BNR’s producer, Dan Hatch, joins Nic Hayes and Sarah Mitchell to take a deep dive into what’s going wrong with the media these days — from credibility, accountability, shrinking newsrooms and falling advertising revenues to fake news and “churnalism”.

Here are some key take-outs:

• Shrinking advertising revenues have led to shrinking newsrooms and reduced quality.
• The media is more polarized than ever. We really see this in the US where the laws were changed in the 80s to remove the requirement for balance.
• Less-well-resourced newsrooms mean there’s a lack of specialisation in journalism, making it harder for journalists to hold power to account.
• Journalists are working very hard but they are under-resourced.
• Media consumption has changed and the media hasn’t adapted.
• News consumers are actively looking for quality news and they’re starting to show they’re willing to pay for it by subscribing to news services they like.

On My Desk

• Sarah’s recommendation was Mic.
• Dan’s recommendation was the Facebook page, Angry People in Local Newspapers.
• Nic’s recommendation was to take the time out to meet other business owners and have a coffee. He’s doing two a week. The idea is to see if there’s a way to help each other’s businesses.

Have you heard the one about…

Recently James, Sarah and Nic took a close look at affordable marketing ideas for a start-up.

And here’s a discussion about the evasive communications tactics used by Donald Trump.

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