Slate's article, Non-profit journalism comes at a cost, makes a great point that investors are still investors, and their decision to back a news outlet usually comes with a hidden agenda. My problem with is is why is this a surprise?
Non-profits and corporate media are both funded by the same type of person: people with money to spend. The only difference is that Corporate media does it for the money and non-profits do it to feel as if they've done something good for whatever cause they're supporting. But, a billionaire is not going to throw money at a publication for the sake of good journalism, they're going to do it to support a cause, a political ideology or their needs as humanitarians and achieve that through good journalism thanks to the widespread opinion that journalism is at a downfall. The New York Times has some of the best reporters in the world, but what they decide to report on and their lack of transparency in their bias is the issue, not their quality of work. What makes corporate news and non-profit news different at the end of the day is that when you go and read The Intercept you understand what the end-game is, what they're going to talk about as well as who runs it: you have enough context to know why they say the things they say. When it comes to something like NBC or The New Yorker, a reader does not have the context behind why NBC or The New Yorker say the things they say. Understanding the publication is very important when trying to understand the news they report. Being disgusted at the fact that non-profit news will follow a certain agenda is naive when thinking about human nature. No journalist came into journalism without an agenda or bias, and if a person sees the merit in journalism to support a cause they will throw money at it to support whatever that cause may be. The article is right, however, that good journalism doesn't make money because people don't see it as a commodity, and it shouldn't be. The business model of news has always made me uncomfortable because even though I want to be paid as a journalist to make a living, I understand the basic function of journalism is a need to the basically functionality of democracy. Many would say it is a right. People should have access to information without a cost, making it hard to pay journalist or keep a site going without someone or something funding the outlet. I can't envision a society in which profit or non-profit journalism isn't sponsored by an agenda if the people writing the news need wages to survive. And right now, envisioning a work without wages or need for them is not even possible.
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AuthorHi! I'm Isabella Grullon. I am a junior journalism major at Ithaca College from the Dominican Republic and Colombia.
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