Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Why the Watchdogs Aren't Watching
In chapter 10 of our textbook, W. Lance Bennett and William Serrin argue that one of the reasons for a decline in the watchdog function of the press is because the public no longer frequently organizes in reform movements to obtain "good information" about the issues they care about and because the public views the press as too negative for their likings. I think they neglected to mention the decline of the overall interest of the public to read the newspaper or watch the news. In the absence of the public's interest for the news, it's no wonder why the journalists aren't putting forth their best foot in order to uncover the wrongs of society through painstaking investigative journalism. We are at fault for the decline in the quality of our news. If we would once again show a serious interest in obtaining the news, then perhaps the journalists would respond in kind with better investigations and once again serve as successful watchdogs.
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But couldn't it also work the other way around? Maybe if journalists produced better investigative reports more people would read them...
ReplyDeleteI think the real underlying issue at hand is whether or not we need the watchdog journalism of yesteryear. I posit that if there was a true need for it, then it would exist. It seems we have come to be happy, efficient and productive in our current system of whichever entity we were previously watching over. Do we not know more now than ever before? we are after all in the information age.
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