This week’s On The Media was about investigate journalism - past, present, and future. Pretty interesting discussion worth a listen for anyone interested in open societies.
Investigative journalism is what keeps our governments and corporations honest. But it’s expensive.
As newspapers slash budgets, who will take up the cause?
They talk to the journalists who investigated and uncovered the My Lai massacre (Vietnam, 1968) and Abu Graib (Iraq, 2004). Jeff Jarvis talks a little bit about the future of journalism. (Man, he talks fast!)
On The Media: Shining a Light (8.15.08)
We devote the show this week to the illustrious past and perilous future of investigative reporting. How will investigative stories fare in an era of layoffs and slashed newsrooms budgets? Reporter and UC Berkeley professor Lowell Bergman, Stephen Engelberg of the investigative nonprofit ProPublica and The City University of New York’s Jeff Jarvis discuss the past, present and potential future of this core journalistic enterprise.
I asked a reporter friend who has worked for a major metro paper what she thinks the newspaper industry looks like in 5 years. She said organizations like the Associated Press and Reuters will gather the news, and everyone else will handle distribution in pretty USA Today packages.
The NY Times will probably hopefully be one of those frontline news gathering organizations. I wouldn’t mind if the LA Times just handled local coverage and distribution.
