News journalism content becomes a public good once it has been posted on the internet. Copy written by journalists and citizen journalists alike is consumed by readers online without directly decreasing the amount of information available to others. This raises issues regarding the longevity of media corporations as they attempt to stem the use of their content as a public good for financial reasons. As such, one must examine how content produced by journalists is used as a public good; what the implications of publishing a public good are; and how media organisations are attempting to generate revenue from their online content, in order to understand the full spectrum of information being a public good in journalism.
In economic terms, a public good is defined by The Linux Information Project as “a term used by economists to refer to a product (i.e., a good or service) of which anyone can consume as much as desired without reducing the amount available for others” ("Public Goods: A Brief Introduction," 2006). When applying this concept to news journalism, one sees how content created by journalists and news journalists can be treated as a public good. For example, the article "Ghoulish Facebook vandals mock Australian law" published November 9 on The Sydney Morning Herald web site is a public good since it can be read by one reader (with access to the internet) without reducing the amount of article available to the next reader (Moses, 2010). This concept applies to all the content published by news websites. Moreover, the distribution of news content as a public good relates to the notion of collective intelligence whereby the result of networking via the internet accelerates the consumption of the public good. In other words, collective intelligence emanates from online networks sharing articles as a public good. Hence, the importance for the news media to be aware of their content acting as a public good is heightened when examining the issues that arise as a result of this phenomenon.
The implications of news journalism content being used as a public good are paramount for the journalism industry with regard to revenue. Shapiro identifies the negative implication of journalism being freely consumed via the internet by showing the unanimous loss of news organisations’ profits in 2009 (2009). He highlights the correlation between news content being distributed through the internet as a public good and news organisations seeking answers to their financial problems (2009). Similarly, Poniewozik states that “advertisers are unwilling to pay anywhere near the same rates for online ads as they do for print or TV ads, and the Web has all but supplanted newspaper classifieds” (2009, p. 21). The combination of decreasing advertising revenue and the viral distribution of news content has led to news organisations rethinking their revenue models. As a result, they have had to come up with new ways to exploit their content being distributed via the internet to overcome such issues.
Newspapers have attempted to generate revenue through their online components to ensure they reap the benefits of publishing content online. For example, Gabriel reports that Rupert Murdoch announced plans to block Google from listing his company’s content for free while instead supplying it for a price through Microsoft’s Bing (2009). Additionally, subscription services to online news web sites such as The Wall Street Journal have been implemented to stem the flow of free information on the internet. Poniewozik illuminates numerous ways in which news organisations have attempted to make money, including commercial sponsorship of reporters from businesses linked to the journalist’s area of expertise (2009). Similarly, Saba identifies the technique of linking the subject matter of articles to related advertisements (n.d.). While the integrity of an article may be jeopardised as a result of such practices, The Seattle managing editor for digital news and innovation Kathy Best states in Saba that “[w]e as an industry are so challenged to keep money coming in the door to support journalism that looking at credibility issues" -- involving revenue -- "is critical” (n.d., p. 18). As such, the issue of journalistic content being distributed and repurposed as a public good across the internet has lead to no widely adopted method for creating revenue.
The emergence of the internet has seen the rapid distribution of online stories which has negatively impacted news organisations in terms of revenue and journalistic quality. The notions of convergence culture and transmedia storytelling will emerge as dominating players in the future of news journalism, whereby news organisations will have to find ways of generating revenue through devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. Similarly, telling the story through additional media in addition to traditional platforms will act as a way for news providers to exploit news content as a public good in the future.
References
Gabriel, C. (2009). Murdoch enlists Microsoft in fight against Google and free content. Retrieved November 4, 2010, from http://www.rethink-wireless.com/article.asp?article_id=2181
Moses, A. (2010). Ghoulish Facebook vandals mock Australian laws Retrieved November 9, 2010, from http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/ghoulish-facebook-vandals-mock-australian-laws-20101109-17lku.html
Poniewozik, J. (2009). What Price Journalism? Time, 174(3), 21-21.
Public Goods: A Brief Introduction. (2006). Retrieved November 4, 2010, from http://www.linfo.org/public_good.html
Saba, J. (n.d.) WEB GETS STICKY. Editor & Publisher, 143(1), 18.
Shapiro, M. (2009). Open for Business. Columbia Journalism Review, 48(2), 29-35.
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