EP 924 News Media Rocked by Technological and Political Pressures

  I’m old enough to remember when ABC, NBC and CBS dominated our television viewing and our consumption of electronic news, and that the viewer had to be in front of the television set at an appointed time to receive the information.  Today, the gatekeeper, who once decided when and what type of news content you would see or hear, is a relic.  News on your phone, social media, podcasts and all manner of sources put you in control of what you will read, see and hear. Newspapers, television and radio have become almost quaint and rarely utilized by anyone under a certain age.  If you want to get lost in a fever swamp of biased coverage, it’s yours to consume.  This portends that attracting large audiences will continue to become more difficult over time and, thus, the business model to maintain, say, CNN, will become more difficult, too.  You will have to be a sophisticated consumer of information to determine the value of these new sources as old, traditional brands continue to eviscerate, replaced by, well, who really knows.  In addition to these changes, the headwinds from the Trump Administration and its longstanding vendetta against ‘fake news’ continues unabated.  These are changing times.  To discuss it all with us is Ben Bogardus, Professor of Journalism and Chair of the Department at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.

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