The old media model still does unique things for us. It’s what people mean when they say we have to save newspapers -- the watchdog function, and constancy of reporting... Our conclusion is those functions are definitely going away in the traditional media world and are not being replaced one to one. For-profit, ad-supported mass media that was the way America got its reporting is a strange historical accident. I think it’s over; it’s not going to happen anymore.-Persephone Miel
As old media die, new forms are emerging, but it’s not clear they will serve such vital civic functions as “helping people form publics,” as Pat Aufderheide puts it. In this video from MIT's Media in Transition conference, panelists point to promising experiments in “Public Media 2.0,” but caution that new media are not guaranteed to shore up democracy or invigorate public culture.
