Guess where most original reporting is coming from these days, according to a new study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism? Which is not to say that we should rest easy in the fact that original reporting still exists. I found this bit of information chilling:
The study found that the effect of layoffs and other cutbacks on traditional sources of journalism has been severe. The Baltimore Sun ... produced 72% fewer stories in the first 11 months of 2009 than it did during the same period in 1991.
"The addition of new media," the authors (of the report) said, "has not come close to making up the difference." ...... "As the press scales back on original reporting and dissemination, or reproducing other people's work, becomes a bigger part of the news media system, government . . . initiates most of the news," the study found.
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