The blame game

By: Callie McBroom

There is a new debate about which bloggers and journalists have taken sides against their peers. The debate deals with who is to blame for the failing newspaper industry. On one side, the key players--Roy Greenslade, Paul Farhi, and Adrian Monck say that it is not the journalists' fault. And, Jeff Jarvis takes them on by asserting that it is the journalists' fault.

Jarvis says journalists failed to see, and even resisted, changes and opportunities presented to them. They also got too comfortable in their positions. Jarvis argues that the internet can allow newspapers to change the relationship newspapers have with the public.

The other side blames the shifting revolution in technology and recent hard economic times. They say readers have abandoned them. All are forces completely out of journalists' control they believe. “Journalists and journalism are the victims, not the cause, of the industry’s shaken state,” says Farhi.

No matter what side you are on, however, the situation is what it is. Even with changes in technology and hard times ahead of them, newspapers will have to stop passing the blame and make some real changes if they are going to save their own skins.