Why MSM Journalism is in Dire Straits

I had read Tara Hunt's lecture slides this am on Corporate and State Happiness, and was flicking through one of the better books on the subject (ie rational, based on actual research rather than pop-psych), The Happiness Hypothesis - in prep of a response - and it pointed to this piece of research (here is a PDF precis).

The researchers looked at the factors driving happiness in work, and found there are 2 key axes - doing good work, and doing well out of it. Comparing geneticists with journalists they found that geneticists were very happy, but, by the late 1990's in the era of corporate media and drive for profits, journalists felt they were neither doing good work, nor doing well:

Journalism, on the other hand, emerges as a misaligned domain. Journalists find that
their own goals as professionals conflict at once with those of two powerful parties: the
owners and managers of their outlets, rarely trained in journalism, who seek ever greater
profits each quarter; and their shrinking audience, which spurns topics of depth and
complexity in favor of stories that are sensational--"if it bleeds, it leads." Most
journalists are pessimistic about the future of their profession; they look back to a Golden
Age. In contrast to geneticists, many wish that they could change their profession.

So to a large extent the travails of Journalism today were set in train 10 years ago. But before you feel all superior....

Referring to the overwhelming power of market factors, one news analyst told us, "The
media are an early warning sign. What happens there forecasts what will happen
elsewhere."

Misalignments serve as wake-up calls......think about your industry - is it starting to be like Journalism in the 1990's?