Shirky views accountability journalism as a 'public good' as sometimes without this scandals go unaccounted for and it allows for scrutiny of those in power with corruption charges against them. A fictional example would be in the American tv series 'Homeland' when an american journalist exposes leaked CIA documents and revealing evidence of corruption and this is important because it shows that even the central government wasnt willing to expose this so this makes accountability journalism important. The example from the text was about the catholic church crisis of 2002 in which the Boston globe revealed the abuse of children from members high up in the church. Without accountability journalism cases like this would tend to go unnoticed.
4) 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.)?
The relationship between newspapers and advertisers isnt on the best of terms as advertisers are accused of being 'undeserved' by the newspapers and 'overcharged'. This makes life difficult for both parties as newspapers depend more on advertisers but the advertisers know that newspapers are an influential mean of advertising.In terms of replacing major revenue-generators, he cites Craiglist, Monster and Match as these of course would grant you the most profit possible.
5) 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?
Shirky states that people nowadays tend to stray away from the traditional mass media institutions with the example given the times which has a continuously falling readership. Shirky says that people go to social media websites like facebook and twitter for their news stories rather than traditional mass media institutions.
6) 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?
If the internet was widespread in 1992 this story would have been more available to be people around the world and to a younger audience however during this time TV and newspapers would have been the dominant source for news so to some extent the internet might not be as useful as some people still say that tv news is their main source of news although this is changing as the internet is becoming more widely available to more people across the world.
7) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls?
The reason Shirky argues against paywalls is because he believes that they damage general news and only benefit financial news and large conglomerates like Rupert Murdoch.
8) What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?
A social good is something that benefits the majority of people in a positive way. Sometimes parts of journalism like investigative journalism can be called a social good because it can make the public aware of some corruption and other scandals going on that otherwise wouldnt have come to light.
9) 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?
Shirky believes newspapers are irreplaceable and the time spent trying to replace newspapers is misspent effort and that we should instead be transferring our concern to the production of lots and lots of smaller, overlapping models of accountability journalism.
10) 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?
I believe that major media institutions like the new york times and the Guardian now more than ever have an important role to play as news providers as they have skilled professional investigative journalists responsible for exposing and holding some people and or institutions to account over corruption and other scandals.
No comments:
Post a Comment