'Disappearing' Journalism

When was the last time you saw someone sitting on a cozy sofa, attentively reading an unfolded newspaper with a cup of coffee? When was the last time you learned about fashion trends by reading a Vogue magazine rather than opening up Tiktok or Instagram? Journalism used to be peoples’ primary source of information, but now information reaches us before we even look for it. What worries me isn’t just fewer people around me reading newspapers, but the sources of information that replace what newspapers used to provide: short videos, AI chat boxes, and even comments on social media posts are now viewed by many people as reliable sources of information. Take my dad as an example: instead of reading news from a journalism article, he now immediately seeks an AI tool to summarize an event that happened. The growing reliance on technology as a source of information raises an important question: in a world where news becomes accessible anywhere and almost instantaneously, why do we still need newspapers?

The development of technology has indeed offered cheaper and faster ways to access information. As soon as a source like the New York Times reports onnews, the same information gets instantly spread over the internet through mediums such as news networks and social media bloggers, without requiring readers to pay any subscription fee. The result of this is the downfall in the journalism industry. The U.S journalism industry experienced a steep decline during the 1990s– reflecting the market’s shift of interest.  Since 2004, the United States has lost one fourth of its newspapers– including over 70 daily news and 2000 non daily news. By the end of 2019, the United States had only 6,700 newspapers, which contrasts significantly with the figure of 9,000 in 2004. The decline impacted local news equally with major daily newspapers. All newspaper producers are cutting sections and shifting to produce digital versions to decrease the cost. Strikingly, this February, the Washington Post laid off one third of its staff, eliminated its sports section along with several foreign bureaus and its book coverage. This ultimately reflects the major blow journalism industry faced as the Washington Post is one of the most prestigious news outlets.

The causes of the decline are complex, but one of the driving forces is the economic model of the journalism industry which has becomeextremely vulnerable with the rapid periods of technology growth. In the past, what enabled newspapers to be extremely profitable was the outlet's lag in information. Although news is non-excludable, meaning that everyone can use the information once it is published, in the time of printed articles the one day lag in reporting breaking news makes reporting a profitable activity. However, this characteristic that newspaper outlets used to take advantage of becomes challenged by technology. Now, news doesn't need to wait for the next day to be posted. Instead, everyone can spread information online without a prerequisite. In other words, with the aid of social media networks, the boundary between journalism and information becomes blurred. 

While information is defined as data and knowledge that doesn’t even need to be true, journalism transcends the definition of information by involving gathering, accessing, creating, and presentation of information. In other words, journalism includes careful selection of topics that reflects societal focus and enables writers to express their opinions. Consequently, only information that underwent verification and contains a specific intention could be considered as journalism. Nevertheless, the form in which journalism is presented has shifted dramatically due to the proliferation of technology. Now, journalism can also appear digitally not only as digital issues but also as short videos. Interestingly, the New York Times had already expanded journalism into video formats such as news videos and vertical videos designed for phones. In addition, to grab the attention of audiences in an era of information overload, the videos are specifically designed to be catchy in the first ten seconds. The shift in the form of journalism is significant as it suggests the ways companies were accommodating to audiences’ preferences. 

The shift in the format in which newspapers appear doesn’t diminish its value. In fact, journalism should be valued more under the time of AI. Journalism is the watchdog of the society– it is responsible for investigating government, corporations, and leaders in order to expose corruption and abuse of power to the society. As A.G Sulzberger, a publisher at the New York Times argues in his article, journalism should operate free from the government’s or cooperations’ control by practicing independent journalism and journalists should report “without fear or favor". The unbiasedness and credibility also made journalism extremely precious in the age of misinformation. When the costs of spreading false information become negligible, newspapers counter fake news and rumors by delivering accurate news to the society. 

Ultimately, the value of journalism never exists in the printed papers;instead it lies under the power of the words. Journalism will never disappear as there will always be people caring about global events and unjust people experienced.