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there's been a shift over the journalism industry over the last 35 years

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how we consume our news

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how reporters do their jobs

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the rise of digital technology

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news is still in demand

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the news model is not broken but the business model is

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the advertising that would support three or four hundred staffers in a news room is gone

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it's gone to the web

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in fact, it's now parsed in such small numbers that even news on the web typically cannot drive enough ad revenue to support the kinds of organizations we became accustomed to seeing

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within the past ten years, the number of journalists working for daily newspapers in the United States has fallen by half

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journalists don't just throw something up on the web

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it's a time consuming effort to keep on top of local affairs, national affairs, international affairs

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there used to be five levels of editing

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now in some news organizations there is no editing

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today's a single reporter is going straight to the web with a story that hasn't been checked, hasn't been read, hasn't been questioned, hasn't been challenged

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when you think of this editing as quality control, it is gone now in many news reporting organizations

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if you are lucky, there are one level of editing, maybe two

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the website that feeds news only pays about 20% or less of the revenue that keeps a news organization going

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papers still rely on paper for about 80% of their revenue

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the scope of journalism is changing

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click-bait sites are being produced and in some cases are getting more revenue than professional sites which has staff which takes significant time and training

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journalists used to be called gate-keepers, it was a monopoly

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you couldn't really get your message out unless a reporter wrote it and it was published in a newspaper

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that gate-keeper function is gone, it's been erased by the digital world

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today, anyone with a computer can look like a journalist

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fake news outlets have always existed

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there has always been propaganda

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now they are not trying to put one over on the reporter, they're just putting it on the web

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if a tiny fraction of people see it and believe it, their mission is accomplished

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how do you parse the information you are exposed to

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it's more adversarial now

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the digital world is ravenous, it must be fed on a constant cycle

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tips for media consumers to navigate the flow of information

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1. consider the source

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if it has a history of putting a spin on stories, don't look at these stories

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don't immediately react to something that might be untrue

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2. use snopes.com and fact checkers

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3. consider the person who wrote the story

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google the name of the person who wrote the story

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4. be aware of branding

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trust sources that have given you solid news

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how to parse out a mistake and intentional fake news

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one doesn't always have all the facts

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the problem is the speed that media companies have to get out the news

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we need to have more skeptical readers