ID: C0293995
CMST 180
April 19, 2022
Digital Media is Causing a Decline in Reporting Quality
Bidleman, Cricket. “Legendary Sports Writer Fears for Decline in Print Journalism.”
Peninsula Press, Peninsula Press, 19 Apr. 2022,
peninsulapress.com/2022/04/19/legendary-sports-writer-fears-for-decline-in-printjournalism/.
The article provides an insight regarding the decline of the traditional journalism. The
article compares the context and quality of journalism in the 1960s and the present era, through
an opinion of a journalist, Hal McCoy. Hal McCoy has been a sports journalist for about 49
years. In this case, McCoy highlights that the quality of the reporting as well as content of the
mass media, especially in major areas such as news and sports has declined extensively.
According to the article, journalists rarely covered stories about the personal engagements of the
athletes prior to the introduction of digital mass media. However, the need to attract the attention
of the viewers and readers influence the content of the modern reporting. In this case, modern
reporters add content that has minimal effect on the main idea of the message in order to acquire
either a large viewership or following on the different special media platforms. In addition, the
boundary between the journalists and the subject no longer exists because the constant reporting
about the athlete’s personal life rather than writing or reporting about their performance in
sports. As such, the nature of reporting and content of the reporting is geared towards attracting a
large followership on digital media rather than accurately informing the audience.
Tsfati, Yariv, et al. “Causes and Consequences of Mainstream Media Dissemination of
Fake News: Literature Review and Synthesis.” Annals of the International
Communication Association, vol. 44, no. 2, 2020, pp. 157–173.,
doi:10.1080/23808985.2020.1759443.
This publication claims that dissemination of fake news in the mainstream media is
mainly driven by the digital media technology. Yariv et al. highlights that disinformation has
been present in the media since the beginning of mass media. However, the current increase in
the amount of fake news in the mainstream media is due to the adoption of different forms of
digital media such as online journalism and social media. In this case, the present era in mass
media is characterized by the availability of ‘post truth’ and ‘alternative facts.’ As such, there has
been an increase in the lies in the public sphere, which is generated through the mass media.
According to Yariv et al., social media is one of the mediums for disinformation and fake news.
The desire by the reporters and mass media companies to attract large numbers of social media
followers is main contributor to the publication and spread of fake news. In addition, digital
media enables the information to spread to quicky and directly to the readers through different
online platforms. In this context, mass media companies can spread fake information to the
public regarding specific topics such as politics, entertainment or economy in order to support a
given agenda or idea based on the needs of the patron or sponsor of the media company.
Newman, Nic. “Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2022.” Reuters
Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University, Jan. 2022,
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-andpredictions-2022.
Newman points out that both the audience and journalists have been ‘burnt out’ by the
increased news agenda and polarized debates about different issues in society such as identity,
politics, and culture. The publication indicates that the occurrence of the COVID-19 crisis in
2021 created an avenue for the growth of the digital media, which pursued varied agenda in
society. The increase in the usage of digital media created a space spread of opinions based,
rather than factual information on the mass media. According to Newman, news’ audiences in
different parts of the world has extensively declined since 2020 because of the increased
adoption of the digital media as source of information and news. However, the information that
is availed to the audience through digital media platforms such as social media, and blogs lacks
reliable and accurate information. In addition, the young population in many parts of the world
have turned away from mainstream news by embracing the new digital media. The publication
further highlights that journalist conduct minimal research in their reporting because of the
increase in demand for instant news on digital platforms. This lack of research has contributed to
low quality journalism and reporting because of the large number of lies and fake content in
news.
O’Brien, Daniel, Christian-Mathias Wellbrock, and Nicola Kleer. "Content for free?
Drivers of past payment, paying intent and willingness to pay for digital
journalism–a systematic literature review." Digital Journalism 8.5 (2020): 643-672.
In this publication, O’Brien et al. argues that the present journalism model has
contributed to a decline in the quality of reporting and content of mass media. in this case, the
revenue model that is based on advertising is challenged by the digitalization of the mass media,
such that paid content model has been adopted by mass media companies. Prior to the adoption
of digital media, journalistic content providers relied on paid advertisement to finance various
aspects of the media such as research and content creation. However, the demise of this model
due to the rise of digital media contributes to financial problems among the mass media
companies, which limits the quality of reporting and journalistic content in the mass media. Most
advertising firms opt for digital media platforms such social media that provides instant results in
terms of reaching the consumer market. However, most of the digital media content providers
invest minimally in ensuring quality content, which has limited the reliability of the media
content and reporting.