them. (Some of this research I am familiar with is pretty iffy, the civic engagement -> local journalism link feels very compelling but the actual research is pretty thin, but it is a very hard area to study!) I do dispute the notion expressed by the parent to my reply that there "used to be a thing called "investigative journalism", largely snuffed out now" which I stand by my position is a baffling statement. You can look at the homepage of ProPublica every day and read things that would never have any hope of seeing the light of day 15 or more years ago and are important stories. And I really do think the fact remains that the ethical standards of the "days of yore" were garbage, modern reporters would break the shit out of news that the good ole boys would let go from the 50's all the way well into the 80's.

revolvingocelot 5y ago

>Journalists regularly omitted things from reporting that was widely known to support popular political narratives or their own ideas of what good outcomes would be, "for the good of the country". To paraphrase Mitch Hedburg, sure, they used to. They still do, but they used to, too. But now there are fewer of them. >Investigative journalism is alive and probably better than ever before despite being less profitable than wildly irresponsible opinion masquerading as journalism. This strikes me as kind of a crazy claim, but in the grandparent I was bemoaning the decline of functional local journalism. The rot hasn't really, truly hit big newspapers in big cities; the parent's citation of the continued existence of the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting kinda doesn't change the realities of the local news, the decline of which is evident, well-studied, and heralds corruption of both democracy and mere finance.[0][1][2] I've linked blog-level readings, but feel free to scrutinize the links in the Global Anti-Corruption Blog article [0] for more academic analysis on the topic. Look to groups like Alden Capital [3], which buy up and destroy small-town American news sources. You'll find that those disappearing local papers used to pen most of the original reporting in the US. It's so fucking evident that mainstream institutions like PBS and NPR and even Netflix recognize it -- namely, "The Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" [4] on exactly what I'm talking about. [0] https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2021/01/25/the-decline-of-small-newspapers-means-higher-risk-of-local-corruption-in-the-u-s/ https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2021/01/25/the-decline-... [1] https://niemanreports.org/articles/less-local-news-means-less-democracy/ https://niemanreports.org/articles/less-local-news-means-les... [2] https://www.wgbh.org/news/commentary/2018/06/06/a-new-study-measures-the-cost-of-corruption-when-the-local-newspaper-dies https://www.wgbh.org/news/commentary/2018/06/06/a-new-study-... [3] https://www.npr.org/2021/10/18/1046952430/the-consequences-of-when-a-hedge-fund-buys-newspapers https://www.npr.org/2021/10/18/1046952430/the-consequences-o... [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icNirsV1rLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icNirsV1rLA

dredmorbius 5y ago
Outside NYC and Washington, DC, I'd argue that the rot has hit major cities, unless you can name a good US large-city daily outside the NYT, WaPo, and possibly WSJ. LA Times might possibly qualify. Other than that, I'm stumped. Any city of < 1m population ... yeah, it's dead.
JamisonM 5y ago
I thank you for the reply and I don't dispute the deterioration of of local journalism and its negative effects. I thank you for the links and I will read them. (Some of this research I am familiar with is pretty iffy, the civic engagement -> local journalism link feels very compelling but the actual research is pretty thin, but it is a very hard area to study!) I do dispute the notion expressed by the parent to my reply that there "used to be a thing called "investigative journalism", largely snuffed out now" which I stand by my position is a baffling statement. You can look at the homepage of ProPublica every day and read things that would never have any hope of seeing the light of day 15 or more years ago and are important stories. And I really do think the fact remains that the ethical standards of the "days of yore" were garbage, modern reporters would break the shit out of news that the good ole boys would let go from the 50's all the way well into the 80's.