In response to the question, “What form will journalism take in the age of new media?”, a quick thought, speculative and devoid of adequate substantiation.
I’ve heard a lot of worrying about what will take the place of newspapers and news magazines as their decline continues. My worrying runs in a different direction. I have complete faith that what the market demands the market will supply. I don’t pretend to know exactly what form it will take, but I’m confident that there will develop profitable ventures in journalism that exhibit or even improve upon the standards set by the newspapers of the last couple centuries.
That is, if there is demand for such information. As I see newspapers failing, I’m concerned not that the press will stop serving its indispensable purpose in a free society; I’m concerned instead about what it might indicate about the American public’s interest in matters of public import such as politics, religion, and economics.
The demise of newspapers would cause me no great concern except for the fact that the trend occurs in the context of reports that our educational system fails to guarantee basic literacy among a disturbingly large portion of our population, that the average number of books Americans read is declining, and that high percentages of us rely on late-night comedy as our primary source of political information.
In sum, I don’t doubt our ability to produce high quality journalism, but I increasingly wonder, who will read it?
