Shirky's example is The Globes publication of the Catholic Church and the scandal. Its a classic example of the "iron core of journalism" and the "investigative journalism category," where three reporters were focused on a specific story for a long period of time unknown to whether it would pan out. He believes that the newspapers ability to produce accountability journalism is declining.
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.)?
Advertisers were forced to overpay for the services they received as there weren't alternatives for display ads. The happy state of the 20th century newspapering was that advertisers were not only overcharged but also underserved. There was a time when Ford went to The New York Times during the rollover stories and said that they wanted to pull the Ford ads out of the newspaper to which the Times replied okay. The 'where else are you going to go' question allowed the newspaper not to suffer from commercial capture however this worked better for larger newspapers as their advertising revenue would be higher than those of a smaller newspaper. Advertising aids both the institution and the audience, however keeping the advertising with one institution is something that is going, therefore the protection is also going.
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 believes that the coherence of newspapers is not intellectual but industrial. What goes into print newspapers is content that produces commercial interest to the least interested user. "The aggregation of news has gone from being a server-side to a client-side operation" therefore the content bundled together is made by the consumer rather than the producer.The New York Times is being torn apart now as the online readership falls every year and this is due to users clicking on the stories directly from other sources such as Twitter or Facebook, rather than actually going to the Times' website and searching for the story. So the audience is now being swayed by other members of the audience rather than the newspaper producers.
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?
The Boston Globe report was reported by John Geoghan, the positive effects were not reported from the news report itself they were created by the papers initial audience. The Globe does not have a global readership of Catholics but instead is a regional paper but the millions of Catholics got the story from it being forwarded constantly. "The audience created the public, in fact, to use Starr's word for 'The Creation of the Media. The public created itself." The content was reused and republished on Google and sites that would generate interest such as the Bishop Accountability Project. In 1992 Paul Shanley was pulled in for having raped or molested almost a hundred boys, The Boston Globe covered this story again and ran 50 stories about priest abuse, however the story went no where. This shows how the internet has enabled the assembling of an audience to increase.
Why does Shirky argue against paywalls?
Shirky believes that news is a vital necessity, you cannot take that away from the reader and put it behind a paywall as there should be a public good of the accountability of journalism, however produced. News should be seen as a public good rather than a commercial operation.
What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?
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 believes that the coherence of newspapers is not intellectual but industrial. What goes into print newspapers is content that produces commercial interest to the least interested user. "The aggregation of news has gone from being a server-side to a client-side operation" therefore the content bundled together is made by the consumer rather than the producer.The New York Times is being torn apart now as the online readership falls every year and this is due to users clicking on the stories directly from other sources such as Twitter or Facebook, rather than actually going to the Times' website and searching for the story. So the audience is now being swayed by other members of the audience rather than the newspaper producers.
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?
The Boston Globe report was reported by John Geoghan, the positive effects were not reported from the news report itself they were created by the papers initial audience. The Globe does not have a global readership of Catholics but instead is a regional paper but the millions of Catholics got the story from it being forwarded constantly. "The audience created the public, in fact, to use Starr's word for 'The Creation of the Media. The public created itself." The content was reused and republished on Google and sites that would generate interest such as the Bishop Accountability Project. In 1992 Paul Shanley was pulled in for having raped or molested almost a hundred boys, The Boston Globe covered this story again and ran 50 stories about priest abuse, however the story went no where. This shows how the internet has enabled the assembling of an audience to increase.
Why does Shirky argue against paywalls?
Shirky believes that news is a vital necessity, you cannot take that away from the reader and put it behind a paywall as there should be a public good of the accountability of journalism, however produced. News should be seen as a public good rather than a commercial operation.
What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?
A social good is where a group of people come together and do something for themselves - it links to social media as groups of people come together to share stories online. Open source software are examples of social good as there is no managerial culture to produce the product so sites like Wikileaks enable the audience to be in control. The internet essentially makes commercial models of journalism harder to sustain but public orders much easier to sustain, making social models easier.
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 that there will be a terminal decline in accountability journalism as the old models are breaking faster than the new models are able to replace. He believes that you could replace the models with smaller overlapping models of accountability journalism however he believes that we won't get it right in the beginning and the experiments may not pan out.
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?
Media institutions are able to sway audiences and meet political demands in terms of what is on their front page as audiences would be exposed to the front page story, getting easy coverage. It is important that major media brands such as the New York Times and the Guardian continue to stay in business solely because the quality of accountability journalism within a newspaper simply holds more value than that on a social networking website. I believe that a newspaper is able to bundle content to a degree where they can interest every possible audience; readers are able to be interested in at least one story and then be exposed to stories that are of commercial acknowledgement also, such as all-around important front page stories. I think if newspapers go out of business then the quality of news will decline as the public will essentially takeover and the idea of citizen journalism would become more prevalent, although this may seem like a positive thing due to the essentially 'rawness' of citizen journalism, it dismisses actual journalists, therefore putting them out of jobs and creating accountability journalism as something that is not left to the experts but merely something anyone can do.
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 that there will be a terminal decline in accountability journalism as the old models are breaking faster than the new models are able to replace. He believes that you could replace the models with smaller overlapping models of accountability journalism however he believes that we won't get it right in the beginning and the experiments may not pan out.
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?
Media institutions are able to sway audiences and meet political demands in terms of what is on their front page as audiences would be exposed to the front page story, getting easy coverage. It is important that major media brands such as the New York Times and the Guardian continue to stay in business solely because the quality of accountability journalism within a newspaper simply holds more value than that on a social networking website. I believe that a newspaper is able to bundle content to a degree where they can interest every possible audience; readers are able to be interested in at least one story and then be exposed to stories that are of commercial acknowledgement also, such as all-around important front page stories. I think if newspapers go out of business then the quality of news will decline as the public will essentially takeover and the idea of citizen journalism would become more prevalent, although this may seem like a positive thing due to the essentially 'rawness' of citizen journalism, it dismisses actual journalists, therefore putting them out of jobs and creating accountability journalism as something that is not left to the experts but merely something anyone can do.
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