Public service journalism

Last updated September 04, 2024

Public service journalism, public service media, or public service internet, is when mission-driven organizations report the news and have editorial independence from governments (unlike state media) and for-profit companies.^[1]^[2]

Public service outlets place more emphasis on public-interest reporting such as investigative journalism.^[3] In the United States, many struggling for-profit newspapers and radio stations have transformed into nonprofits in order to continue to serve their constituents with the help of new funding streams like foundation grants.^[4] The competition from misinformation, whether for profit or political reasons, as well as the dominance of platforms have created challenges for public service media while elevating their importance in providing accurate information to citizens. In order to provide good information, public service outlets need both funding support and a degree of editorial independence.^[5]

History

For-profit newspapers have been declining in the United States, for example, with the rise of the internet, cable TV and other forms of information and entertainment.^[6]

In 2016, the European Broadcaster Union found that countries with popular, well-funded public-service broadcasters have less right-wing extremism, corruption and more press freedom.^[7]

As of 2020, there was little to no public service media strategy at the European level, with individual states pursuing a range of initiatives without much collaboration or thoughtful regulation to promote public media in Europe, potentially hampering democratic debate about European issues.^[5]

Non-commercial outlets

Nonprofit business model

Of the members surveyed for the Institute for Nonprofit News, most revenue as of 2022 typically comes from foundation grants and other donations.^[8]

Bill Birnbauer argues that nonprofits can reduce influence from their funders with total transparency.^[9]

Tara McGowan criticizes commercial news organizations that put paywalls up for their most important content, especially before big elections. She also believes modern media creates content with too much bias, negativity, and false equivalency.^[10]

Industry associations

Global Investigative Journalism Network

The Global Investigative Journalism Network supports almost exclusively not-for-profit organizations engaged in or otherwise supporting investigative journalism around the world that maintain high journalistic standards.

Institute for Nonprofit News

The Institute for Nonprofit News serves mostly organizations in the United States but also in other countries and publications with a global reach.^[11] It describes itself as a group that "strengthens and supports more than 450 independent news organizations in a new kind of news network: nonprofit, nonpartisan and dedicated to public service."^[12]

Public Media Alliance

The Public Media Alliance (PMA) is a global network of self-described "Public service media" organizations, whose members have, historically, delivered most content through broadcasting on radio and television.^[13] The Alliance also monitors and advocates for public-service media around the world.^[14] In a 2020 overview of public service media, Sally-Ann Wilson of PMA argued that public media remained the most trusted source for news and information. The report found that 150 organizations define themselves as public media but noted that some have been captured by states, especially in the global south. It also noted the influence of China as a major media player in Africa, Asia, and increasingly the Caribbean and Europe, which, unlike western ties to public media, does not promote democracy.^[15]

Related Research Articles

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In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emotionally loaded impressions of events rather than neutrality, and may cause a manipulation to the truth of a story. Sensationalism may rely on reports about generally insignificant matters and portray them as a major influence on society, or biased presentations of newsworthy topics, in a trivial, or tabloid manner, contrary to general assumptions of professional journalistic standards.

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The Online News Association (ONA), founded in 1999, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Washington D.C., United States. It is the world's largest association of digital journalists, with more than 2,000 members. The founding members first convened in December 1999 in Chicago. The group included journalists from WSJ.com, Time.com, MSBN, TheStreet.com, and FT.com, among other outlets.

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A paywall is a method of restricting access to content, with a purchase or a paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their websites as a way to increase revenue after years of decline in paid print readership and advertising revenue, partly due to the use of ad blockers. In academics, research papers are often subject to a paywall and are available via academic libraries that subscribe.

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The Center Square, formerly Watchdog.org, is a conservative American news website that features reporting on state and local governments. It is a project of the Franklin News Foundation, a conservative online news organization. The Center Square distributes its content through a newswire service.

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Nonprofit journalism or philanthrojournalism is the practice of journalism funded largely by donations and foundations. The growth in this sector has been helped by funders seeing a need for public interest journalism like investigative reporting amidst the decline in revenue for for-profit journalism. Transparency and diversified funding streams have been put forward as best-practices for these types of organizations. Journalism done at a nonprofit organization should be evaluated just as critically as journalism from for-profit or other outlets.

Bianet is an independant news agency based in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. Focused on human rights in Turkey it is mainly funded by a Swedish organization. Bianet was established in January 2000 by journalists around Nadire Mater, former representative of Reporters Without Borders, and left-wing activist Ertuğrul Kürkçü and is tied with Inter Press Service. It is mostly funded by the European Commission through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). Erol Önderoğlu served as the monitoring editor for Bianet for several years. His work for Bianet included quarterly reports on free speech in Turkey. A 2022 study said that it partly followed the principles of citizen journalism. It is active on social media.

The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a non-profit consortium of nonprofit journalism organizations. The organization promotes nonprofit investigative and public service journalism by supporting its members and the nonprofit news industry as a whole. Examples of services offered by INN includes helping news organizations with collaborations, training in best-practices and fundraising, and providing affordable back-office services.

Honolulu Civil Beat is a nonprofit online news organization covering the U.S. state of Hawaii. It specializes in investigative reporting, watchdog journalism and in-depth enterprise coverage.

The Marshall Project is a nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about inequities within the U.S. criminal justice system. The Marshall Project has been described as an advocacy group by some, and works to impact the system through journalism.

Correctiv is a German nonprofit investigative journalism newsroom based in Essen and Berlin. It is run by CORRECTIV – Recherchen für die Gesellschaft gemeinnützige GmbH, which also runs the online journalism academy Reporterfabrik.

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Coda Media is a nonprofit news organization that produces journalism about the roots of major global crises. It was founded in 2016 by Natalia Antelava, a former BBC correspondent, and Ilan Greenberg, a magazine and newspaper writer who served as a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

The Colorado Sun is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It launched on September 10, 2018, to provide long-form, in-depth coverage of news from all around Colorado. It was started with two years of funding from blockchain venture capitalists at Civil and from a Kickstarter campaign. The operation is now funded by reader support, through memberships, and from sponsorship and grant revenue. The Sun is an associate member of the Associated Press.

The San Francisco Standard is an online news organization based in San Francisco, California, launched in 2021 and funded in part by the billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital.

The Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism is a non-profit media group based in South Africa. Bhekisisa, meaning "to scrutinize" in the Zulu language, focuses on health coverage from a social justice perspective, utilizing narrative and solutions journalism.

References

↑ "Public Service Broadcasting". UNESCO. Archived from the original on 2022-03-21. Retrieved 2023-08-09.
↑ Harrison, Jackie (2019-03-26), "Public Service Journalism", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.867, ISBN 978-0-19-022861-3 , retrieved 2023-11-08
↑ Cheruiyot, David (January 2021). "Journalism Without Profit: Making News When the Market Fails". International Journal of Communication (Book Review). 15: 403–406.
↑ Seelye, Katharine Q. (2021-06-20). "When the Local Paper Shrank, These Journalists Started an Alternative". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-07-25.
1 2 Rodríguez-Castro, Marta; Campos-Freire, Francisco; López-Cepeda, Ana (2020-05-01). "Public Service Media as a Political Issue: How Does the European Parliament Approach PSM and Communication Rights?". Journal of Information Policy. 10: 439–473. doi: 10.5325/jinfopoli.10.2020.0439 . ISSN 2381-5892.
↑ Waldman, Steven (2020-10-26). "The Coming Era of "Civic News"". Washington Monthly. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
↑ Conlan, Tara (2016-08-08). "'Countries with strong public service media have less rightwing extremism'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-06-15.
↑ "Revenue Growth". Institute for Nonprofit News. May 23, 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
↑ Edmonds, Rick (2019-01-07). "A fresh look at the rise of nonprofit journalism — and the issues that remain". Poynter (Book Review). Retrieved 2023-08-05.
↑ Sherman, Ella (2022-11-01). "Tara McGowan Thinks Paywalls Are Hurting Journalism". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583 . Retrieved 2023-10-14.
↑ Bauder, David (2021-11-18). "Independent websites team up to boost rural journalism". AP News. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
↑ "INN Mission & History". Institute for Nonprofit News. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
↑ "What is PSM?". Public Media Alliance. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
↑ Aslama Horowitz, Minna; D’Arma, Alessandro; Chin, Yik Chan (2020-07-01). "Advocating for public service media: Scholarship and praxis". Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture. 11 (2): 129–133. doi:10.1386/iscc_00014_2. ISSN 1757-2681.
↑ Wilson, Sally-Ann (2020-07-01). "Public service media, an overview: Reflecting on news and trends". Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture. 11 (2): 253–259. doi:10.1386/iscc_00022_7. ISSN 1757-2681.