The Death and Life and Death and Life and Death and Life of American Journalism

American Journalism is in a crisis. There's no debate for that, as Bob McChesney and John Nichols point out. Yet, the purpose of their book is not to strike fear into us. Nor is it to make us mourn for a dying institution. Instead, they offer a number of solutions for kick-starting the heart of the stuttering 4th estate.

McChesney and Nichols point out that when newspapers were run to turn a high profit, the quality of the words diminished at the same rate as the quantity of the pages. They pronounce that a newspaper can run at a profit-though not the kind that impresses shareholders- while maintaining their current standard of reporting. It is only when newspapers answer to shareholders and Wall St. that newspapers began to make cuts, both in the news room and at the printing facility. From here, they point out that while the profits may rise, the standard drops, and journalism's role in a democracy is threatened.

As a business that has survived  off advertising and classifieds, the proliferation of the internet as a service for both kicked journalism harder than a worked up Donkey. Interest in supplying content through a paywall holds little to no significance to readers. Not because they are afraid to reach into their pockets - they have been doing that for decades by paying for newspapers - but because there is high quality journalism available online that they have already paid for. State run services like the UK's BBC now offer an online print news service, a medium they had no service for 15 years ago. Now a British taxpayer can receive a variety of news forms from the BBC at a high standard and circumvent the traditional private media sector.

The book offers no definitive answer to the American Journalism crisis. They point out that the UK's Guardian has both the most successful business model as well as journalism standard, but do not offer this as a solution. The fact that two experts in the field have spent large portions of time trying to fix this problem, yet are unable to find one specific solution makes the book frustrating. Primarily though, it is frightening that there is no quick fix, nor is there a plausible band-aid.


Will the paywall work?