Over the past few decades a gray future of journalism has been hanging overhead like the black cloud of an existential crisis of a middle-aged man. For would-be journalists, the job is no easy choice with foreseeable challenges that lay ahead for an unpredictable industry. Lepore of the New Yorker outlays, Bell of the Columbia Journal Review, and Shepard of the New Republic outline a significant trend of journalism’s drastically shrinking print media and local news stemming from the rise of giant tech companies and lack of funding.
Although having such a long lifespan, print media is up against its biggest challenger – technological evolution. Print’s ability to adapt will absolutely decide its survival. Generational demographics may eventually have the strongest determination, as millennials will eventually outnumber baby boomers, based on a 2018 Pew Research Center report, and further threaten the remaining nostalgia around print.
With the nose-diving numbers to prove, as highlighted by Bell, print media’s being up against the mammoth social media is close to the nail in the coffin as it could be. Even print is subject to the natural order of a life cycle and its decline will have far reaching consequences to the environment around it. Capitalism appears to be purging journalism as it exists today with the large tech giants such as Google and Facebook having a larger cash grab for its revenue through ads and feeding lower standard content. It very well can be a free for all where news may not come with tone of something that is vetted and carries integrity with its name. There will be the rise of couch journalists where any self-claimed news aficionado can acquire what he or she may need from the web with little consequence from delivering “fake news”.
Bell and Shepard argue that large corporations or tech giants such as Google and Facebook have an obligation for a “transfer of wealth” to help support an industry in crisis. Although strong points are made supporting this campaign, it raises multiple questions both along ethical and accountability lines. When it comes to survival of the fittest, the stronger champion will not necessarily come out the winning end completely untouched. Journalism’s functionality is to keep capitalism honest and to have capitalism being the same hand feeding what is supposed to be objective presents a problem.
If the large corporations absorb print media or invade media outlets it is debatable if the industry itself can remain objective. However, Jeff Bezos of Amazon contradicts that thought process as he was able to future proof the Washington Post by rebranding it as digital media. Therefore cash-flow will simply be just that, money sailing a rudderless ship if there is not a game plan to reinvigorate the appeal for this new tech demographic.
Beyond the Fold: Think Something New 