Digital Journalism's Failure: Regulation, Platform Power, and Public Discourse

Key Quotes

"The blog gives everyone a printing press in a way and that truly is different. So at the Guardian, I remember the blog and also we did these quaint things in 2000, 1999, I think, the first one called newsletters that we put out. I don't know what happened to those things. And the blog was the thing which I think really animated journalists who were in legacy media organizations to think, wait a minute, there's this two-way possibility and also there's a kind of a dynamic updating possibility here."

Jay Rosen explains that the advent of blogging provided individuals with a powerful tool for self-expression, akin to having their own printing press. This innovation significantly impacted journalists in traditional media, prompting them to consider new possibilities for interaction and real-time content updates. Rosen highlights this as a pivotal moment that animated discussions about the future of journalism.

"I very much remember coming in for the first time and I think it was 2012, so this whole thing had been going for a while. And to tell you the truth, I hadn't been particularly interested. I mostly would hear about it from Oliver, who's now my husband, who was very interested and he'd be like, 'Oh, there's this guy Jay Rosen and he says this on Twitter.' And I remember Emily Bell from The Guardian and he says this, 'Oh, you got invited to Newsgeist, you should, you know, try to talk to this person and this person.' And what I mostly remember, I've told Emily this, is showing up at Newsgeist definitely being scared and intimidated because I was like, I don't really know what's going on here."

Emily Bell recounts her initial apprehension and intimidation upon attending the Newsgeist conference. She describes being introduced to the "future of journalism" circuit through her husband's interest in figures like Jay Rosen and Emily Bell. Bell's primary memory is feeling out of her depth and unsure of the proceedings at the event.

"My whole career has been about a single idea, which is journalism is improved when people outside the newsroom participate in it. And that, with all of its problems, is coming true. That's why we have to draw our attention, as we discussed this subject, to these moments when things repeat themselves but on a higher plane."

Jay Rosen reiterates his long-held belief that journalism benefits from external participation. He observes that despite challenges, this principle is proving to be true, necessitating a focus on recurring patterns of progress in journalism. Rosen suggests that understanding these repeating cycles, even on a more advanced level, is crucial for analyzing the field.

"There was a point at which one of the investors in Google said, 'Here's the thing, you people referring to us, the Guardian journalists, you have screwed your business model because we have understood what connects advertisers to the audience much better than you have. And now we're doing it, and that's it for you guys.' And it was a bit of a sobering moment when we got out of the room. One of my colleagues turned to me and said, 'Yeah, this is all very well, but they're really not in the same business as us.' And I think that I had a kind of an almost pit drop moment in my stomach because I was like, they're not, but yet they absolutely 100 are."

Emily Bell shares a pivotal encounter with a Google investor who asserted that tech companies understood the advertiser-audience connection better than news organizations. Bell describes this as a sobering moment, realizing that despite her colleague's initial dismissal, tech companies were indeed direct competitors in the media landscape. This realization marked a shift in her perspective on the industry.

"My favorite analogy, which is that of Gresham's Law, which is an old law quoted by economists which goes back to the days of silver coinage and Gresham's Law says that over time in an unregulated market, bad money drives out good. And it was really about how if you didn't weigh and measure your coins, people would start putting nickel into them and then over time, they would just be nickel coins, they would not be silver coins. And that always strikes me as we're in a speech market."

Jay Rosen employs Gresham's Law to illustrate a dynamic in the communication landscape. He explains that in an unregulated market, inferior currency tends to displace superior currency. Rosen applies this economic principle to the current "speech market," suggesting that without regulation, less valuable or harmful content can overwhelm more substantive contributions.

"The major news organizations did not, as a whole, ask themselves the critical question which is, how is this going to change my work and what becomes possible in journalism that was never possible before? And how do we change the product we're giving people to match the opportunity that the internet represents? Instead of reflection on that, journalists and news companies allowed themselves to get sucked into a surprising world where right off the bat, they had huge audiences."

Emily Bell critiques early digital strategies of major news organizations, arguing they failed to fundamentally rethink their work in the face of the internet. Bell states that instead of exploring new possibilities and adapting their products, news companies focused on leveraging existing content for larger audiences. She suggests this lack of critical self-examination led them into a problematic situation as revenue models collapsed.