Digital Information Ecosystems: Smart Press [Hardcover]

Digital information, particularly for online newsgathering and reporting, is an industry fraught with uncertainty and rapid innovation. Digital Information Ecosystems: Smart Press crosses academic knowledge with research by media groups to understand this evolution and analyze the future of the sector, including the imminent employment of bots and artificial intelligence.

The book adopts an original and multidisciplinary approach to this topic: combining the science of media economics with the experience of a practicing journalist of a major daily newspaper. The result is an essential guide to the opportunities of the media to respond to a changing global digital landscape.

Independent news reporting is vital in the contemporary democracy; the media must itself become a new smart press.

Foreword ix

Introduction xv

Chapter 1. How Do the Economy and the Press Influence Each Other? 1

1.1. The concept of media 1

1.2. The concept of information 3

1.3. The economy 7

1.4. A brief history of the media and press economy 7

1.4.1. The discreet beginnings of the media economy 8

1.4.2. The renewal of the media economy since the 2000s 10

1.5. The two meanings of media economics 17

1.5.1. Does media have an influence on the economy? 17

1.5.2. Does the economy influence the media sector? 25

1.6. Summary 32

Chapter 2. Can We Trust the Press? 35

2.1. The credibility of media and journalists 35

2.1.1. Distrust of the Internet is growing 36

2.1.2. But criticism of journalists remains strong 37

2.2. Is there an informational or ideological bias in the lc