Reportr.net

The Future of Journalism conference started in Cardiff with a welcome from Bob Franklin.

The conference received 370 abstracts, with more than 100 research papers being presented in 30 panels over two days.

In his welcoming address, Franklin notes that the future of journalism looks different from different countries and cultures.

The meat of the conference begins with a keynote by James Curran, Director of the Goldsmith’s Media Research Centre in London.

Curran started by talking about how the future tends to make a mockery of predictions about the future of journalism, such as the facsimile newspaper, CB radio or the CD-Rom.

So he decided to stir clear of making predictions, instead presenting the perspective from different groups.

The main line from leaders of the news industry is “I will survive”, says Curran. But a second group, liberal journalism academics instead say industry leaders are missing out on the opportunities of new media.

Curran talks about how this group is optimistic about the power of “citizen journalists”, arguing that the power to communicate and disseminate has been transferred to the people thanks to the internet.

As examples, Curran cites Voice of San Diego and OpenDemocracy.

In this view, what some view as a business crisis is a rebirth of journalism. Curran says this view can be summed up as “what a wonderful world:.

A third group, says Curran, welcomes the forecast death of journalism as they are extremely critical of the way the media works. This view can be summarised as “things will get better as they get worse.”

But a fourth view from workers in the media, worried about job losses due to the collapse of advertising revenue and declining audiences.

Curran cites the closure of 101 newspaper in the UK since the beginning of last year. The sacking of journalists matters, says this group, as this will impact public understanding of society.

All four positions are in different ways wrong, argues Curran. The news industry approach is ostrich-like. The strategy of charging will lead to a loss of audiences and revenue, producing a self-reinforcing cycle of decline.

The perspective from liberal educators is equally flawed.  Bloggers have still not connected with a mass audience and the emerging low-cost news sites are niche publications. And most contributors to sites like OpenDemocracy are from an elite background.

“It is a delusion to imagine that they represent the grassroots” says Curran.

As for the third view, the dominant news brands are still dominant across media. The old order of journalism is not dead, it is merely in decline, he says.

And the fourth perspective equating journalism with public service is equally flawed. Curran cites examples of where journalists failed to inform the people on key issues such as Iraq in the US and the MMR vaccine in the UK.

Instead Curran says there is a way forward, making a case for publicly-funded journalism. As a result, it is important to allow public media outlets to expand online.

Curran also raises the idea of a broadband tax to support non-profit online journalism.

Concluding, Curran calls on the audience to think about we an actively shape the future of journalism.