The shifting nature of journalism - it's being turned upside down

Over the last few years, journalism has undergone a massive change. The media organizations many journalists work(ed) for are also in the process of being turned upside-down.

What can be described as the mass media in some form employed around 95 percent of journalists, where their prime function was to disseminate news, information, and objective analysis to the public at large. The mass media was portrayed as the "Fourth Estate", a body that would act as a check and balance to government in a democratic system.

Journalism is not always what it appears to be

The uncovering of the Watergate break-in and the pursuant cover-up by the White House, which eventually brought down US president Richard Nixon, has been described as the epitome of investigative journalism. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein received much of their information from an insider whistleblower, known as 'Deep Throat". However, the revelation that 'Deep Throat' was Mark Felt, an assistant director of the FBI at that time, arises another possibility. The possibility that information provided by Felt to Woodward and Bernstein was intended by the 'Deep State' to end Nixon's presidency. Felt was (perhaps unsuspectingly) an agent of the 'Deep State' on a mission to end a presidency.

The lesson is there is truth, and there are motivations behind truths, where the public may never find out the reality of the situation.

This example above, shows the power of journalism in finding the truth, or the flip side, where journalism is susceptible to being used by unidentified forces for the purposes of fulfilling hidden agendas.

Journalism has been manipulated over the centuries, where the most well-intentioned journalists have either been misled, or themselves been dishonest. Journalism is often a pivot point between exercising the aspirations of the 'Fourth Estate', or acting for the Deep State.

Much reporting has been influenced, either intentionally or unintentionally by state narratives. Weapons of mass destruction, Y2K, and Black Lives Matter (BLM) were partly media creations. Images of Obama, Biden, Trump, Assange, Putin, Zelenski, and others were carefully crafted by the legacy media, shifting public opinion either for or against them. This paradox of sorts has over the last 30 years created a loss of confidence and trust by the public in the legacy media.

The public has grown wise. In the recent US presidential election, major legacy network audiences plummeted. Audiences moved across to the independent media, as faith has been lost in legacy journalism. Many journalists through pushing partisan narratives helped to destroy their employers. This will lead to fire-sales in the not too distant future. Comcast is already trying to sell MSNBC.

Today's journalistic landscape is vastly different to what it once was.

Traditionally, graduates of journalism, economics, arts and other humanities would start their careers in journalism through what was once a very stable industry. Alternatively, cadet journalists would move into one of the satellite areas, such as local newspapers, regional radio, television stations, or specialist magazines. Over time, some would rise up to senior reporter and eventually editor in print media. Some would enter investigative journalism in crime, business or government. In television and radio, some would become a host or anchor of their own programs. Becoming the anchor of the news desk, or anchor of a long running high rating program was the pinnacle of the profession. Successful journalists would be given their own columns in print media, where they would focus on Op Eds, that in the past were very influential in shaping public opinion.

In the past journalists tended to settle within legacy media corporations which represented their political beliefs, being left, centre, or right. Up until around 2010, being a journalist within the legacy media was considered a good career choice. One had a career path. Journalists would tend to move from one corporation within the legacy media to another, or an international media organization, which grew out of the CNN success in the 1980s. Very few would ever go out of the industry as an independent.

The systemic control over narratives of the legacy media created a prism that has forced out some of the best journalists. The impending mass layoffs of journalistic staff at legacy media companies due to declining audience sizes will act as a great impetuous of independent journalism in the near future, which took a foothold during the Covid pandemic, and came of age during the recent US presidential election. The rest of the world is following this trend and set to play a major role in future elections.

The new journalistic landscape

This rise of the internet and ability of people to utilize platforms like YouTube from 2010 onwards as it became more sophisticated, provided a potential platform for citizen journalism. The so-called Arab Spring around the 2010s showed the potential of social media for groups to get information out to the public.