Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Online News Revolution From Informing to Spin, Copy and Trash


By Gary Tilzer

In the days before the Internet, TV and cable many New Yorkers received most of their news in the morning from newspapers like The Daily News, Post, Mirror, Journal American, Herald Tribune and World Telegram and PM.

Much of the news in Today's morning papers was available on the Internet from many sources, not just the paper that printed the story the day before, in many cases days before it came out in printed.

A second important trend on what New Yorkers read as news is the increasingly copy cat nature of the media. While much of what appears on morning local TV news has always been taken from the newspapers, it is clear that the stories online are become the main source for local TV news. Competition newspapers also use the online news stories not only for ideas and research, but an increasing feeling that if people are reading a story on the Internet, even if it is a competitor they must cover that story in their paper. On the national political level cable TV shows and bloggers are increasing doing stories about each other focusing less on hard news. “Very Pissed,” Fox's Neil Cavuto Rips MSNBC's Chris Matthews Over Calling Chris Christie “Fat”

Independent bloggers have increasingly been complaining that old media or mainstream journalist have rips off their stories without giving them credit. Cutbacks in the news media caused by the recession and loss of readers to the Internet has meant that less news is being covered by the mainstream media, especially on weekend, has caused them to use bloggers as Cliff notes. Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News, More Sexy Reporters

The final and most important result of new news delivery system is that during this transition period from newspapers to online journalism, the most important job of a free press, that of being a watchdog of the pols and government is failing. The failure is not only because of the move to online, it has a lot to do with the loss of mom pop owners of the newspapers and the fact that in the past copy boys become reporters after they learned journalism with the attitude of their owners that pols and rich were the bad guys. Today newsroom are filled reporter from very expensive Ivy League journalism school, high salaries and the owners of papers are big businessman who make their money by tapping onto the government's tit, mostly thought real estate and Wall Street Investments like pension funds. So over the last three decades newspaper owners have changed from and adversary relationship with government and pols to a partnership. Government Patronage Have Moved Away From the Individual to the Boardroom and Super Rich

Tom Robbins of the Village Voice wrote an excellent column last year about the results of the
change in journalism The unexamined world of Mike Bloomberg. Robins could have also written other similar columns about the unexamined slush fund at the City Council or the corruption in the city's pension funds or how Albany has become an organized crime enterprise.

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