Mainstream media adapts to new tech

"The press is no longer gatekeeper over what the public knows," according to a news media study.

The State of the News Media 2007, conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, outlines changes that traditional (or "mainstream") media are facing and how news organizations are adapting to these changes.

Traditional journalism is becoming a "smaller part of people’s information mix," the report says. The report also highlights major trends for the year:

• In an era of what the report claims as "shrinking ambitions", news organizations are moving towards building audience niches.


• The news industry is becoming more aggressive in pursuing new economic models -- they must find a way to "get consumers to pay for digital content."


• Instead of engaging audiences in debates, resulting in polarization and oversimplification of issues, more journalists are now offering solutions and maintaining advocacies.


• The report predicts that as blogging enters a new era of greater recognition and importance, it will probably be faced with controversies and a "splintering (between) elites and non-elites over standards and ethics."

Via NPR.