Thesis Outline

Digital media

Traditional media in a war with digital media, even if they don’t know it yet

Show statistics and shifting trends

Digi media vs traditional media – complicated relationship

Citizen journalists – pros: speed, on the scene,  cons: no context, anonymity

-          Contrast with traditional media

-          Use crowdsourcing as an example of positive impacts

-          And what’s the relationship between CJ and TM?  (are there ethical responsibilities?)

Recently its become more dire – spread of fake news

-          Same things that make digital media attractive to users being used to manipulate them

-          Info sharing websites trying to cope

-          Compare to yellow journalism?  - but at least at that time, someone (or some paper’s) credibility was on the line

Legal issues?

Ethical issues?

So it seems obvious that if people want real truth in the news, they come to traditional media, except…

-          Lack of trust in the TM (polling)

-          Exacerbated by polarized political climate – creates vicious cycle

-          Anger at TM has grown – journalists themselves are targets

-          Tur/Welker experiences

-          Election cost TM a good chunk of credibility, Pres-elect continues to fuel anger

Where do we go from here?

-          Napoleon: History is a set of facts agreed upon (set up the problem – no agreement on facts)

-          NPR: Post-truth society

-          How do we push through the polarization and find the truth?

-          Where does investigative journalism fit in? (John Oliver)

The Future

-          So much information – James Burke says there can’t be another Dark Age

-          Individuals must use digital media to solve digital media

-          Journalists must use digital media tools to be transparent as possible – raise the bar

-          Stop treating digital media as a passing fad – address pedagogical shortcomings