Build The Wall analysis

• Section 1 - It begins by stating, quite bluntly, that the news industry is rapidly dying but the only solution to the problem is to forcibly monetise the news content.
• Section 2 - Publishers and institutions must deal with the fact that they are losing money and that they need to use a paywall behind their content in order to uphold high quality journalism
• Section 3 - By creating paywalls, you will definitely lose readers but the first few waves of subscriptions would result in a direct investment of better content and expansion of the institution
• Section 4 - It talks about how it is too late for the industry to make any changes but could still do something about it through different ideas and scenarios where the industry is surviving.

David Simon's overall argument is that the newspaper industry is rapidly declining. What's worse is that despite it rapidly declining, the people in a position of power are doing little to nothing to stop it. He is adamant that by monetising the internet and creating paywalls, the industry will eventually be saved, in the first few years it will see a decline in readership and a loss in profit, but turning profit will take time and dedication. Slowly but surely, there will be a profit, as the demand for the news institution is still obviously there, so people will be willing to pay a certain amount of money just to get their high quality journalism. He also argues that it is unfair of the people in power to sit around and do nothing as every day people are losing their jobs and livelihoods due to the laziness of those sitting comfortable on large piles of money.

AC Grayling's article has quite a lot of different references to the state of journalism and how new and digital media has had an impact on it. It discusses how citizen journalism has rapidly expanded and skyrocketed through the use of blogging and social media. I feel the article is very neutral in it's perspective as it touches on both negatives and positive impacts of new and digital media. Negatives such as users on social media having too much anonymity in their expressions and freedom of speech giving them over confidence to have ignorant views. It also focuses on the positives and Grayling is adamant that these positives outweigh the negatives which audiences and users of the internet essentially must accept them and move on.

Personally, I think it is absolutely vital that news institutions and platforms learn to ADAPT rather than force money out of their readership. They must learn that the people no longer have a need or desire to use physical print copies but rather digital versions which are easier to obtain. In history when news papers were made, the town crier didn't start charging extra money to everyone listening to him for his services. It simply doesn't make sense. Institutions must give the people what they want and embrace these new technologies in order to survive. Journalism used to be about writing for and about the people with every intention of the news being about the good of society, but now it seems like who can make the most money in the easiest way possible, which can be argued is another factor why print media is rapidly dying.