Newspaper: future of journalism/ Clay Shirky
John Oliver on journalism
British comedian John Oliver presents a show called Last Week Tonight on HBO in America. In a previous episode, he put together a report on the decline of journalism in America and its replacement by 'clickbait' stories rather than real news. Watch it here:
Clay Shirky on news: don’t build a paywall around a public good
Clay Shirky is a professor at NYU (New York University) and a worldwide expert on digital and social media. He's a named media theorist for A Level Media and he makes a compelling argument for the role news plays in society. Interestingly, he argues against paywalls - the subscription model that some newspapers use to make money in the digital age - and says that news is a 'public good' that is vital in a healthy democracy.
Blog tasks
Go to the Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky presenting to Harvard students. The video is also available on YouTube below but the Nieman Lab website has a written transcript of everything Shiky says.
Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation). Once you've watched and read the presentation and made notes (you may want to copy and paste key quotes from the transcript), answer the questions below:
1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?
He uses the example of the priest and the pedophile and she says that accountability journalism shows us the things people have done wrong.
2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?
"There was a set of forces that made that possible. And they weren’t deep truths — the commercial success of newspapers and their linking of that to accountability journalism wasn’t a deep truth about reality. Best Buy was not willing to support the Baghdad bureau because Best Buy cared about news from Baghdad. They just didn’t have any other good choices."
3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?
He says that now in the digital age, audiences receive their news through it being shared online. He suggests that no one goes out of their way to look for news that interests them
4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?
People would not be able to get this news around as easily because the internet was a very new thing and it was not the main way people would conceive their info
5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls?
"One, we need the public good of the accountability to journalism, however produced. But two, they’re going down to lobby the Justice Department for an antitrust exemption in order to be able to engage in some form of coordination that borders on price fixing if it doesn’t actually constitute price fixing. But the irony is the argument they’re using at the Justice Department is the creation of a public good even — as what they’re looking to do is to erode that public good in order to charge a scarcity premium."
6) What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?
It cannot be hidden, the truth
7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?
"Irreplaceability of newspapers suggests that the next step needs to be vast and varied experimentation, not the transfer of allegiance from one institution to another."
8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?
In my opinion major brands such as these obviously have a large audience who have trust in them and read them regularly and I feel as if this could be the way some people receive their daily news so if this was taken away, the people who do not use new digital media to find ouot the worlds problems will be lost and unaware of significant situations
British comedian John Oliver presents a show called Last Week Tonight on HBO in America. In a previous episode, he put together a report on the decline of journalism in America and its replacement by 'clickbait' stories rather than real news. Watch it here:
Clay Shirky on news: don’t build a paywall around a public good
Clay Shirky is a professor at NYU (New York University) and a worldwide expert on digital and social media. He's a named media theorist for A Level Media and he makes a compelling argument for the role news plays in society. Interestingly, he argues against paywalls - the subscription model that some newspapers use to make money in the digital age - and says that news is a 'public good' that is vital in a healthy democracy.
Blog tasks
Go to the Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky presenting to Harvard students. The video is also available on YouTube below but the Nieman Lab website has a written transcript of everything Shiky says.
Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation). Once you've watched and read the presentation and made notes (you may want to copy and paste key quotes from the transcript), answer the questions below:
1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?
He uses the example of the priest and the pedophile and she says that accountability journalism shows us the things people have done wrong.
2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?
"There was a set of forces that made that possible. And they weren’t deep truths — the commercial success of newspapers and their linking of that to accountability journalism wasn’t a deep truth about reality. Best Buy was not willing to support the Baghdad bureau because Best Buy cared about news from Baghdad. They just didn’t have any other good choices."
3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?
He says that now in the digital age, audiences receive their news through it being shared online. He suggests that no one goes out of their way to look for news that interests them
4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?
People would not be able to get this news around as easily because the internet was a very new thing and it was not the main way people would conceive their info
5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls?
"One, we need the public good of the accountability to journalism, however produced. But two, they’re going down to lobby the Justice Department for an antitrust exemption in order to be able to engage in some form of coordination that borders on price fixing if it doesn’t actually constitute price fixing. But the irony is the argument they’re using at the Justice Department is the creation of a public good even — as what they’re looking to do is to erode that public good in order to charge a scarcity premium."
6) What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?
It cannot be hidden, the truth
7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?
"Irreplaceability of newspapers suggests that the next step needs to be vast and varied experimentation, not the transfer of allegiance from one institution to another."
8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?
In my opinion major brands such as these obviously have a large audience who have trust in them and read them regularly and I feel as if this could be the way some people receive their daily news so if this was taken away, the people who do not use new digital media to find ouot the worlds problems will be lost and unaware of significant situations
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