I used to subscribe to The Economist a long while ago, but then let it lapse--I have since renewed after reading this article which says some things that make sense over other media outlets' news blur.
I think the financial crisis provides the opportunity for better and more hard hitting reporting—less fluff, more stuff. This is, of course, if broadcasters take advantage of a situation where the American public wants more information and are finally paying attention to them—or anyone who can explain this mess well. This is an opportunity to return real news to the newsroom while expanding the ad revenues.
Bad economic news will shift the type of advertising done and the revenue streams created. There will be more advertising of the recession proof and recession improved industries (hair cuts and food) and employment services and, of course, get-rich-quick schemes due to shorter ad revenues. There will be more deal-making on insertion fees for the smaller pot of companies that advertise and increased competition for the revenue. I personally don't think the NBC Nightly News will succumb to this since they seem to be strongly supported by the drug companies and oil interests--two of the most recession-proof industries around.
More reporters will be needed to better cover the financial crisis, but the news outlets will ask for salary concessions from their seasoned staff (based on economic fears) or hire less experienced reporters for a lot less money. I would guess if the arena gets desperate enough, that more reliance on citizen journalists will take over where the job cutting begins, possibly resulting in local broadcast news aggregators and 1-2 fewer local television news broadcasts. The issue of course is confidence. While main street seems to be feeling some of the effects of these crisis’s inasmuch as not being able to buy a new car or panicking over not having as much retirement savings, these items can be recovered with time. Truly devastating effects don’t seem to be showing up in the economy as of yet, and and most likely wont for a while--hopefully not at all. I of course don't have the perspective of someone who is retired and may be feeling the pain more directly. The global economy is big enough to get hit hard and while some turbulence will ripple across the planet, the waves will soon cancel each other out. To summarize my understanding of The Economist article, there is the potential for a new and stronger global economy to emerge.
-Update Oct 13th- In an unexpected move on the part of Kare 11 news, there was actually a story this evening that actually pointed to some of the ripple effects of the financial crisis. They had a story about Sharing and Caring Hands which has noticed a significant uptick in need. This is a direct effect of the housing crisis, but one that has been given little attention to the best of my knowledge by the mainstream media, and not discussed at all in the Nightly News in the last several weeks. While it is small in scale relative to the economy at large, it is nonetheless devastating to those affected.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The national news finally did a story that they must have co-opted from the local news (since they were scooped by two days) in which they covered the increased homelessness due to the foreclosure crisis. They profiled the story in a slightly different manner, but it was pretty obvious where they got the idea.
Post a Comment