Blog Post #14

Blog Post #14

Chapter 7: “Media Economics: The Deadline Meets the Bottom Line”

Case 7-A: Crossing the line? The L.A. Times and the Staples Affair  

Micro Issues

How does entering into contract with the Staples Center differ from the sports department accepting press passes for the events held in the arena?

Entering into contract with the Staples Center differ from the sports department accepting press passes for the events held in the arena because of the type of ownership. Entering into contract with the Staples Center means the reporters that work in association with that newspaper will have to strictly base their stories taking care of the image of the Staples Center. Not only that, reporters will be working as advertisers in one way or another. 

Midrange Issues

Shaw entitled his article “Journalism Is a Very Different Business.” In what ways do you think journalism differs from other business?  

Journalism differs from other businesses in the way they exposed their image every day through the written word. Other business only exposed what they consider to communicate though press releases taking care of their image. Also, journalism needs to be completely impartial in order to be completely newsworthy. 

Macro Issues

When a newspaper is a publicly traded company, do the loyalties of the paper shift from the public to the shareholders?

I totally agree because the journalism taken by the reporters of a newspaper which is a publicly traded company means certain news that will interest the public but not the shareholders will remain in silent. This situation makes the readers skeptical about the news they read in the newspaper. The loss of readers will not only represent an economic turndown for the newspaper, but also a violation of the free press.