The Project for Excellence in Journalism released its State of the News Media Report for 2006, examining the news media and analyzing the content of reporting, the way in which news is reported, ownership, and other issues facing the media and the consumers of media. The report examined a variety of media outlets including newspapers, network television, cable television, local television, magazines, radio, ethnic and alternative media, and online media. Local television news was characterized by cuts in reporters and fewer stories while local radio stations offer “virtually nothing” in the way of reporters in the field and similar cuts are being seen in newsrooms across the country. When it comes to the content of news, most media is covering stories in a way that lacks long-term reporting, single sources rarely provide enough information to get an adequate view of what is happening in the world, and that a surprisingly small amount of sources are being used to fuel a twenty-four hour news cycle that is characterized by an incredible level of repitition. With regard to media ownership a question the media continues to face is how media outlets can maintain their independence when they are owned under a public ownership model that makes them accountable to Wall Street. All of these issues combine to build a public attitude of skepticism about the media and a belief that news organizations act out of their own economic self-interest, that journalists act to advance their own career interests, and that the media is politically biased to either the “right” or the “left” depending on one’s political orientation.

In the report, six new trends that will likely transform journalism were noted:

1. The new paradox of journalism is more outlets covering fewer stories. This has resulted in a concentration of reporters covering just a few stories each day and different news organizations providing multiple accounts of the same major stories.
2. The species of newspaper that may be most threatened is the big-city metro paper that came to dominate in the latter part of the 20th century. While the circulation of the big three newspapers and smaller newspapers has not declined, “big city metro” papers covering large urban regions received the largest circulation drops and cutbacks in staff despite their position and resources to act as public watchdogs and to aid public discourse.
3. At many old-media companies, though not all, the decades-long battle at the top between idealists and accountants is now over. Financial interests will trump the public interest as companies seek to strengthen their bottom-line.
4. Traditional media appears to be moving toward technological innovation. Online revenue growth and a younger demographic has spurred the trend towards an improved online news presence for many media outlets. However, in Grand Rapids, the region’s newspaper, the Grand Rapids Press, maintains a horrifically unusable website and the local broadcast media, while doing somewhat better, continues to maintain largely inaccessible websites with little original content.
5. The new challengers to the old media, the aggregators, are also playing with limited time. News aggregators such as Google and Yahoo are making money by repackaging news from other sources and are consequently undermining those sources in terms of lost revenue. There is an open question as to how these aggregators can expand beyond simply being technology companies (for example, Yahoo has hired some journalists) and if they expand, will they embrace the values of public-interest journalism?
6. The central economic question in journalism continues to be how long it will take online journalism to become a major economic engine, and if it will ever be as big as print or television. While it will take many years for online revenue to equal that of print media, it is likely that the print media will begin to explore ways of charging news aggregators for their content.

One of these trends in journalism is a shift towards online news, both with the traditional news media and web logs (blogs). While the report found that the “explosive growth” of citizen blogs was slowing and that many bloggers were beginning to work for corporate-owned news sources, blogs continue to provide perspectives not found in the corporate media yet much of the public looks at them with suspicion. Moreover, the report found some evidence that most substantial audience for blogs was the Washington media establishment and not individuals seeking out a more democratized media. Additional difficulties facing online media sources included a need for more accountability and the need to shift from simply “echoing” content found in the corporate media and a move towards the production of original content. While the echoing of content by highlighting noteworthy articles and providing commentary can help in improving accountability for large news sources, it is original reporting that will increase public trust in web logs and other “non-traditional” online media sources. Such a shift seems necessary in light of a survey conducted as part of the project in which 73% of responds said they believe only some or nothing of what they read on blogs.

Also worth reading is the report’s “A Day in the Life of the Media” which takes the date of May 11, 2005 and examines how the news of the day was covered across a variety of mediums and what this coverage says about larger trends in the media.