The quote “the one who owns the information – owns the world”, which belongs to Nathan Rothschild, best describes how the world looks today. The leadership of owning the info belongs to the information research agencies, which collect and analyse information, and, of course, the news agencies. Or does it not?
According to the data provided by The Statistics Portal Statista, there were 1,387 daily newspapers in America in 2014, comparing to 1,730 in 1985. Mitchell and Holcomb report, that in 2014 news industry of the United States generated almost 65 billion dollars of annual revenue, while Google alone generated “58 billion dollars that year” (Holcomb& Mitchell, 2014). What we see here is a reconstruction of the news industry. The era of dominant newspapers and influential news agencies is coming to an end, giving way to the business units and companies in which the news gathering and distribution of news is more widely dispersed (Downie&Schudson, 2009). Along with the printed news, commercial television news also loose their audiences, giving the pathway to the digital news.
Today, in the era of high technologies and super speed Internet, news and independent reporting is under threat. The Internet has made it easy for the individuals, university-run news services, bloggers, nonprofit reporting agencies or, literally, everyone being able to gather and distribute news in new ways (Downie&Schudson, 2009). News, that were gathered and analyses by reporters are now left behind, because reporting itself has become a participatory and collaborative process. Availability of diverse views allows to look at the news from a different angle, namely from a whole variety of angles, to have a better view on what and how is done in the world.
Statista (2016). Number of daily newspapers in the United States from 1985 to 2014. Web.
Holcomb, J., Mitchell, A. (26 March, 2014). The Revenue Picture for American Journalism
and How It Is Changing. Web. 21 Apr, 2016. Retrieved from:
www.journalism.org/2014/03/26/the-revenue-picture-for-american-journalism-and-how-it-is-changing/
Downie, Jr. L., Schudson, M. (Nov/Dec, 2009) The Reconstruction of American Journalism.
Web. 21 Apr, 2016. Retrieved from:
www.cjr.org/reconstruction/the_reconstruction_of_american.php
