The crisis of investigative reporting

Wednesday, 11th February 2009

I caught Walter Isaacson on the Daily Show last night (video here) talking about the future of newspapers and it was pretty scary.

Isaacson has written a long piece for Time magazine suggesting that media organisations have to find a way of charging for Internet content or journalism will die. His thinking is that if we are reliant entirely on advertising then there will be no demand for good old-fashioned investigative journalism, which is driven by the relationship between reporter and reader.

Stewart put it to Isaacson that the only way to save the print media was to invent narcotic ink, and I'm nearly as pessimistic. However, I'm with Isaacson on the crisis of investigative reporting.

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James Forsyth

February 11th, 2009 1:43pm Report this comment

Mike Kinsley makes an interesting point about the crisis in newspapers is a consequence of the end of home-town monoplies, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/opinion/10kinsley.html?em

KB

February 11th, 2009 2:49pm Report this comment

Considering how all the MSM except Fox and the Sacramento Bee are in the tank for Obama (and I'm kidding about one of those), this is a pretty rich comment for Isaacson to make. Back in the nineties they used to call it being a victim of your own success.

Tyrannosaura Regina non sum.

February 11th, 2009 3:47pm Report this comment

Surely you provide the answer yourself: "...good old-fashioned investigative journalism, which is driven by the relationship between reporter and reader" ?

If, instead of its readers, journalism kow-tows to the state or to ignorant advertisers (especially foreign ones), and media set themselves up as instruments of manipulation instead of information - well why would readers pay?

We know we can't trust present-day media. We know we can't trust present-day government. We're certainly not going to support the alliance - no matter how ageist you get, or 'snarky' (ha... if you're not up with that bit of zite spirit then you soon will be!!)

Jonathan

February 11th, 2009 3:50pm Report this comment

Investigative reporting is very important for a functioning democracy. However while it may be dissapearing from newspapers, surely it is appearing in a more 'distributed' form on the internet - a leak to Guido or Wikileaks, a blog post here or there.

While it lacks the big impact of a newspaper splash as it is instead carried out in the open, it does seem to lead to problems being outed.

KB

February 11th, 2009 4:35pm Report this comment

Perfect timing.

Michael Haddon

February 11th, 2009 6:12pm Report this comment

Newspapers will never find a way of charging for Internet content and they need to stop thinking along those lines. In his latest blog post Clay Shirky points out 'the word ‘micropayment’ is a trope for desperation, entering the vernacular of a given media market only after threats to older models become visibly dire.' It's an old argument that has been lost, they need to move on.

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