5. American Media Exceptionalism and the Public Option
Who spends more on Public Media per capita, the United States or Norway?
Overwhelmingly Norway, (More on that later)
Which new business model does Picard believe will save Journalism?
None.
No new business model that can save journalism is waiting to be discovered (164)
What does Pravda mean?
"Truth" in Russian and was also the name of one of their papers
"where Izvestia and Pravda are the names of Soviet newspapers and izvestia means “news” and pravda means “truth.” (4)
According to this book, can journalism exist in nondemocratic settings?
Yes
Journalism can exist in nondemocratic settings, as I have argued in the case of the Soviet Union (217)
Define Picard's idea of a "social democratic" vision for Journalism
I use the term “social democracy” to refer to a specific ideological project, one that privileges a media system’s public service mission over its profitmaking objectives. (139)
What type of system of media according to Picard, is vital in saving the future of Journalism?
A Public Media System
"a public media system is vitally necessary" (169)
What does the book argue allowed the ultranationalist propaganda that plagues Russia today? The "erosion" of what value?
The erosion of the value of truth-seeking and speaking
"With this erosion of the value of truth-seeking, neither journalism nor press freedom make much sense. This crucial development paved "the way for the emergence, and the society-wide acceptance, of rabid ultranationalist propaganda in Russia since 2014"
Journalism is connected with what value more than democracy according to this book?
Truth.
There is a long tradition in Western public imagination and in Western media scholarship of equating journalism with democracy; my book has argued that journalism’s more fundamental connection is with truth first (217)
At the start of the chapter, Picard identifies three elements of US media that make it "exceptional" or different from other countries' media. Other countries might have one of these problems, but we have all three. What are they?
1. Media Consolidation
2. Light Regulations
3. Commercially funded / lack of other options
Why does Picard believe now is an opportune time to address the journalism crisis?
There is a lot of public attention on Journalism currently due to misinformation and other issues
"With increasing public attention focused on threats to the integrity of our news and information systems, now is an opportune moment to consider reforms that reorient US journalism for the digital age" (166)
The intro and conclusion both talk often about this greek idea of "parrhesia". What is it?
parrhesia - the practice of frank and courageous speech delivered at the risk of angering a majority or a more powerful interlocutor.
What is the key difference between the media in Russia today as opposed to the soviet era?
Journalism coexisted with propoganda during soviet era, whereas now its just propoganda
Soviet propaganda coexisted with professional journalism, particularly in the late-Soviet period
In contemporary Russia, however, the profession of journalism - as an institution that aims to provide at least some restraint on the powerful - is near extinction (218)
The Public Broadcasting Act (1967) Picard champions as an example of a system embracing his social democratic ideas. It would establish a system of educational public broadcasting free from outside influence in theory. However, it had one major flaw in reality. What was it?
The funding model.
The PBA determined that public broadcasting’s funding would depend on congressional appropriations, rendering it vulnerable to constant budget fights and political attacks. (147)
Who are the two platform monopolies responsible for exacerbating the digital journalism market collapse?
Facebook and Google
"Platform monopolies are not solely responsible for the systemic market failure undermining digital journalism, but Facebook and Google are certainly exacerbating the crisis" (170)
Mostly yes,
Audiences across the Soviet bloc understood that journalists were limited in what they could air and publish (Curry 1990: 95; Meyen and Schwer 2007). Nevertheless, the press maintained credibility with audiences as “the most humane (chelovekoobraznyi) department of Soviet power,”
Does the modern Russian majority believe in propoganda?
They kind've do according to one poll
"A whopping 54 percent went further and said that they saw nothing wrong with the media distorting information if it served national interests" (219, after annexation of Crimea)
What does Picard describe as the "surest systemic approach to the journalism crisis"?
Increasing public funding for public media "In the final analysis, increasing public funding for public media is the surest systemic approach to the journalism crisis" (162)
How much money does Picard predict it will require to fund a public media system?
Tens of billions of dollars
"Creating a solid foundation for a new public media system will require tens of billions of dollars." (169)
In the Post-Soviet era, conditions became ripe for "bad parrhesia", what did this mean?
“bad parrhesia” - the practice of political speaking to audiences that is manipulative, pandering to crowds, done by many rather than a few, and motivated by personal gain rather than courage. (49)
Why did journalism start to disappear in Post-Soviet Russia?
Russia struggled to develop a public sphere
In the older democracies, the categories of public and private have remained in productive tension through the concept of the public sphere, as liberal-democratic and capitalist institutions codeveloped. In post-Soviet Russia, the private triumphed over the public as part of the rejection of communism, and that process stunted the development of the Russian public sphere