Newspaper vs. Internet/Broadcasting Jobs. Click to enlarge.
Politico ran a very interesting piece by Jack Shafer and Tucker Doherty called “The Media Bubble Is Worse Than You Think.” It’s a look at the geographic distribution of media jobs, which has grown starkly more concentrated over the past decade as the more geographically balanced newspaper business declines and the heavily geographically concentrated internet publishing business grows.
The bottom line is the media is now extremely concentrated on the coasts. It’s also heavily concentrated in blue counties, with over 50% of media jobs in counties that voted for Clinton by at least 30 points.
It’s a great piece with some interesting data and I’d encourage you to read the whole thing. This media bubble is clearly affecting the media’s credibility. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 52% of American’s think the mainstream media regularly reports fake stories. And a new Morning Consult poll found that 51% of people think the media is “out of touch with everyday Americans” and that over half of even independents don’t trust the media’s fairness to cover the White House.
I talk more about the Politico piece in my most recent podcast episode. I not only give an overview of the piece, but also talk about the longstanding dearth of local perspectives and writers in the heartland, the the nationalization of the news, the fact that geographic balance doesn’t translate to viewpoint balance, and the potential of more ethnographic approaches drawn from anthropology.
I hope you enjoy the episode. If you haven’t already, please do click over to iTunes and leave a rating for my podcast, because that helps new listeners discover it. If the audio player doesn’t display for you, click over to listen on Soundcloud.
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Why would Cincinnati rival Atlanta for internet media jobs? Very surprising….
Matthew, I was wondering that, but if you look closely, it appears to be Dayton, not Cincinnati. I believe Lexis-Nexis is based in Dayton, which may account for it.
Interesting. Dayton’s economy is among the worst in America yet it has a nationally significant media/internet operation. I wonder how Dayton can build on that?
I, for one, have faith in our national media, and I don’t know how we can overcome the misinformation coming from Trump and Fox. I put my faith in my region- the Pacific Northwest and the West Coast, as a place that will deal with environmental challenges and build our economy around them. Like the final scenes in the movie “Titanic”, people in Kentucky and Alabama will probably ride the Trump ship down until it sinks below them, leaving them swimming alone in the water. It’s probably going to take something like that to bring the regions of the country back together again. Out here on the West Coast, we’re simply planning to go it alone, assuming, of course that the Republican-controlled Congress doesn’t meddle with local self-determination the way state government in North Carolina did with municipalities there.
You might want to review the US’ dual sovereignty system. It’ll make you feel better.
Good luck Rod. We will miss you.
@Matthew Hall – My guess is that the definition of “Internet media jobs” includes digital marketing and advertising. On that front, the presence of Proctor & Gamble (which spends more on advertising compared to any other company in the world by a large margin) could be big enough to create a relatively large digital marketing cluster in Cincinnati. It’s doubtful that many (if any) of those Internet media jobs are journalism-related. In fact, I would wager that the bubbles in all of the metro areas outside of NYC, DC and may be LA on the Internet publishing mark largely represent digital marketing jobs as opposed to journalism jobs.
The market speaks. In California and the West Coast, there are great local restaurants because people are willing to pay for them. In other parts of the country, all you can find are mediocre chains like Waffle House. The same is true for the media. The New York Times has a California edition because so many people there are willing to pay for it. In other parts of the country people are content with the Fox News that comes with their cable subscription.
This is a bit unfair. First, the interior of the country has incredible restaurants these days. Secondly, the decline of papers is not driven by a willingness to buy, but by outside forces. Even the NYT and WSJ are cutting their newsroom and experiencing print declines. The WaPo is owned by a billionaire who doesn’t care how much money he loses (the NY Post and Daily News are similar). Many West Coast papers have been hammered too. Seen the Chicago Reader lately?
The internet undermined newspaper advertising economics and also allowed media to shift from a 1:1 model (one market, one newspaper) to 1:N model (one web site, many markets).
I think the Politico article leaves the Bernie Sanders campaign’s effect out of the equation for why the Democratic Party surprisingly lost. The media favored Clinton in much of their reporting despite Sanders’ huge following. When it came to light that the party never even considered giving him a fair shake at the primary, all those disenfranchised (mostly younger) voters may not have voted as expected, throwing off the polls.