Fish or Fish-Wrapping?

Universal Broadband,

R.I.P. Journalism?

Universal internet access to enhance journalism is being touted like universal love and has the same problems – sounds good until you try it.

A report surfaced in news outlets over the weekend from The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, which says we need to push broadband internet access for all Americans just as the Eisenhower administration pushed the interstate highway system.

Both may be examples of cheerleading for Going without a lot of thought about Getting There.

Eisenhower’s interstate highway system moves cars full of people and trucks full of goods all over the country. It also stymies passenger railroads, enables unpleasant relatives to visit and kills small town economies to feed regional ones.

Broadband internet services reach about two thirds of Americans, allowing them to pick and choose the information they want, when they want it – and also to turn the copyright and intellectual property laws into a chattering monkeyhouse. Artists and journalists who once said they did it only for love now get plenty of chances to prove it.

Most publishers do it just for money and would agree with the commission’s phrase that “we must find sustainable models that will support the kind of journalism that has informed Americans.” That was the kind of journalism that told Americans just enough to be sold in herds to advertisers who paid publishers by the head and handsomely.

It’s not the kind of journalism that dominates the internet in general and the broadband segment in particular, where the boast isn’t the bucks you make, but the audience you have. So bringing more and better broadband internet connections to all of America might not be a boost for either traditional journalists who worship at the dingy Altar of Truth or the lavish Altar of Profit.

In fact, it might be the last little nudge that pushes traditional journalism over the cliff.

See, all of journalism is based on the notion that you need a middleman between you and the events of the world. The middleman notices the events, interprets them and presents them to you – for a fee, please – and then presents you to advertisers, again for a fee.

Broadband internet access means you and advertisers both don’t necessarily need that middleman or his fee. Events that were once hard for individuals to observe, document, report and share widely aren’t any more. Just look at the number of “official” media articles referencing YouTube or Facebook. And if you doubt that advertisers no longer need the middleman, count the ads the next time you surf the net or read e-mail.

Universal broadband access might be a good thing, but it’s not necessarily one that will save the economic model of traditional journalism. It’s like the old saw that giving a man a fish will feed him for a day, but teaching him how to fish will feed him for a lifetime. Noble sentiments, unless you happen to make your living selling fish – or fish-wrapping.

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