The Future of News Media

Traditional news media appears to be in crisis: the share of Americans who trust the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” has fallen from ~70% in the 1970s to 40% in 2020 according to Gallup, and 83% see a “great deal” or “fair amount” of political bias in news coverage; over 2,000 newspapers in the US have closed since 2004 and some 36,000 newspaper jobs - or close to 50% - have been lost since 2008; and while news websites or apps remain the most popular source of news for Americans (68%), tech platforms have become an increasingly important source of news. 65% of Americans get their news “often” from search engines (65%) and about half from social media (53%) according to Pew.

How should the news industry adapt to the changing dynamics of the industry? What role do society and government have, if any, to support the news industry?