Today’s West Virginia mine tragedy is also a media tragedy. And it is yet another illustration that newspapers are often out of date by the time they reach us. In this case, the mistake is well-known and was publicly corrected before most of us read it. But newspapers are full of stories that their readers can find in more current and often more complete versions online.
Jay Rosen uses this as an occasion to look at what newspaper should take responsiblity for. But it makes me wonder: what’s a newspaper for?
We’ve known for a while that newspapers are unsuited to covering breaking news. This is a mistake that editors and publishers are doomed to repeat until they rethink their role in the community.
Originally published on my blog at JupiterResearch.