The Rise of the "New News": A Case Study of Two Root Causes of the Modern Scandal Coverage

Abstract

This study is about press coverage of the first few weeks of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. It is not about whether President Clinton lied, or encouraged others to lie; he said on August 17, 1998 that he had been less than truthful but never encouraged others to lie. Nor is it a reprise of the worst in American journalism, which was on ample display during that time and which, when appropriate, will be cited.1 It is, rather, an attempt to answer the frequently asked question: what is wrong with American journalism? Asked another way: why has it lost the trust and confidence of so many of its readers and viewers? The answer does not lie in the sudden collapse of professional standards; it does lie in the rise in recent decades of a host of substantial challenges posed primarily by (1) new technologies and (2) a recent restructuring of the economic underpinning of the industry. Both of these challenges have forced a revolutionary transformation of the news business from a public service into a predominantly commercial enterprise, where profit tends to trump service at just about every bend in the road. The effect has been to change the very definition of journalism and to produce a “new news.” (This transformation has also coincided with a drastic decline in confidence and respect for political authority, growing out of the Vietnam and Watergate experiences, and with the sudden end to the Cold War, which left newsrooms without a central, organizing focus for the news. But these latter issues are for another study.)

Our story follows a traditional narrative path. Part One features Michael Isikoff, an old-fashioned investigative reporter for Newsweek magazine, who finds himself scooped by the new technology of the Internet on a highly competitive story about President Clinton and a White House intern. Next we shall explain the conceptual framework for our analysis of the emergence of the “new news.” Then, in one section after another, we shall provide illustrations and explanations of the new technology, the new economics and the “new news.” Finally, in a conclusion, we shall discuss what we have learned and what yet remains to be learned.