There's more to life than fluff, hype and horse races

THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN FLUFF, HYPE AND HORSE RACES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times 5/7, AUTHOR: Robert W. McChesney, University of Illinois]
[Commentary] Effective democratic journalism means a news system that: is a rigorous watchdog over people in power and people who want to be in power, in both the public and private sector; provides a wide range of informed opinion on the important issues of the day, and provides an early warning system for issues on the horizon;
ferrets out over time truth from lies so liars cannot operate with impunity. By these standards we should have grave concerns about our journalism, and yes, it is getting worse. Doing quality journalism no longer makes business sense for the handful of firms that dominate the news business.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-dustup7may07,0,6735373.story?c...
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* Empowering us with our own spare time
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times 5/7, AUTHOR: Glenn Harlan Reynolds, University of Tennessee]
[Commentary]
To secure its future, Big Media is going to have to try something it hasn't excelled at in recent years: Producing a quality product. Will it manage? Not, I suspect, under current management.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-dustup7may07,0,6735373.story?p...

CAN YOU TEACH AN OLD MEDIA NEW TRICKS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times 5/8, AUTHOR: Glenn Harlan Reynolds, University of Tennessee]
[Commentary] Quality matters, and today's news media aren't delivering. There are a lot of reasons, but the most important, I fear, is that most of the people running newspapers and television networks are, to put it kindly, clueless. Hard-news reporting—actual facts, not opinion—remains the "killer app" for Big Media. But they're not making proper use of their structural advantages there, and those advantages are likely to weaken over time. Right now, traditional media organizations are still in a much better position overall to cover actual news than citizen journalists. They've got the infrastructure, the training, and the experience. But those advantages are eroding daily as technology shifts in favor of smaller operations, and as citizen journalists gain experience and audience. Will Big Media change in time? They will if they're smart—which is to say, probably not.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-dustup8may08,0,7194127.story?c...
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* Create a better media world
[Commentary] Do we define traditional media as institutions the produce journalism or do we define traditional media as old technologies, like television and newsprint? If it is the former, the answer is an emphatic yes, we need traditional media, even in the digital era; if it is the latter, the answer is less clear and debatable. Likewise, do we define citizen journalists as people conducting journalism in their spare time with no institutional support or do we define citizen journalists as full-time journalists who may not have traditional training and who are building new institutions that produce journalism? If it is the former, the answer is yes, we need traditional media; if it is the latter, the answer is less clear and debatable. I tend to define both traditional media and citizen journalists in the former sense, so my answer to the question tends to be a resounding yes.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times 5/7, AUTHOR: Robert W. McChesney, University of Illinois]
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-dustup8may08,0,7194127.story?c...