In the book, there are many issues that the author brings to the attention about journalism in America. The authors start by stating that there was massive layoffs and increase of bad news. The book records that there was massive layoffs of close to 6000 journalists in the year 2008. There were newspapers which were being closed. There were reported bankruptcies of the decrease in sales of advertisements. The classified sections of newspapers were dwindling. All these are presented in chapter one of the book where the authors argue that the problems that were experienced came as a result of the mechanics and that of ledgers instead of the problems of journalists and the peril of democracy (p. 19). This is as a result of years of commercialism in the media and that of serving the public good. The view of the authors is that journalism is healthy and they are looking for ways in which they can survive on the internet. They agree that there are many people who are reading newspapers for free online. The authors argue that America was developed by journalists. He argues that it was in the Philadelphia Journal that a call was made by Tom Paine for America to start governing their own affair as a state. In the Declaration of independence, there was effort by Paine to ensure that patriots who were not willing to forge ahead together to bring a revolution to the world. Paine was the most widely read writer in America and was the most influential. The authors observe that America has been respected and has been the most powerful for the last two centuries. He notes that there is no free and functional press. Without the media, there would be no source of information.
Urbanization created a lot of changes in lifestyle and use of modern methods of communication. Gentrification is the changes that come when people who are more affluent come to a place. There are changes in the place where gentrification takes place. With gentrification due to the industrial revolution, there was change in the communication channels where the internet was now replacing old communication channels like newspapers. This was changed and internet revolution took over. Gentrification can be seen to be causing the death of journalism in America. More affluent people bring the changes to a given town or neighborhood. These changes include the new channels of communication like the internet.
Anyone who believes that media will be eradicated and wiped away and their possessions reverted to be controlled locally is still dreaming. They argue that for the media to still survive, the government will need to come in and save the media. The authors argue that the big media players are sick and need immediate help. It is in chapter one that the authors argue that the government should come in and pay the bills. Editors and presenters should be paid by the government. They go ahead to argue that the government has been advocating for free press by initiatives such as mail subsidies and tax breaks. They argue that the government should help media houses to pay for other service.
Another aspect of social assessment is the barriers which have been broken by the internet. The issue of tribalism and discrimination has been eradicated by the fact that the world is becoming flatter by the day. People get news from all over the world. This is because of the internet and the social sites that have been developed. Social discrimination was another discriminating factor that affected journalism to thrive in America. With the introduction of the internet and blogosphere, there is ‘common and increased use of the internet instead of newspaper.
The book also brings valid judgment and arguments about the government and the nonprofit organizations replacing the media organizations to undertaking the role of being patrons of media and journalism. The book gives an outline of how the media were before they became mouthpieces of some politicians. Then, they argue, media houses were independent, and financed by adverts that were made in these media house. The book gives an example of other media houses in Scandinavian countries that get state support. The examples that are given by the author are The Guardian in the UK and St. Petersburg Times, in Florida. There is a baloney detector that is passed by the authors over the standard and media company line that the media was brought done by technological competition and hard economic times that were not foreseen initially. The book outlines that there nothing much that has changed since the 80s and the 90s when academics used to catalogue the damages that the press has suffered from the big media. Some of these damages include the short-sightedness of the management, the debt that was fueled by loads of loans that were taken by the media houses. One other damage was the undue pressure from the shareholders. Due to this, there has been downsizing of employees so that media houses can meet the bottom-line, shareholders demanding for dividends and large debts that bring financial implications to the company.
The authors argue that not all newspapers have been floored; there are other newspapers which are doing well in the America. They argue that a good recovery of the economy could do wonders for some newspapers when the long-term is looked into. Although this is the case, there are few companies which will succeed against the tide of history that is being experienced.
The authors argue that when the internet became a force to reckon with, the newspapers had already started their down way thrift. This was undertaken by cutting the size of journalism. Young people were irrational when they started going online to read news. This further made it worst because it was only a given generation that was reading the newspapers. The newspapers only helped to accelerate the process and gave journalism death sentence (p 37).
The media top executives decided not to charge for advertising in the classifieds and content. This was erased without having a proper replacement of the revenue that was lost in this process. The authors give four ways in which journalism can be recreated and rethought. The four things are:
- The good of the public,
- Something that is supported by the society because the market is not able to support.
- Part of our social infrastructure
- An integral part of the global sphere.
There is a plan that is being undertaken by journalism that is privately funded where they are seeking to roll out conversion from corporate newspaper to one that is post corporate digital newspaper. This is taken to be an equivalent of New Deal-era Works Progress Administration. In this model, the government subsidizes journalism by way of taxing items like broadcast spectrum, advertising and the use of smart phones and consumer electronics and devices. The two authors go ahead and advocate that the proceeds should be directed to news voucher of about 200 USD for each US citizen which could be donated to any news agency that is not for profit.
With this, the authors emphasizes on eth faith that the citizens of America have on actions to achieve responsible journalism. They advocate that citizens would be enthusiastic in the selling these vouchers. The authors advocate that the campaign would gear at informing the citizens of the news that they would like to hear. It would be common for citizens to see a rise in well funded public news organizations that are oriented to reducing taxes, reducing the controls of the government in businesses, taking control of migration, controlling and keeping track of celebrities, fighting crime and ensuring that global warming is fought. They project that it will be hard to control the use of vouchers by forces that are out to make profit from public communication channels for their own individualistic gains.
Another issue is that of looking at journalism as either business or a public service; with this, there is a neglect of craft and artistry. They advocate for quality journalism although they do not give a better description of this journalism. They complain that the new paradigm shift that is being seen is a thin and lifeless shadow of the newspapers that has been used in the past (p. 9). They do not outline the steps that are required to have quality journalism.
The two authors ignore the shift that Americans are taking where people prefer image-based culture from print-based one. They assume that there is a lot of preference to newspapers. They argue that the use of newspapers will still grow if effort is taken to improve on the quality of content in the newspapers. Newspapers engage the readers instead of offering entertainment to the readers. This can be adopted by newspapers so that the competition and the value they have been adding to human life can be regained.
Sociological assessment
The death of America journalism can be attributed to neo-liberalism. Neoliberals can be said to be the main cause and driver for the reforms that are seen in the newspapers and the death of newspapers. Neo-liberalism can be defined as the process of organizing social and economic policy so that private enterprise can become stable. It is, therefore, aimed at ensuring that the private sector is stable to determine the role it plays in determining the economy of a country. This is achieved by revolutionary changes and enhancements in the private enterprise. Comparing this to politics and economic life, there are sociological implications and similarities to the arguments that are presented by the authors. In politics and economic life, there have been structural transformations that have been experienced with capitalism in America for the last 100 years. There have been neo-liberalism regimes which have spanned from the period of 1978-1982. This revolution saw the changes in technology. This is the cause of the death of journalism in America. It is in these revolutions that technological revolutions were experienced. There was the use of the internet and emergence of blogs and blogosphere. This changed the way news was received. It changed the whole paradigm of news creation and reception by the readers. The text is seen to reflect the changes that were experienced in the telecommunications sector. It is in this sector that changes have been seen and experienced.
It can also be seen that there is some form of prejudice. This is because any believe that online news is more entertaining than newspapers. This is a prejudice for affinity for use of the internet. The adoption of the internet entered to newspapers and brought a revolution that can be compared to that of neo-liberalism. In these reforms, many took the internet and internet news with enthusiasm. This optimism has led to a bias for online news and people believe that online news is entertaining, accurate and up to date. This follows the philosophy of liberalism and neo-liberalism. The arguments of the authors can be seen to be in tandem with the revolutions that were initially experienced.
References
Herrmann, E., & McChesney, R. (2001). Global media: The new missionaries of global capitalism. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
McChesney, R., & Nichols, J. (2010). The death and life of America journalism: The media revolution. New York: Nation Books.
