The Decline of Journalism and the Cesspool of Useless Information

David Carr writes about the deeply depressing state of journalism. More layoffs at the Trib, Star-Ledger, Bergen Record, the Times, on and on.

At the recent American Magazine Conference, one of the speakers worried that if the great brands of journalism — the trusted news sources readers have relied on — were to vanish, then the Web itself would quickly become a “cesspool” of useless information. That kind of hand-wringing is a staple of industry gatherings.

But in this case, it wasn’t an old journalism hack lamenting his  industry. It was Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google.

Comments

[jen]

I personally feel the state of the media is a direct reflection of the dismal state of American education. Let's face it -- much of the American public happily chooses People magazine as its Source of Truth. I don't think people have magically gotten stupider (i.e. lost actual IQ points) in the past 40 years. Although it is possible that they've magically gotten lazier, or just too busy to even deal with it all. The results are the same all the way around.

[Alison]

Well, don't get your resident homeschooler started on education . . .

But what I was going to say is that my favorite radio show today was entitled Can Bloggers Save Journalism? http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/10/can-bloggers-save-journalism/