Jeffrey Dvorkin is a former management leader at CBC Radio and NPR in Washington, DC. His ire at technology highlighted some interesting points on the state of digital consequences.
Media managers are wondering what went wrong. They are asking why journalism doesn’t pay any more. If the solutions are hard to discern, they have only to look at the technology they so eagerly embrace. It’s the digital technology.
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We live in strange times.
We have a lodging system called Air BnB. It doesn’t own any actual hotels.
There’s a food delivery service called Foodora. It doesn’t own any restaurants.
There’s a video service called Youtube. It doesn’t own movie or TV companies.
There’s a taxi company called Uber. It doesn’t own any cars.
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Journalism is also being Uber-ized. Newspapers have closed or been downsized, broadcasters have cut their more expensive (and usually more labor-intensive) content. In the rush to return to the once rich profit margins of the early 2000s, media organizations are being urged by their shareholders to dispense with expensive ventures like international reporting. Instead, news consultants are hired to telling their news clients that weather, traffic and crime (WTC) are what most audiences prefer.
Not co-incidentally, WTC also happens to be the cheapest and most readily available content. And all three bits of low-hanging journalistic fruit, happen to originate from government sources. So much for independent journalistic inquiry.
Full version: http://www.nowthedetails.com/2016/02/the-uber-ization-of-journalism.html