Following-up on the previous post ‘How Newspapers’ Financing Got Upended‘, the question of access of low income citizens to serious information is a major issue in our societies.
First it is important to note that it is not because information is collected and curated by a serious press company, or by state media for the sake of argument that it is not biased. However there is more confidence in the source of information and definitely some regulation mechanism to avoid fake news.
The issue remains of course that having access to serious information increasingly becomes a luxury or at least one has to commit to a minimum subscription expense, which is a disadvantage for the less wealthy. Gone are the days of the newspapers posted so that everyone could read them in passing (such as in the picture) – a sight still very much present in lower income countries. The existence of minimum access to serious journalism needs to remain warranted for all, and this is probably the next challenge.
Independent and high quality public media is a response in democratic country (financed by tax), and at the same time it is important to leave minimum access to citizens across the paywalls for all important events that need proper press coverage.
