I have just viewed the excellent video by John Oliver on the decline of serious journalism. Thanks to eracode for posting this valuable link (http://www.cnet.com/news/politics-vs-cute-cats-john-oliver-warns-about-real-journalisms-demise/). It is funny and informative and I highly recommend it to anyone who cares at all about this sort of thing.
I think this is an important issue and it deserves its own thread. It is easy to imagine that the dumbing down of our media is a problem specific to New Zealand, but clearly it is bigger than that. The question is what can be done to salvage traditional quality journalism, or whether anything should be done at all.
Some ‘uncommercial’ activities are accepted as so vital to the proper functioning of democratic society that they are subsidised by public money. Libraries are a good example of this. There are many others.
In some countries, such as the Netherlands, newspapers also receive subsidies to keep them viable. There is also a requirement that new buildings must include a budget for art, though I’m not certain exactly how this works. I believe that quality journalism, including and especially investigative journalism, is an essential good that should be protected and nurtured. It is too important to be left to the vagaries of commercial media, especially in the digital click-bait era. There needs to be a place for quality public broadcasters and other media, supported by public funds. TVNZ 7 was well on the way to becoming such a public service broadcaster. Unfortunately, our myopic government and incompetent Minister of Broadcasting felt that the five million dollars this would have cost was better spent on things like a pointless flag referendum.
Serious media are in serious trouble here. That means the rest of us are in trouble as well. Fairfax and the NZ Herald do not need each other. They need the support of the New Zealand public so they can put aside the fluff and fulfil the vital role of the fourth estate. If that means subsidising them from a central fund, then so be it. TV 7 or something like it also needs to be brought back. These are my thoughts. What are yours?