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3. The Nokia Effect: The Reemergence of Amateur Journalism and What It Means for International Affairs
- Louisiana State University Press
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47 3 the nokia effect The Reemergence of Amateur Journalism and What It Means for International Affairs STEVEN LIVINGSTON introduction Economic and technological forces have placed tremendous pressure on traditional journalistic practices and norms. On the economic front, the emphasis placed on profit by the corporate news media starves the pursuit of serious international news while it encourages dramatic but otherwise trivial content. As a result, in the last decade overseas bureaus have been shuttered, foreign correspondents sacked, and airtime and print space devoted to international news slashed.1 As veteran foreign correspondent Tom Fenton wrote in his thoughtful critique of American international affairs news coverage, the “mega-corporations that have taken over the major American television news companies squeezed the life out of foreign news reporting.”2 Just as disturbing to many news professionals is the realization that the economics of contemporary corporate news constitute only a part of the larger set of challenges confronting American journalism. This chapter considers how new information technology affects contemporary journalism . It also considers questions about how event-driven news—the sort of news favored by new technology—undermines the public’s ability to hold policy makers accountable while increasing the likelihood of supporting a more bellicose foreign policy. new technology and news gathering Several new information technologies are pulling viewers and readers away from traditional news media. As a recent report by the Carnegie Corporation noted, “Through Internet portal sites, handheld devices, recto 48 blogs and instant messaging, we are accessing and processing information in ways that challenge the historic function of the news business and raise fundamental questions about the future of the news field.”3 Those with concerns about the future of journalism would find additional discomfort in the declining numbers of newspaper readers in the United States, the creaky status of the network evening news programs (including the apparent demise of the star anchor system), and recent public opinion survey results revealing that Americans trust the news media less than every other major institution in American life. With these trends and public attitudes as backdrop, it is perhaps not surprising that American news consumers are turning to alternatives offered by new technologies.4 Ironically, many of the same technologies that threaten traditional news consumption habits dramatically expand the ability to gather and distribute socially relevant information. Often, this enhanced information gathering capability is used by traditional news organizations when reporting news. Examples of this include personal camcorder images used by television news to report natural disasters, plane crashes, or other events caught on camera. On other occasions, traditional media are bypassed altogether, such as when text messaging was used by Chinese citizens to spread news of the SARS epidemic at a time when official state-controlled media ignored it as a matter of official editorial policy. What sort of coverage is produced by the contradictory pull of shrinking news budgets on the one hand and the expanded technological capacity to cover events globally on the other? Fenton and other critics of American broadcast television news are probably correct when they argue that corporate news executives’ unyielding drive to squeeze profit from less substantive news does not auger well for foreign news coverage by broadcast networks. ABC (Disney), CBS (Viacom), and NBC (General Electric) seem unwilling to make the financial commitments required to recreate and maintain first-rate foreign affairs news gathering operations. For the many Americans who still rely on the broadcast networks for their news—about 35 million each evening—this is bad news. At the same time, the new technologies used to gather news, in conjunction with the Internet and a growing number of regional satellite television channels, mean that more news is now available to more people around the globe than ever before. For those Americans with satellite or STEVEN LIVINGSTON [44.222.128.90] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:36 GMT) 49 cable television or high-bandwidth Internet connectivity, there has never been a richer menu of news options. Typically, when analysts describe the new riches in news options they focus on the Internet, and for good reason . When surveys ask people where they turn for news, a growing number say the Internet.5 This is especially true of younger people. Countless books, articles, and reports have intoned this basic proposition. But this almost singular focus on the social and political significance of the Internet discourages closer examination of other important technologies. Rather than...