The Future of News

In a book review, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds posits an alternative explanation for the decline of our mass media institutions. He claims, “The Golden Age of mass culture didn’t end just because the Internet let people do their own thing [as suggested by the author]. It ended because people looked at the low - and steadily declining - quality of mass-marketed television, radio, news, films, and music and concluded that they could do better.”

To Reynolds’ thoughts, I would add that the modern standards of journalism are largely responsible for the low quality of mainstream news. It is very hard to produce compelling, entertaining, and provocative stories that attract and satisfy readers. But, it is virtually impossible to do this while at the same time being limited by questionable principles like “objectivity” and an authoritative voice, which suck the lifeblood out of most stories. Journalism elites must liberate journalists from these shackles if mainstream news is to survive.