An American rapper Young Thug said, “We need money. We need hits. Hits bring money, money bring power, power bring fame, fame change the game.” That’s the way it was with The News About The News by Leonard Downie Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser.
Newspapers rise and fall, but the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal continue to prevail. Mom and pop newspapers of the past that did so well have given way to chains like Gannett and Knight Ridder. From the early 1960’s to the 2000’s there have been cutbacks in staff and coverage of major stories. News has given way to entertainment, commentary, and fluff. And the line of what’s news has been blurred.
The same is true of television. Anchors Tom Brokaw of NBC, Peter Jennings of ABC, and Dan Rather of CBS are all not happy with the quality of news delivered to the public. This downward trend has been noticed since the passing of broadcasting Golden Age when networks had bureaus in major capitals of the world. But now even the local TV stations are struggling with formats that focus on headlines, accidents, crime, weather, traffic reports, happy talk, and entertainment pieces. “If it bleeds it leads.”
The coming of mass media’s New Technologies has further complicated matters. Although these have resulted in a greater diversity of channels, news coverage with ENG, communications satellites, cable networks, and Internet services there’s still exists more uncertainty. Large and traditional media audiences of newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio have given way to less lucrative forms of news and information. Existing today is a multiplicity of niche audiences that are greatly impacting traditional ways of advertising. What this will mean to the existing traditional media systems is still debatable. Many of these media have incorporated Internet Websites, but are still to determine how these ventures could be profitable.
Yet Downie Jr. and Kaiser explained how the terrorists’ attacks of September 11, 2001 pumped new life into print and electronic news coverage. But it was speculated that this might not necessarily mean that the spiraling downward of journalism had stopped. But it could well be that the mass media would begin to give more attention to foreign news, and not focused on predominately local events, of crime, accidents, celebrities, weather reports, and natural disasters.