UK Social Media, Citizen Journalism, and Alternative News

Abstract

In the face of the continuously changing challenges of the digital age, it is dif fi cult for quality news journalism to survive on any signi fi cant scale if a means for adequately funding it is not available. This new study, a follow-up to 2007’s The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democra-cies , includes a comparative analysis of possible alternative business models that may save the future of the quality news business across the developed, intermediate, and developing worlds. Its detailed evaluation encompasses also the different ways in which wider key issues are affecting the prospects for quality news as a core ingredient of effectively working democracies. It focuses on the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, India, Kenya, and selected parts of the Arab World, providing a detailed cross-cultural survey of different approaches to addressing these various issues. To keep the study fi rmly rooted in the “real world” the contributors include distinguished practitioners as well as experienced academics.