Real Journalism, Right Now: Is journalism dead? It’s certainly sick, but we found signs of life
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By Warren Cole Smith - Posted at MinistryWatch:
Published September 20, 2024
It is not hard to find evidence for the conclusion that journalism is dead. A 2021 Gallup Poll said that just 21 percent of Americans had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers. For TV journalism, the number was even worse: 16 percent. Of the 16 institutions Gallup asked about, only the U.S. Congress had lower scores.But is real journalism dead, or has it just been drowned out? Fake news, cable news punditry, and well-financed disinformation campaigns masquerade as journalism so convincingly that we have almost lost the ability to tell the difference between these practices and true journalism.
But they are not journalism. That’s not to say that they are not real, and they have become pervasive in our media ecosystem. Like kudzu that invades a forest, they threaten to choke out healthy discourse.
So, what is true journalism? First, it includes boots-on-the-ground reporting. Too many publications have discovered that opinion and punditry will attract eyeballs and notoriety that they no longer invest in the time, travel, and talent necessary for good reporting. They throw red meat to their base. Or they engage in what I call “drive by journalism”: a few bits of original reporting to create the illusion of real journalism. But these approaches rarely moves the needle in important conversations. These approaches merely amplify the noise in the echo chamber.
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