Do old Norms Have a Place in New Media?

Abstract

Emerging business models for news have the potential to affect the nature of democracy. As the economic foundations of mainstream journalism become increasingly shaky, a new economic model is emerging in the form of news organizations operating as nonprofits. These are mostly run by former newspaper journalists bringing with them traditional journalistic norms they worked under previously; now they are operating under a vastly different economic framework. These organizations are producing a growing amount of public affairs news while mainstream news production shrinks. The research question examined here is whether this emergent form (1) changes but maintains core norms and practices of the journalistic culture from which it arose, or (2) transforms norms and practices into something new. I briefly review norms and practices of traditional journalism to create a framework against which to compare behaviors at one nonprofit news organization, MinnPost, through ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews. My findings indicate that MinnPost values some traditional norms (e.g. loyalty to citizens); other norms are valued but not fulfilled in a traditional way (e.g. comprehensiveness of news coverage); yet others are largely eschewed (e.g. forum provision). This suggests a set of evolving journalistic tenets, which observations indicate are linked to MinnPost's economic structure. It points toward how emerging business models are changing journalism, and by extension could be affecting American democracy. This paper is part of a larger project investigating how nonprofit news organizations are changing the information available in local news environments.

KEYWORDS:

• ethnography
• journalistic norms
• journalism practices
• media economics
• new media
• nonprofits

Notes

1. Since 2007, more than 200 newspapers around the United States have shuttered and more than 42,000 journalists have been laid off (Smith 2012). Young Americans are less than half as likely as their older counterparts to read the news daily, and that discrepancy has been growing (Mindich 2004). While circulation revenue has been relatively stable compared to advertising revenue (Newspaper Association of America 2012), readership continues to drop. In 2011, newspaper advertising revenue overall—including online—was less than half of what it had been at its peak, just 11 years earlier (Project for Excellence in Journalism 2012).

2. The Christian Science Monitor was founded more than 100 years ago; the Tampa Bay Times (formerly St. Petersburg Times) has been operated by a nonprofit since 1978; and two nonprofit investigative centers, the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Center for Public Integrity, have been around since 1977 and 1989, respectively.

3. In August, the Bush Foundation conducted its own poll, focusing on respondents' views of the state and how the budget crisis might be solved. MinnPost was the only news organization to poll, and the only organization to poll on whom the public was blaming for the crisis.

4. Joel Kramer explained that Daves knew MinnPost had little money, and conducted the poll for the recognition and for free advertising.