Communications and Media

Robert McChesney considered as the foremost figure in the American media in his research collected over the past two decades in his Political Economy of Media is clear about the fact that American journalism is in crisis. He said that concept of media being natural and had been adopted with excitement is mere assumption and untrue. The media now being controlled more by the corporate giants for their profit making and commercialization is not at all in the interest of the public instead media should be governed and controlled for the non profit motive. (McChesney, 2008) Moreover the commercial conglomerates are using media for their selfish interest and the basic essence of what media stands for has been lost. However what in real terms means crises This word has been defined by the Lerbinger, a professor at Boston University in his book The Crisis Manager. He states that A crisis is an event that brings, or has a potential for bringing, an organization into disrepute and imperils its future profitability, growth, and, possibly, its very survival. (Reid, 2000, p.1)

Here lies the paradox situation as this is a general definition of crisis, however it is not so conducive when we come to journalism, the profitability and growth has in fact increased. As journalism should be meant for the peoples interest but it has become profitable venture for media conglomerates. According to George Brock, a professor and the head of the Journalism at City University London, and World Editors Forums former president but its current board member in his lecture on 17th March, 2010 at City University states there has been total decentralization of the news, and the authoritative power of the process of consumption, as well as production of the news has changed hands taken by the people who would like to assert their authoritative power, and just smearing away the exceptional abilities and uniqueness which were once enjoyed by journalists. (Conde, 2010)

Presently, American journalism has reached a stage of what Joseph Schumpeter, an economist, called as creative destruction. This is the best definition of crisis in journalism as both the forces considered to be on the extreme end of each other creative and destructive are pushing journalism in America against each other. Towards the creative side, World Wide Web has opened several new opportunities for the growth of journalism with the space for free thinking and free generation of ideas but on the other hand the rate at which professionalism is at the decline is far more than the rate at which institutions can substitute this decline. (Coll, 2009)

Daniel Hallin and Paolo Mancini have identified three most important models of political communication and to differentiate between these three models, the authors make use of the four different dimensions with the first being the formation of the media markets with the particular attention to the circulation press second being parallelism in the political spheres or creation of links between media third is increase in the professionalism in journalism and fourth how much to the extent there is government intervention in the media. (Hallin  Mancini, 2004) Revolving around these four main divisions or parts, the journalism is playing its creative as well as destructive part.

However as there are problems in journalism and so are their solutions for the same. Government should try to resolve the crisis in journalism by making analytical review of the current position and giving new shape to the policies that it had not noticed previously enabling to reduce the gap that has developed between the old journalistic ways and new ones. This would ultimately go in the interest of the general public instead of media conglomerates. Some of these policies include modifying the technology in the way that the interest of the public is ensured in the various forms of new media. For example Congress, in stimulus legislation, has formulated the investment policy in the way that rural communities and disadvantaged sect can also enter into the competition to attain their right for broadband technology and in networks but to get desired results, it needs smooth implementation. (Coll, 2009)

The second solution lies in the fact that people should understand media not just as a means of generating news but as means of public good. It should be considered equivalent to any other welfare institution. Now the media and news are being used by the advertisers to meet their own interests and news are being considered as the product and as a medium for the advertisers to reach their target audience. This tendency should be changed. It should be understood that journalism is good for the people and should be used for the welfare of the people.

Many observers think that soon next generation of entrepreneurs would form a journalist environment by making use of the digital technology that could be very financially feasible for all. To achieve this aim government should give relaxation in regulations especially credits in taxes. Fourthly like any other good or service of the public interest, journalism also requires subsidies if it has to come up to the expectation of general public and to be a media for the public. (Nichols and McChesney, 2010)

As the 2009 was coming to an end, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) was focusing on the Leonard Downie Jr. and Michael Schudson report which suggested that broadcasters, Internet service providers, and telecom users to pay into a fund that would be used to support local accountability journalism in communities around the country. (Nichols and McChesney, 2010) CJR considered it as a radical suggestion. It is this radical approach that could allow journalism to attain the position and respect it so long demanded.

In the last, legislation should be crafted to enable the failed newspapers to become non-profitable venture entities. It is good for the media that they could adopt all the necessary news items and produce each of them together, irrespective of a specialized media. Shifting from high profitable venture to the low or non profit venture would mean keeping the traditional essence of journalism intact. (Coll, 2009) Moreover it is very important to have the rationalized legal authority too to get developed. It is very important in the public broadcasting system and in the agencies that regulate private broadcasting, formulate the allocation of press subsidies, etc. Where this legal regulatory model is developed, the media would be out of the control of government, political parties or any other governing bodies. (Hallin  Mancini, 2004)      

These solutions are no doubt good but there many obstacles in fully utilizing the same. Many technological changes are being taking place, and these have considerable impact on the advertising markets and along with it, the recession is the biggest factor that does not allow the free speech and free thinking, the main ideologies that journalism stands for.  Yet another most important factor cited is the cost. In fact a single foreign bureau operating in the high level professional standard could incur cost of 500,000 each year and during era of war, many multiples of this cost. However for the new business ventures in the arena of web publishing and content writing, this cost is too much. (Coll, 2009) The biggest hindrance also comes from the political circles who try to use journalism to gain political mileage and meet their political ends. They would never allow journalists to follow their own thought process making them a mere medium to convey their own political ideologies. Though many nations have regularized legal authority yet there is a political influence and bureaucratic control in the media circle. However in the places where the rationalized legal authority is strong, the bureaucratic control would be balanced by the professional autonomy of the civil servants including in the public broadcasting and journalism. However, where the legal authority is not very strong, the political party, and the penetration of the public broadcasting in media would be deeper and stronger. (Hallin  Mancini, 2004)      

Roots of the crisis in the journalism in America lies in the growth of the media conglomerates, privatization of media, influence of commercialization in the broadcasting of the news and in the news formation by journalists as well as entering of the new technology in the media in the form of digital revolution as well as influence of the government as well as advertisers in framing news to meet their own commercial interests. Solution lies in the formation of the policies by the government to make media more transparent and responsible for citizens instead of commercial players and secondly to restrict the regulations and making the new media open to all. There are many hurdles in bringing out this change and the most important is the continuous change in the technology making it imperative for the government and other institutions to welcome this change.