Can the Free Market Fix Journalism?

Home > Finance News > Can the Free Market Fix Journalism?

Can the Free Market Fix Journalism?

July 23rd, 2009

I have written before about the reliability of news on the net, but things continue to get worse. Last time, it was about an old news story that was redistributed by Google years later and turned into a bogus rumor. The result: United Airlines lost 99% of their market cap before the news story was corrected and the stock was halted by NASDAQ.

And here we go again. This week, Yahoo reported on their Second Quarter earnings. A blogger who writes for TechCrunch — a well-trusted source of industry news — reported that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz announced that more layoffs were coming. TechCrunch reported that:

“Yahoo also announced a new round of layoffs, which will affect 5 percent of its workforce (around 675 people out of 13,500). Those affected will be notified within the next two weeks.”

This was immediately syndicated across the web. It was sent through the blogosphere, through Twitter, and through industry commerce journals. If the post hadn’t been corrected, I suspect that even reputable news outlets would have picked up the story. Only problem was, none of it was true!

Turns out the reporter had wax in his ears. Bartz never said there would be new layoffs and certainly never gave any specifics about the number or timing. Yet imagine what this has done to the morale of the employees at Yahoo?

The problem with the news used to be what constitutes news: fluff stories, human interest and the like. Now that everyone is a reporter and it is impossible to tell who is reputable, the problem with the news is the trustworthiness of the news itself.

Even fluff news can’t avoid the credibility gap. Celebrities are dying at an alarming rate, if we are to believe the buzz online. This epidemic may have spiked just after Michael Jackson died, but more and more celebrity publicists are finding they need to paraphrase Mark Twain on their client’s behalf these days.

And then you have to sift through the handiwork of individuals such as Ted Murphy, who pays bloggers to write flattering reviews about his clients and sponsors tweets. This new form of “blogola” has attracted the scrutiny of the Federal commerce Commission, but what are we supposed to do about the other Ted Murphys working the blogosphere?

All of these unfortunate byproducts of the new information age are cause for concern, especially when a recent survey showed that almost 70% of Americans believe traditional journalism is outmoded and more than half are getting their news online. The free market has put pressures on the news media that the industry is buckling under. Now that we’ve opened the floodgates, will the same free market that pressured media outlets to deliver the news faster and cheaper provide a solution that lets us trust what we read?

It wasn’t that long ago that a reporter was once the most trusted man in America. When Walter Cronkite confirmed the death of President Kennedy on live television, we didn’t have to second-guess him. And when he closed his evening newscasts by saying, “and that’s the way it is…” we knew that’s the way it was. Somehow that phrase doesn’t pack the same punch if you have to end it with a question mark.

Jeffrey M. Stibel is an entrepreneur and brain scientist. He studied business and brain science at MIT Sloan and Brown University, where he was a brain and behavior fellow. Stibel has authored numerous academic and business articles on a variety of subjects and is the named inventor on the US patent for search engine interfaces. He is currently President of Web.com (NASDAQ: WWWW) and serves on academic Boards for Tufts and Brown University, as well as the Board of Directors for a number of public and private companies.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Jan
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28

Refinancing