State of the News Media 2013

Okay, so I honestly thought this was going to be very boring and painful, but in reality, it really wasn’t that bad. It was interesting seeing how in-depth this research goes, and all the different aspects of the news media that it covers. Plus, there were a ton of graphs, and who doesn’t love a good graph every now and then?

After reading the State of the News Media report, something that really struck me was how the cuts being made to news reporting resources are ultimately leading to “a news industry that is more undermanned and unprepared to uncover stories, dig deep into emerging ones or to question information put into its hands.” 60% of people who have abandoned their news sources have done so because the stories seem “less complete,” and the coverage of the latest presidential campaign was labeled as mainly a “direct relaying of assertions” without any interpretation on behalf of the journalists. All of these findings show that editors are facing a major problem, and that is a decrease in story quality…which seems like a pretty bad problem to have. I feel like no one really wants a team of reporters giving you stories that just aren’t very thorough. But, I guess the silver lining in this is that the reporters have the basics down; they just need that extra push, and being able to give them that is a pretty great opportunity for an editor. I think this is really going to give editors reasons to stay sharp and be able to find the missing elements of a story. I think this really amplifies the role of the editor because with stories becoming less in-depth, they are not only going to have to find the cosmic elements in these stories, but they are also going to have to work along with the writers and be able to help them identify the spark in their own stories.

I also found it interesting in the report where it said that, “The gap between acting on a digital news tip or a conversation one makes sense: It is easier and faster to click on a link that is literally at your fingertips than it is to find a story in a newspaper.” The report said a lot about the transition to digital media and I think this quote really sums up the convenience of it, and why people are making that change from the old format to a new one.