Journalists are loosing space in news delivery

This is one of the most worrying conclusions recorded in the 2023 Report on Digital News produced by the Reuters Institute, extensive and detailed work on trends in journalism in 2022. According to the report, young audiences (under 35 years old) access digital influencers and personalities more than journalists when looking for current news.

The loss of informational spaces by conventional journalism was also detected in the growth of the Chinese network Tik Tok, whose audience is growing at the expense of a sharp decline of Facebook. The data indicate a clear aging of the consumer public of news produced according to the classic journalistic model and a growth of audiences in heterodox news formats such as the one promoted by TikTok, where the image, superficiality and fast pace condition the informative contents.

The Reuters 2023 report goes so far as to point out that, in general, networks such as Facebook and Youtube are gradually assuming the status of ghettos for journalists, politicians and people over 50, while Instagram and TikTok are becoming informational fiefdoms for generations born in the digital era and who access news through virtual interactions on social networks. This indicates that we are possibly facing the emergence of a new mode of information transmission, the still little-known News Based Communication

With the growth of virtual social networks, ordinary people began to exchange data, facts and events with each other using narrative formats very similar to those used by journalists. This innovation came to be called citizen journalism, but now it has come to be considered a social communication process in which the concept of news is no longer associated with the professional practice of journalism. (1)

This is a worrying phenomenon because the generation under 35 will be the decision-makers in the next 20 years, which means that journalism and the press will be in their hands. It can be seen that we are heading towards a gap between two generations of journalists, which is problematic for the exercise of the profession and not very promising for those interested in and in need of reliable, accurate, pertinent, relevant and current news.

Slow news and instant news

The divorce between conventional journalistic vehicles' analogue heritage and the digital age's impressionist news culture is increasingly clear. A clear division between information flows limited by outdated technologies and the chaotic information avalanche on the internet. It’s a dispute for the audience between analogue slow news and digital instant news.

It’s not about identifying whether one is better than the other. The problem is not one of substitution but of complementation. Until now, our journalistic culture was centred on the textual format (even in audiovisual narratives) because the reduced flow of information favoured reading and reflection. Digital journalism has become imagery, interactive and obsessed with impact as a resource for attracting attention in an informationally congested public space.

If the trend detected by the Reuters Report is confirmed in the coming years, which is very likely, journalism as a social function and the press as a business organization will face the enormous challenge of finding the balance between impact and reflection in production of news. It is already clear that it is possible and even necessary for analogical and digital cultures to coexist.

The problem lies in the resistance of some professionals to accept the fact that reality has changed, as, for example, is the case with old privileges, such as the absurd concentration of ownership in newspaper companies, which are being replaced by new privileges, such as those of Big Techs that control the strategic sector of digital databases.

The great dilemma of contemporary journalism is to seek to overcome the gap between analogue and digital culture in the exercise of the profession. This is a responsibility that falls to the current generation of journalists. It is not “other people’s problem”, as they say, but our challenge.

(1) More details on pages 4 and 5 of the article Innovation Through Practice, by Christoph Raetzsch, accessible at https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2014.928466