Comments on: Journalism: A profession under siege http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/2009/06/08/journalism-a-profession-under-siege/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:09:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: tommo http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/2009/06/08/journalism-a-profession-under-siege/#comment-252492 tommo Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:01:53 +0000 http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/?p=504#comment-252492 This is a good, well researched piece. It will be interesting to see what happens when convergence really sets itself in South Africa. The Sun I'm sure will continue to thrive for a long time though due to the general lack of resources of the majority of its readership. Karl, you are so boring to be finding mistakes like that. Look, ive made a grammatical mistake in this sentence. Don't have a heart attack though okay? This is a good, well researched piece.

It will be interesting to see what happens when convergence really sets itself in South Africa. The Sun I’m sure will continue to thrive for a long time though due to the general lack of resources of the majority of its readership.

Karl, you are so boring to be finding mistakes like that. Look, ive made a grammatical mistake in this sentence. Don’t have a heart attack though okay?

]]> By: Murray Hunter http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/2009/06/08/journalism-a-profession-under-siege/#comment-252442 Murray Hunter Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:57:48 +0000 http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/?p=504#comment-252442 Like Handfield-Jones, I take exception to your statements on Wikipedia - certainly it has no shortage of flaws but there's good evidence to suggest that on balance their articles are accurate. There are, of course, plenty of howlers to go with that. There's Tehran 2.0, too, as an example where mass media probiders were asleep at the wheel. But I share your concern for the future of journalism. Until a new sustainable business model can be found (if, indeed, such a thing is possible) the activity, trade or profession of journalism is in peril. Citizen journalists have a great deal to contribute but they can never completely replace the ole gumshoe reporter - the fellow who sits in court all day, plows through the draft bills, trades secrets with deputy ministers over drinks, etc. Citizen journalists, after all, have day jobs. I do believe many people would be willing to pay for good information, if we found ourselves in a world where the New York Times, the AP and Reutershad closed up shop. Here is a major problem with the transition to any kind of payment model: the internet simply doesn't lend itself to such privatisation of information. What would stop a paying subscriber from hijacking copy off nytimes.com and posting it on her own blog? How would we police that, and would we want to? The very idea goes against our era's cherished notion of democratised information. Moreover, see this story for an indication of how problematic such a payment scheme might be: "The AP Will Sell You A License To Words It Doesn't Own" http://bit.ly/n1Q6 On a mildly less apocalyptic note, see this story from The Atlantic: Time and Newsweek falter, yet The Economist is in robust health http://bit.ly/pBfnU Like Handfield-Jones, I take exception to your statements on Wikipedia - certainly it has no shortage of flaws but there’s good evidence to suggest that on balance their articles are accurate. There are, of course, plenty of howlers to go with that. There’s Tehran 2.0, too, as an example where mass media probiders were asleep at the wheel.

But I share your concern for the future of journalism. Until a new sustainable business model can be found (if, indeed, such a thing is possible) the activity, trade or profession of journalism is in peril. Citizen journalists have a great deal to contribute but they can never completely replace the ole gumshoe reporter - the fellow who sits in court all day, plows through the draft bills, trades secrets with deputy ministers over drinks, etc. Citizen journalists, after all, have day jobs.

I do believe many people would be willing to pay for good information, if we found ourselves in a world where the New York Times, the AP and Reutershad closed up shop. Here is a major problem with the transition to any kind of payment model: the internet simply doesn’t lend itself to such privatisation of information. What would stop a paying subscriber from hijacking copy off nytimes.com and posting it on her own blog? How would we police that, and would we want to? The very idea goes against our era’s cherished notion of democratised information.

Moreover, see this story for an indication of how problematic such a payment scheme might be: “The AP Will Sell You A License To Words It Doesn’t Own” http://bit.ly/n1Q6

On a mildly less apocalyptic note, see this story from The Atlantic: Time and Newsweek falter, yet The Economist is in robust health http://bit.ly/pBfnU

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