Is Social Media Forcing the End of Investigative Journalism?

Posted by Nick O'Neill on February 15th, 2008 3:04 PM

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that they will be cutting 100 newsroom jobs this year. That’s because the attention is no longer on newspapers or new sites but it going to other forms of media including social media (blogs, twitter, social networks, etc). As attention turns elsewhere I can’t help but think that the quality of news will drop.

Then again, one might argue that the beginning of 24-hour news channels was the beginning of the end of high quality news sources. I have stopped spending as much time on sites like the Wall Street Journal and CNN and now instead spend my time reading through thousands of blogs that write about topics that I’m interested. I also think that I am part of a minority group and so are the active readers of this blog.

Even still, statistics are showing that traditional television viewers are going to YouTube and MySpace Video to find their video content. That means that it isn’t just the social media advocates that are becoming converts. Ultimately though, it is easier for an individual to pump out editorial content then spending time investigating a story. As result we are seeing a decrease in the quality of content being produced. Is this a bad thing? I think so. What do you think?

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Jenn 2 years ago 1 point
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I think you're missing the point a little bit. The quality of news has always been questionable. It's the media mentality of the few who know best choosing the stories to report on for the masses that leads people to pursue alternative sources for news. It's not about the end of investigative journalism, but the beginning of an end user driven media era.

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http://insidetherabbithole.com

Charlie 2 years ago 1 point
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Who knows, maybe some new kind of entity will crop up that we wouldn't recognize as anything quite like a newspaper, specializing in investigative journalism, with a new business model to support itself.

It you're the source of new, important information, that's much more attractive to readers/listeners/viewers than just being part of a vast echo chamber.

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Mike Keliher 2 years ago 1 point
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Good journalism - and/or the need for it - will never, ever die. Sure, there will cuts and changes and turbulence, and maybe the business will never be the same. Maybe there are *too many* people getting paid to practice professional journalism right now. And you know what? Not all of it's good. I could rant all day long about how some (SOME, not all) journalism, especially on TV, needs some serious help.

The decrease in salaries or in the number of people receiving those salaries is rough for those people and their families, but beyond that, I think this is a largely overblown issue. We'll see the pendulum swing a bit away from what most people call "real journalism" toward things like blogs and podcasts and such. And then we'll hit a time when people say, "Wait, where the hell is the real journalism?"

And the Times will start hiring again.

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http://www.unjournalism.com