Dialectic of Gloom How the press survived the Great Recession of 2008,after slashing its wrists and writing its own obituary.
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文摘
THE DEATH of news panic that began in 2008 has painted a portrait of a business rendered obsolete by digital technology and being forced into extinction by a "broken business model." However,a closer look at the press coverage reveals more complex circumstances,which must be placed in the context of 50 years of media theory to be appreciated. Unfortunately,as several observers have noted,the discourse has been dominated by a point of view that is business-focused and Western-centric. As a result,the conversation has excluded such constituencies,as small-city dailies,community newspapers,alternative publications,and the business in such emerging nations as India,China,Argentina,Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa,where daily journalism is surviving,and in some cases booming. Another characteristic of the conversation is that it ignores many years of criticism,as if there is an unspoken assumption that the "broken business model" has absolved the industry of such well documented shortcomings as: a tendency to practice safe journalism that appeals to the affluent and provides a pleasant climate for advertising； a preoccupation with the rich and the powerful； the abandonment of investigative reporting. At the same time,the economic situation has,as Tina Brown put it,provided timely "air cover" for an industry that has long been run by corporations that have financed acquisitions with debt,while tying themselves to shareholder expectations of unrealistic profits---to the point that many profitable newspapers were forced by heavily indebted parent companies into rounds of layoffs that undermined the brands that were supposed to carry them into the digital age. New technology has presented large challenges for mainstream news businesses---not the least of which is the way the Internet has revolutionized advertising. Yet,the newspaper industry has largely been the author of much,if not most,of it own misfortune. Finally,because of the focus on industrial imperatives,the conversation about the great promise of the new technology in terms of the practice and craft of journalism has been reduced almost to a sideshow,when it could be argued that it should be at the centre of the discussion.