Worth our While?
- gpeavler1
- Jun 14, 2024
- 2 min read
Reading the predictions for journalism in 2024, the one I find having already come to pass is Rasmus Kleis Nielsen's "Ignore the election bump." the following excerpt was chosen to summarize the article:
"When internet users do not engage with news, it is not because they can’t engage with it. It is because they do not find it worth their while."
Admittedly, I am one of those people. Of course I can engage with the news, of course my friends and family can engage with the news, of course we can understand what the words on the page mean. It is, as Nielsen states, simply not worth our while. To me and many of my demographic, all this talk about the need to untangle the Gordian Knot of "fake news" and "information consciousness" and whether or not you can even believe what you're reading and then the infinitesimal ability you should have to actually do anything with that information even if proven beyond all doubt presents Alexander's solution - cut the knot.
". . .there are few topics where people see news as the best source of information. Even among the minority who regularly read their local newspapers in print or online, only a small fraction say they would miss them a lot if they went out of business. Interest in news is declining. Both selective and consistent news avoidance is growing. Much of the public does not feel that the news does a good job of helping them understand what is going on in the world, and less than half think that news media monitor and scrutinize powerful people and businesses. Do I need to go on?"
The challenge presented by this article, that I find myself agreeing with, is that if traditional journalism is to maintain its position or be seen as worthwhile to its audience it will need to start seriously convincing its audience that it is of any worth to preserve. It will need to do better to convince the public then beat upon the heritage of its outlet or the circular logic of 'journalism is good because journalists report that it is good'. Journalists must make an effort to regain the trust lost by the prevalence of fake news and ideologically motivated reporting, and will have to prove its value by providing a tangible benefit to the lives of its readers and information that one can trust.
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