The New Yorker posted an interesting article on the future of journalism in the digital age this week. It discusses the failures of CNN and the New York Post following the Boston Marathon bombings and the fake AP tweet that resulted in a Dow flash crash on April 23.

It’s worth noting that, while the hacker’s mode of transmission was social media and high-frequency trading, the immediate target was that relic from a previous era, the Associated Press. The Syrian Electronic Army had previously hacked into the accounts of CBS, NPR, and the BBC. These digital soldiers don’t like Western news coverage of the Syrian civil war, and they take the mainstream media seriously enough to try to damage it. Perhaps they take the mainstream media more seriously than people here and in Britain do.

Excellent point. No one seems to take the mainstream media seriously anymore. And according to this Harvard survey very few young Americans trust the media to do the right thing:

Given the recent evidence and general trends in mainstream journalism, that’s hardly surprising. But as I argue in my dissertation, neglecting the crucial political role of the news media and instead blindly jumping on the social media bandwagon isn’t doing us any favors. As George Packer points out in The New Yorker piece, it undermines journalists and the important work they do:

And journalists, the ones who do it for a living, will continue to have their faith in the profession shaken, as they panic and let their own standards slip in order not to be embarrassed by Reddit at 2:43 in the morning. But unlike high-frequency traders, Internet entrepreneurs, and online vigilantes, journalists have a stake in those standards, which are the only reason for having professionals do the job. When people are fighting for survival they can forget the long-term interests that are its only guarantee. Perhaps the triumphs and debacles of Boston, and the Syrian Electronic Army prank on the stock market, will serve to remind journalists of how badly they’re still needed, as long as they exercise their best qualities, which include, among other things, self-restraint.