Leading journalist questions traditional media’s position

8Sep08

Today’s Sydney Morning Herald contains a remarkable story by respected journalist Paul Sheehan highlighting the battle traditional media faces to remain relevant in the Internet age.

Titled Floundering in a sea of change and using the Sarah Palin (US Republican Vice Presidential hopeful) story as an example, Sheehan notes how he immediately referred to YouTube for news on the nominee rather than traditional media sources. He points out that by the time he started researching Palin, 6 hours after the announcement, the Internet was in it’s fourth phase of the news cycle.

When I heard that some obscure woman from Alaska had been selected as
the Republican Party’s vice-presidential nominee, my first reaction was
not to check the cable news channels, or even the internet news sites.
No, my first reaction was to go to YouTube.

By doing so, I was doing what the majority of people now do, using the
internet to go straight to the source, unfiltered. I wanted to get my
own sense of why this woman had been plucked from obscurity. On YouTube
I knew I would be able to cut out the intermediary. And to understand
Governor Sarah Palin, you really have to see her in action.

He
compares this tot he biased reporting of the venerable New York Times,
who in recent elections have chosen to colour their coverage depending
upon their political leanings. Sheehan feels this is symptomatic of the
problems facing the traditional press.

Everywhere
there are signs of growing cynicism with the media: an unwillingness to
pay for what can be obtained free on the internet, a refusal to shuffle
through the old media information portals, and a contagious knowingness
and irony about the traditional media’s self-proclaimed role as moral
guardians and custodians of the public good.

Sheehan concludes with references to both the Times and Fairfax’s recent slashing of jobs and other issues:

When even the most famous brand in journalism is slashing
staff, losing market value and attracting widespread criticism for
bias, it underlines the reality that the cost structures and
privileges of the old media are being swept away.

You don’t have to look far. Organisations like the Herald
are not merely in a battle for market share. They are in a battle
for survival.

What
is most remarkable about this story is its candour in finally
acknowledging what many online have been pointing out for several
years. The balance of power in the media is changin

Popularity: 1%