US Media Is Collapsing

https://jacobin.com/2024/02/us-media-journalism-layoffs-policy

36 63 2 years ago

cbhrocks• 2 years ago

Reporters whose paycheck depends upon government subsidies, what could go wrong? I feel like I see this pattern a lot where people see a changing industry with a lot of legacy companies struggling to adapt and their first inclination is to step in with the government to save them/prop them up. I say let them sort it out and try to adapt. They might not be successful but at least we won’t be stuck propping them up.

derelicta5• 2 years ago

I also don't like subsidies. Id prefer either full state ownership of the press, or state-funded worker coops.

Georgelemental2• 2 years ago

Like this? http://rodong.rep.kp/en/

lazide2• 2 years ago

Anytime someone proposes something like this - what would you expect would have happened if this was the case when Trump was president and we had COVID?

Would the outcome have been better, or worse?

blackhawkC173• 2 years ago

And the state will use it to disseminate awesome propaganda, e.g., Russia Today and China Global Television Network.

swed4205• 2 years ago

Id prefer either full state ownership of the press, or state-funded worker coops.

As long as it means abolishing paywalls I'm all for it.

There should be no gatekeeping of news or information generally in a healthy human-first society.

diogenescynic• 2 years ago

I can hardly think of any media publications that are still relevant, and worth subscribing to--and they're all business related (FT, Barrons, Economist). Anything that used to be a hobby (music, photography, etc.) has now moved onto another medium like YouTube. It's sad because I used to absolutely love browsing magazine stands, but now the content is already 3-4 months out dated and usually just a regurgitation (without citation) or something that already circulated online.

pif• 2 years ago

I can hardly think of any media publications that are still relevant, and worth subscribing to--and they're all business related ... Anything that used to be a hobby (music, photography, etc.) has now moved ...

Because businesses keep paying, and hobbyists stopped paying as soon as they had any alternative.

derelicta5• 2 years ago

I love the idea of media co-ops. I'm a subscriber to one: republik.ch and so far I haven't been disappointed by what I've read.

Dalewyn5• 2 years ago

US media is collapsing?

Good. I want more.

MuffinFlavored3• 2 years ago

I feel like I've noticed an increase in low-level comments like this lately. I'd expect to find this comment on a really popular subreddit where the masses go. Basically contains a knee-jerk reaction to the headline/title and nothing else.

shiftpgdn• 2 years ago

I think most people in the US rightfully have a total disdain for the media. The vast majority of articles are clickbait, propaganda or are outright wrong. Many big organizations (Hearst) have outsourced the majority of local reporting to the third world countries where they can pay pennies on the dollar.

antisthenes• 2 years ago

It's probably somewhat tied to the article at hand, ironically.

E.g. when you see a low-effort "water is wet" article, the primal urge is to leave a low-effort comment and move on with your life. There's almost no benefit to discussing these articles, because the points have already been made, hashed, and re-hashed hundreds of times. In other words, the value add of this article to me is 0.

Media's been collapsing for a while now, because technology makes a lot of markets into winner-take-all markets, with a LOT of losers like local newspapers and below-average quality independent journalists.

ls612• 2 years ago

Very few US media outlets are worth anything imo, basically WSJ, Bloomberg, and (very marginally) Politico. If you are lucky your local paper may be worthwhile for local matters but not for anything else.

greenhearth2• 2 years ago

Really idiotic stance, with all due respect.

Dalewyn5• 2 years ago

And I likewise respect your right to hold that opinion.

Unfortunately for the media, they wasted far too much of my time and good will to ever have my respect or sympathy ever again. If they are collapsing, that is a good thing and I want more.

blackhawkC173• 2 years ago

Collapsing because of technological changes, and most journalists being clickbaiters and liars.

IMHO, it's better we're left with the few successful media houses (WSJ, Reuters, AP, Bloomberg, etc.) carrying the industry on its backs, the rest should be free to fizzle out in a free market...times have changed.

MuffinFlavored3• 2 years ago

IMHO, it's better we're left with the few successful media houses (WSJ, Reuters, AP, Bloomberg, etc.) carrying the industry on its backs

Where do these fit in:

mainstream media outlets

  ABC (Disney)

  MSNBC / NBC (Comcast)

  FOX / FOX News / CBS news (Paramount)

  CNN (Warner Bros. Discovery)

blackhawkC173• 2 years ago

Cable news should be better classified under "entertainment".

WalterBright6• 2 years ago

public subsidies to smaller news outlets, and eventually industry transformation into a publicly funded system

Ah yes, state run media, Pravda and Isvestia! Always the same result, state-approved propaganda.

piva005• 2 years ago

State-run media is very common in the Nordics (SVT, NRK, DR, etc.), not the same result.

Always the same result is your opinion, not reality.

WalterBright6• 2 years ago

Are you sure about that? Sometimes news can appear "fair and balanced" if it fits in with one's own bias. Every news organization heatedly claims it is "fair and balanced".

WalterBright6• 2 years ago

I remember when NPR was outraged at the suggestion that government funding influenced their slant on the news, as they weren't dependent on the government funding they received. So just stop accepting the funding!

beej71• 2 years ago

In NPRs defense, I haven't seen them change much from administration to administration.

paleotrope• 2 years ago

They were captured by one party a long time ago.

HumblyTossed• 2 years ago

I mean, who didn't see this coming when companies like Clear Channel started buying and homogenizing everything they could get their grubby hands on?

k310• 2 years ago

Too much consolidation in media. Local and alternative voices fade. (IMO)

The solution to monopolies is not to rubber-stamp them into existence. HN folks can probably rattle off hundreds of great ideas and innovations from small companies that were bought -- ideas and innovations which just disappeared or were turned into milquetoast.

The internet brings both rather universal self-publishing and the network effect.

indigo0086• 2 years ago

Mass layoffs are tearing through US media. To preserve a functioning media ecosystem, we need three things: immediate aid to struggling journalists, public subsidies to smaller news outlets, and eventually industry transformation into a publicly funded system.

Could she work harder to undermine her own point with this whiny intro

incomingpain• 2 years ago

Mass layoffs are tearing through US media.

I dont agree with the assumed premise. Article provides some examples but at best it's irrelevant lay offs. Failing media outlets are always going to exist.

To preserve a functioning media ecosystem, we need three things: immediate aid to struggling journalists

You can look to us in Canada. The government gives the media money, the political interference continued to ramp up until a crisis.

The government has absolutely no business funding the media.

JohnDeHope• 2 years ago

Mass layoffs are tearing through US media. To preserve a functioning media ecosystem, we need three things: immediate aid to struggling journalists, public subsidies to smaller news outlets, and eventually industry transformation into a publicly funded system.

People don't seem to want what we're selling. So the government should tax them, then give us the money to continue providing what they've demonstrated they don't want. Did I get that right?

goalieca• 2 years ago

In Canada we’re trying that and now we have major media dependant on a government paycheque and specifically depending on a certain political party because the other wants to get rid of it. Now you should evaluate our freedom of press and potential bias.

panarky• 2 years ago

If you think your media is biased, you should see the kind of bias that comes from media funded only by unregulated capital markets.

simonblack• 2 years ago

People will only outlay their limited cash on things that seem to 'have value'.

Do the products of the modern media companies have any 'value'?

IIRC there was a US president whose name I have forgotten who often complained about media companies producing very little but 'Fake News'. Fake News has no 'value' at all. Those companies deserve to die.

US Media Is Collapsing

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