ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 News in crisis: The economic collapse of the news industry: The crisis in profitability is about more than dollars and cents. From the perspective of political economy, it is a key driver in some of the other contradictions and problems affecting journalism and the news industry. In this chapter we argue that the economic crisis is a determining factor and a driver of change in some of the other phenomena discussed in the text. For example, the trust deficit occurs because the drive for profitability means that news organisations cut corners, increase their reliance on ‘click-bait’ and resort to ethical short cuts, which inevitably harms their ‘brand image’. It is also the never-ending hunt for profitability and competitive advantage that drives the desire for a technological ‘fix’ and compels the news industry to attempt to harness digital disruption to its advantage. The economic crisis affecting news outlets appears intractable. Despite the determined efforts of the best and brightest of executives, investors, journalistic leaders, and academics, there is no end in sight to the crisis of profitability. We believe this is an ethical question because declining profitability brings with it a reduction in resources deployed in the news gathering and production cycle. More importantly, this economic crisis in the news industry has a direct bearing on the Fourth Estate principles under which journalism is supposed to operate. In turn this can be shown to be affecting the operation of democracy in many nations. Scholarship in political science and in communication studies attributes the global rise on conservative populism, xenophobic nationalism and violent political rhetoric to the breakdown of the Fourth Estate and a splintering of the public sphere. Throughout the book we will make a direct link between the news crisis, the rise in anti-democratic demagoguery, and the crisis in journalism ethics.
