One of the must disruptive characteristics of the new media environment is the presence of the "former audience" in the media space. Traditional journalism seems to have lost professional ground and authority as digital technology continues to give common people the ability to edit and publish their own content. Picard (2010) has insisted that these activities, which previously required money and professional skills, are now supported by open software, networks and new platforms, which revitalize the dissemination of digital content.
However, abundance does not necessarily mean that the economic value of information has decreased. Abundance sometimes makes it more difficult for costumers to obtain a refine product and take decisions. Users are willing to pay for convenience and quality. With partial success, traditional media companies are trying to innovate, adapt and survive in the new environment, adding value to their digital content and exploring new possibilities to reach unexplored markets and new distribution channels. Some media companies are even generating decent revenue from digital outlets. Those gains make us think twice about the future value of digital information(1).
It is true though that most news has been subsidized through history. Advertising offered that support for a while, but the pact between advertisers and publishers to convey information and ads at the same to large audiences has been broken (Anderson, 2010). Yet citizens continue to need accurate information in order to take right decisions in their daily life. Scholars have strongly warned about the quality of online information produced by amateurs. Despite its abundance, the amount of online in-depth reporting for example seems to be limited (Starr, 2009). It appears that the public itself is not going to provide with the high-quality-information societies need. So the big question here is not about journalists’ payment, but how to obtain more revenue for quality information.
P.D. I agree with Picard when he says that the democratization of content production is one of the main reasons why knowledge is not enough for increasing journalists’ market value. Yet the ability to gather, evaluate, organize, synthesize and convey valuable information remains to be skills that very few people -- without proper training-- could have.
(1) Some media companies of course make good use of the current difficult media environment as an excuse to maintain low pay.
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