As New York local news broadcasts decline in popularity, the state is taking action to ensure that every cable company airs local news programs. Lawmakers are aiming to require every cable company in the state to offer independent “news, weather and public affairs programming,” according to The New York Times.
It is important that the government is recognizing this a problem and proposing a solution, especially in an institution as important to preserve as journalism. Recognizing that reporting is worth being saved is a substantial and deserved precedent to set for news sources.
The decline of local news broadcasts and shift toward more technologically advanced sources is inevitable. This does not mean it is not still an important tenet of the field; television does not have to dominate the journalism market in order to operate within it.
A world with hardly any broadcast journalism is worse than one with broadcast taking a backseat to other media while still producing important reporting. We are operating under a new system, but it is not entirely unrecognizable from the news of a decade ago, which relied more heavily on television.
There are no plausible mechanisms to reasonably require the consumption of print or online media, but in areas such as radio and television, programming is controlled by a company and not a consumer.
This is the only way the government can promote public awareness of current events while not potentially creating a conflict of interest. Hopefully cable companies will not find a way to abuse their power to control which news is aired, as one can imagine the potentially swayed information that may be spread in this manner.
Massachusetts is experiencing the beginnings of this brand of policy by creating a research team to investigate trends in the state’s journalism and make policy suggestions to lawmakers at the end of each year.
Programs like these that seek to protect journalism and public information are important to society. An informed citizenry is the heartbeat of a healthy democracy.
