The Berkman Center for the Internet and Society at Harvard University has a report out today:News and Information as Digital Media Comes of Age.
The United States is now several years into what promises to be a transformation of the media. It is driven by the rapid expansion of the number of people and organizations newly engaged as authors, editors, and publishers, says the report.
The aim of the research is to identify areas where core journalism functions in a democracy are at stake and where there is potential for the networked digital media environment to offer something richer and more representative than anything previously available.
Six Key Issues:
- Under pressure from falling revenues and the disruption of their business model, traditional media outlets are reducing and shifting the scope of their original reporting.
- Web-native media entities are not addressing all of the crucial reporting gaps left by traditional media. Current structures and mechanisms do not provide sufficient incentives for them to do so.
- In the changing media environment, news consumers risk relying on news sources that are neither credible nor comprehensive.
- Participation in the online media space is not evenly distributed; some populations and ideas remain underrepresented.
- There are elements of critically important journalism that have not yet found reliable sustainability models in the online media environment.
- Efforts to understand and address these issues are limited by a lack of solid empirical evidence, and must rely instead on incomplete information, anecdotes, and intuition.
The Overview paper goes into possible responses for these challenges and in-depth look at media and news in the digital age.
There are more downloads available, such as
International News: Bringing about the Golden Age
Principles for a New Media Literacy
Meaty stuff here. Take it home for the holidays and dig in. A great preparation for your 2009 PR and media relations strategy.
