BNR’s producer, Dan Hatch, joins Nic Hayes and Sarah Mitchell to take a deep dive into what’s going wrong with the media these days — from credibility, accountability, shrinking newsrooms and falling advertising revenues to fake news and “churnalism”.
Here are some key take-outs:
- Shrinking advertising revenues have led to shrinking newsrooms and reduced quality.
- The media is more polarized than ever. We really see this in the US where the laws were changed in the 80s to remove the requirement for balance.
- Less well-resourced newsrooms mean there’s a lack of specialisation in journalism, making it harder for journalists to hold power to account.
- Journalists are working very hard but they are under-resourced.
- Media consumption has changed and the media hasn’t adapted.
- News consumers are actively looking for quality news and they’re starting to show they’re willing to pay for it by subscribing to news services they like.
On My Desk
- Sarah’s recommendation was Mic.
- Dan’s recommendation was the Facebook page, Angry People in Local Newspapers.
- Nic’s recommendation was to take the time out to meet other business owners and have a coffee. He’s doing two a week. The idea is to see if there’s a way to help each other’s businesses.
Have you heard the one about…
Recently James, Sarah and Nic took a close look at affordable marketing ideas for a start-up.
And here’s a discussion about the evasive communications tactics used by Donald Trump.
Like what you’ve heard?
Give us a follow on SoundCloud to get the latest episodes.
Or, you can subscribe or leave a review on iTunes.
