Panel discusses news industry’s struggles

“It’s difficult to not feel as though we’re coming here to mourn the loss of something we’ve loved for a very long time,” Dean of Boston University College of Communication Tom Fiedler said at a panel Monday night, highlighting the problems facing the news industry.

The panel, titled “The Future of News,” took place at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. Fiedler moderated, while experts from The Boston Globe, Wired magazine, ABC News and Harvard University made up the panel. 

“These institutions, if they disappear, are going to create a terrible vacuum in our community,” Director of the Harvard Shorenstein Center and author of “Losing the News” Alex Jones said.

The panel focused on problems facing the news industry, particularly budgetary issues and crowd sourcing. In journalism, crowd sourcing refers to citizen journalists, and consists in part of online news blogs and chat boards, Wired magazine contributing editor Jeff Howe said.

Howe said he reads multiple news outlets, but “there’s not a one stop shop.” 

Jones recognized that “there would be a place for citizen journalism.”

“It’s good for some things but not for others,” Jones said.

Boston Globe editor Marty Baron said crowd sourcing allows people to express opinions.

 “[There are] thousands and thousands of comments made on our site every day,” he said.

Baron said although some of the online forums are written by informed individuals, many are hateful remarks and attacks. 

“I’m all in favor of new people getting in, but the concern is what people are getting in with,” he said.

Baron said many news organizations, on the business side, look at citizen journalism as a cheap alternative, especially in this economic climate.

“We retain our mission but today staff is 30 percent smaller and budget is 30 percent smaller so we’ve had to make choices,” he said.

But vice president and Washington bureau chief at ABC news Robin Sproul said ABC’s focusing more on things they think can “make a difference in the future.”

Panelists also said newscasts are being replaced by opinion shows. 

“What happens now in the evening is entertainment, not news,” Jones said.

Baron agreed that opinion segments can stir up trouble, but he also said readers can distinguish between news and entertainment.

Shorenstein Center Fellow Loen Kelley said the forum was like “a lot of the conversations I’ve been having.”  She said she believes that many of the problems will have to be resolved by “younger people.” 

Angeline Ang, a Lee Kuan Yew Fellow at Harvard University, said she attended the panel because she’s interested to see how the role of journalism is changing.

“The world is complex,” she said. “The role of the media is to provide a clear map.”