State of the News Media 2005 report

(source: http://www.bespacific.com, March 15, 2005)

Report on the State of the American News Media

The Project for Excellence in Journalism has published the State of the News Media 2005 report (navigate the contents of the 500 plus pages via this link) which reviews two distinct categories of media: the first is identified as text-based media, and includes newspapers and Internet news sites; the second is electronic media, inclusive of broadcast network and cable network news.

From the project overview: "For each of the media sectors, we examine six different areas - content, audience trends, economics, ownership, newsroom investment and public attitudes."

From the conclusion: "Today, a host of new forms of communication offer a way for newsmakers to reach the public. There are talk-show hosts, cable interview shows, corporate Web sites, government Web sites, Web sites that purport to be citizen blogs but are really something else, and more. Journalism is a shrinking part of a growing world of media. And since
journalists are trained to be skeptics and aspire at least, in the famous phrase, to speak truth to power, journalism is the one source those who want to manipulate the public are most prone to denounce."