NDM News: The future of journalism

1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?

Accountability journalism is a classic example of the iron core of journalism and in particular the investigative journalism category, where three reporters are dispatched for a long period on a story that may or may not pan out.  Newspapers’ ability to produce accountability journalism is shrinking. He argues that we’ll have to obtain a journalistic ecosystem to get anything like the accountability journalism we’ve been used to out of the current media landscape. He talks about the movie 'spotlight' and  how it is based on a group of journalists investigating cases of child sexual assault, including the involvement of the church. Without professional journalism cases like this would not have been found out due to the immense cover-up initiated by powerful people.

2) 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.)?

He states that advertisers were not only overcharged, they were undeserved. Not only did they have to deliver more money to the newspapers than they would have wanted, they didn’t even get to say: “And don’t report on my industry, please.” 

3) 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?

Online, people are only consuming things that they want to or are relevant to something that they have previously read/watched.Consumers rather than producers are the ones bundling the content together.
For newspapers, all the content would be bundled together and couldn't be changed to suit each readers needs as it is printed, so many would read everything, however people would still have the ability to pick and choose what they read but it is a lot more difficult.

4) 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?

Had the internet been widespread in 1992, it could be said that the limiting effects created by the catholic church and associates. The people could hid their actions all they want but with the internet it is much easier to share the content, it continues to be shared and shared until it reaches a point where the corrupt people cannot control the response.

5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls?

Shirky suggests that the paywalls are restrictions, even though the public need accountability journalism they still aren't going to pay for it especially since there's a lot of republication and reuse of paid content on free sites. 

6) What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?

A social good is something that benefits the largest number of people. Journalism can be seen as a social good as the exposure of certain cases such as the the Church sexual abuse scandal would be benefiting to everyone.

7) 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?

He says that We need a class of institutions or models, whether they’re endowments or crowdsourced or what have you — we need a model that produces five percent of accountability journalism. and that you can only replace newspaper with newspapers themselves. He thinks that a bad thing is going to happen  and people aren't taking it seriously. there is going to be a decline in accountability journalism which means corruption will be rife.

8) 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 think that it is important to an extent that brand such as The New York Times or The Guardian to remain in business simply because they're one of the only companies that are able to hold powerful people accountable for their wrongdoings. Unless online companies find a  way to pay for quality investigations, it is vital that the previous brands stay in business.