Lecture Six

Going beans.

Imagine you were given 12 jelly beans.

Told they were all yours to eat. 

You were told you eat one.

Taste it. Love it. Crave more.

Then told "thanks, they're $10. If you don't want to pay, give them back."

What would you do? 

Wouldn't you feel like someone was taking away what was given to you? Taking what was, so you thought for a short while, rightfully yours?

This is what Dr Bruce Redman tried to prove to us when he handed everyone in the JOUR1111 lecture 12 jelly beans in a zip-lock bag. We call looked at him with a bit of betrayal, and a bit of disbelief. Not one person in the room kept their jelly beans and headed up the front to pay-up their fee. 

What was this all for, you may ask? 

His point was to prove that putting a price on internet news wouldn't work now that we've had so many years of free access to news in the online media. The public feel like it's their right to get news for free. So what will this mean for journalists. How will journalists get paid if no one pays to read the news they are writing. However, famous online news papers such as The New York Times allows for the public to see basic news stories, but they also have a log-in area where consumers need to subscribe and pay if they want to read more. Also, online mediums allow for news publishers to make more money off advertising and use this to pa their journalists. So no, I don't believe that the fact that people now consume news for free is a problem. News papers still make enough money through other means to pay their journalists adequately. I don't believe journalism is dying, just evolving into new dimensions and mediums. Citizen journalism is growing rapidly in popularity, but it is ultimately the paid journalists that get the news out first and allow for citizen journalists to re-blog or re-tweet.