News, Information and the Public Sphere: Look Who Else is Talking

In both our readings and in class discussion, the role news media plays in citizen competence and democracy comes up again and again. And it’s an issue that lot of people are talking about. Just this week UVA hosted a media studies conference entitled, “Media Policy and Ethics in the New "Attention Economy": Three Crises and a Way Forward.” The conference brought together scholars, policy makers, journalists, and industry representatives to explore the consequences – positive and negative - of recent changes in the information environment. One panel, called “How Can We Re-invigorate Journalism and the Public Sphere?” spoke specifically to journalism’s role in citizen life. And one question asked panelists what the government and policy role is in “reinvigorating journalism,” prompting varied responses from the different panelists, some of which students even suggested during our class.

One panelist, a journalist responded immediately: we need to invest in education in order to cultivate a better educated and more informed public that is interested in the kind of information news media has to offer. The other panelists seemed to unequivocally agree with her, but offered up other ideas as well. Michael Delli Carpini, one of our authors from a previous week and also a panelist said, the government should most definitely be involved, but the question is how? He said we need to think seriously about the requisites for citizens to get good information and also suggested providing subsidies for newspapers as well as a more relaxed grasp on media ownership to allow alternative media organizations to flourish. The president of a progressive consumer advocacy group said we should reinvigorate the existing public models (i.e., PBS and NPR). A corporate representative from NBC suggested the government tax entertainment media to provide funds for news media.

I think a lot of their ideas echoed the ones we generated in class, both focusing on the supply side (the news organizations) as well as the demand side (the consumers of that information) and in between those, where the government’s responsibility lies. As varied as they are there is a broad agreement about the necessity for better sources of information and a more engaged public. What they did not acknowledge, however, which we have learned in our class, is that despite the recent changes in technology: these issues are not new. People have been concerned about citizen engagement and awareness even before newspapers stopped making money and everything went digital. I wonder how this fact might have informed their discussion.