Hot Topic - Media Support
Risks to independent media outlets and workers abound. Dictators and authoritarian regimes are having a field day shutting them down and locking them up, as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) made clear in its annual report 2021 Journalists Imprisoned, released this week (December 9). At the same time, Russian editor Dmitry Muratov and Philippines publisher Maria Ressa collected their joint Nobel Peace Prize. The disparity is chilling.
So many forces compete for attention. Each have their own purpose. The news business - particularly the newspaper - was built on chronicling the times. In the digital era the purpose has been reduced to piercing the moment. The most shrill tend to win out. The rest slip away.
While the coronavirus pandemic and related economic catastrophe have raised, somewhat, levels of media support, other issues long detailed still remain. The biggest, of course, are conflicts, natural and man-made disasters. These continue to devastate independent media, necessary to preserve safe and secure information flow.
Media operators of all shapes and sizes have been wracked by financial consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. In quick review: the coronavirus outbreak last January spread quickly throughout the world over a few weeks bringing illness taxing public health services leading to necessary restrictions on daily life, including economic. People everywhere, often locked in the homes, devoured information sources to assess personal consequences.
Economic uncertainty is more than just an irritant for political sphere. It is a call-to-arms. Even those governments tight with budgets, touting the free market, have rushed bailouts to imperilled business sectors. Airlines and golf courses are, it seems, needy recipients. Solutions for the media business vary considerably.
Support is strong for various economic sectors as recession worries - or worse - loom large. Industry executives and their lobbyists have made their cases and government leaders have begun to respond. As with every economic calamity, there will be winners and losers. Since that is the choice, don’t expect much attention for the media sector.
Recession is upon us, it has been concluded almost universally. Most economic sectors are being battered as unemployment rises and consumer sentiment takes a sharp downturn, discretionary spending functionally ending. This has sent retail ad spending careening which, in turn, has rattled an already fragile traditional media sector.
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