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Re:The next generation of journalism students have no idea w... by Animats on Sunday January 31, 2016 @01:39PM (#11007377)
Democracy needs journalism. It needs people out there looking under rocks for things someone doesn't want published. (If someone wants it published, it's PR, not journalism.) Journalism makes politicians afraid. Without that, you get Russia Today or China Daily or Outbrain.

We're losing that, in the name of clickbait.

Re:The next generation of journalism students have no idea w... by eevilspock on Sunday January 31, 2016 @04:23PM (#11008141)
And the driver of clickbait is our dependence on advertising for revenue.

Advertising totally subverts and corrupts the invisible hand. If that doesn't make sense, draw a diagram of the forces that move the invisible hand in a straight up consumer-producer relationship for your website. Now add in advertising into the picture. Note that consumers spend just as much if not more than before, only the cost of the website appears free, but is baked into an entirely unrelated product they pay for.

Re:The next generation of journalism students have no idea w... by Animats on Monday February 01, 2016 @02:14PM (#11014467)
"cost of the website appears free, but is baked into an entirely unrelated product they pay for."

That cost may be substantial. There are many products whose marketing cost exceeds the cost of making and delivering the product or service. Movies, many prescription drugs, long distance phone service, soft drinks, vitamins, and many online services are mostly promotional cost. There's an argument for taxing advertising to push this down.

Re:The next generation of journalism students have no idea w... by CM30 on Sunday January 31, 2016 @04:23PM (#11008137)
Well, via the internet, we get whole communities of people looking for information that individuals, governments and special interest groups don't want published, and sharing said information in ways far more efficient than the old media. Just look at various bloggers investigating tech security issues and the NSA. Or Wikileaks. Or people sharing evidence of criminal actions by the police, the politicians, people with power, etc.

The real issue is that these people and groups and projects need to be protected in the same way as journalists for the mainstream media used to be.