The Pew Research Center has given a good overview of the 2010 edition of the State of the News Media. Things that I found of interest in the Executive Summary include the following:
Roughly a third of the newsroom jobs in American newspapers in 2001 are now gone, and those cuts come particularly in specialty beats like science and the arts, suburban government and statehouse coverage. (p. 9)
This is particularly worrisome in consideration with the finding that “self-interested information providers are now growing rapidly”(p. 6):
As newsrooms get smaller, the range of non-journalistic players entering the information and news field is growing rapidly. The ranks include companies, think tanks, activists, government and partisans. Some are institutions frustrated by the shrinking space in conventional media and the absence of knowledgeable specialists to cover their subjects. Others are partisans and political interests trying to exploit a perceived opportunity in journalism’s contraction. There are varying degrees of transparency in these efforts about the financing and intentions. Some are quite clear. Others present themselves as purely journalistic and independent when in fact they are funded by political activists, yet only by digging and cross-referencing websites can the agenda and financing be divined. In an age where linking and aggregation are part of journalism, news organizations must decide how they want to interact with this growing cohort of self-interested information players. Will they pick up this material and disseminate it? Can they possibly police it? Can they afford to ignore it? The only certainty is that these new players are increasingly vying for the public’s and the media’s attention, and their resources, in contrast to that of traditional independent journalism, are growing. (p. 6-7)
With self-interested parties and media conglomerates defining what gets reported, the future of the media looks grim.
For me, the most alarming report was the following:
Perhaps the biggest news in media ownership in 2009 was the pending sale by General Electric and Vivendi of NBC Universal to the cable company Comcast. The sale includes NBC’s broadcast network, cable channels and company-owned local TV stations.
There should be a clear division between content provision and network provision because vertical integration of Internet Service Providers can only mean bad news for net neutrality. Self-interest will win out as Comcast will want to (and will be able to - since they own the network) provide easier, faster, and more ubiquitous access to their content.
To see vertical integration in action, check out Pew’s “Who Owns the News Media“.