WHEN is anyone outside journalism going to notice that the rapid decline of newspapers is a critical blow to democracy and public accountability?
The final print edition of the Evening Standard today, isn’t ‘just’ the closure of a newspaper of record. It’s yet another blow to what used to be the public’s right to know. A right which is rapidly being replaced by mass disinformation.
Newspapers, particularly your local press, exist to expose corruption, crime, and hold folk accountable. But today, they are so utterly eroded that their journalists are stuck at home re-hashing ‘stories’ from social media instead of pounding the streets and the pubs listening and talking to people. That’s how the stuff that’s happening down your street is reported, by professionals who are qualified in law, the workings of local and national government, how to interview people, and, well… nosing out the stories that matter.
Every print edition that folds into oblivion, every local paper represented by a website terrorised by pop-ups and non-news, inflicts critical harm on our democracy and public accountability. When will we learn? Or won't we?
#journalism #newspapers #media
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