We need to talk about Journalism: failing business model, changing practices, enduring values

Abstract

Journalism is under scrutiny with social and technological changes and the mode of production and consumption ofnews is being altered. This article is based on the premise that journalism has had a vital role in society since the 19th century: producing information and transmitting it to the public. In a changing political, economic, cultural and technological context, we question: what journalism are we talking about now? Hayes, Singer & Ceppos (2007), Dahlgren (2010) and Kovach & Rosenstiel (2014) argue that even if journalistic practices change, there are principles that remain. Following this line, we argue thatdigital media and the Internet alter journalistic practices, which results in crises in the profession –of identity, audience, credibility. However, this process has reverberated from the crisis of journalism as a business (Meyer, 2006, 2009, Ramonet, 2012, Haak, Parks & Castells, 2012), when new technologies demand a change in its commercial model, while principles of the profession endure (Hayes et al., 2007, Dahlgren, 2010, Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2014). This is an exploratory debate, which aims to deepen the discussion about the future of the journalism. We seek to systematize the various facets of the crisis, and to observe how technology and values of the profession participate in these changes in the profession. Journalism is a critical and ethical process that remains intrinsically linked to the way we live our daily lives, even if its necessity is being questioned and if the role of journalists as mediators of the messages authorized to enter the public sphere is being diluted.