Review of "Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society" by Victor Pickard

 

Why has journalism collapsed in the United States and what should be done about it? This overriding and urgent public issue is the central question of this book. The author, Victor Pickard, makes a convincing case of both why public journalism has failed, and how it can be fixed. It would be hard to dismiss Mr Pickard's arguments and the policy recommendations that he makes. 

For an in-depth description of Mr Pickard, see victorpickard.com. His academic credentials on this topic are impeccable, and his writing style exactly fits the topic: concise, pointed and convincing because it rings true to life. 

Personally, reading this book provided a welcomed emotional catharsis from my own frustration over what has happened to the internet since I earned a master degree in telecommunications in the late 1990s, when optimism about the potentials of the Internet were rising like a weather balloon. The fate of the Internet and journalism are, of course, deeply interconnected. However, unchecked market forces have been allowed to distort the Internet's potential, and has allowed the proliferation of so much misinformation that simply should not be there in the first place. When around half of all email traffic is spam, year after year, and how even a casual survey of Facebook and Google is brimming over with patently false claims spewed out by misinformation misanthropes, it's hard not be pessimistic about the state of the internet. 

Mr Pickard pulls no punches in his critique, presenting pithy summaries of the horror stories involved of how local journalism has disappeared from many regions, creating virtual news deserts. He flatly calls out Facebook and Google for what they are, namely platform monopolies that are abusing their market power. With an acute sense of the history of regulation of public communications, he aptly points out the recent decisions of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) under the Trump administration are not de-regulation, but reregulation: 

The current FCC is actively restructuring media systems to benefit corporate interests instead of the public.  (p 112)

In short, reading Mr Pickard's laser-focused analysis of how public journalism has been cut off at the knees by market forces over the past several decades is a breath of fresh air. His recommendations for how to fix this through government subsidies is an unavoidable conclusion, based on international comparisons. And learning about the history of importance of the press in colonial America, and that this is why the US Postal Service holds a special place in our Constitution, was an inspiring revelation.


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