As reported this week, in the new pioneering deal, Google will pay millions of dollars for creation of journalism positions in California. The legislation, brokered in secret, will funnel tens of millions of taxpayer and private dollars to bailout local media outlets. The created comes at a time when numerous state governments in the United States of America have been endeavoring to support struggling news media outlets that are struggling with ineffective traditional business models and shrinking advertising money.
The sum of the funding streams will be $250 million and the money shall be divided between the funding of the journalism projects and for the new AI research. About $110m will be from Google and $70m from the state budget for supporting growth of journalism employment. The plan will be implemented early next year, with an initial outlay of $100 million for the work.
However, it has been criticized by some journalists and the media professionals because it has not delivered as proposed in some legislation bills. California legislators decided to reject a bill that simply expected technology firms to fund media outlets it benefits from in return for Google’s contribution. The critics claimed that with this decision, it let go of a potential to make Google and other social media firms required to continuously compensate publishers for featuring news links.
Speaking on the case is Victor Pickard, a professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania who said that “Google got off easy” Moreover, Pickard said that California left behind much more, higher amount of funding that could be secured under the legislation. The Media Guild of the West, a union representing journalists in Southern California, Arizona and Texas, condemned the exclusion of journalists from the bargaining with Google.
It has also brought into question provisions for funding of AI tools which those with fear of displacement of journalism jobs consider as menace. Some people insist that this section is added later and can result in human reporters being substituted by them in the future.
That said, there has been some support shown for the agreement from journalism organizations, namely CNPA, LION Publishers, & CBM. Promises come from the side of the deal’s supporters as the movement to solve the financial problems on the part of news organizations at the digital level.
It has been a sad commentary for the newspaper industry in the United States as more than 2,500 newspapers have shut their doors since 2005. By a report from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, there are approximately 200 counties across the nation that lack a medium through which news is distributed to the public. This agreement is designed to meet this crisis by offering much-needed funds to fund journalism jobs and endeavors.
While additional mechanisms of on-going negotiations are being discussed in the agreement further, California Governor Gavin Newsom agreed to enshrine the funding for journalism into his budget for January. However, other Democratic leaders may challenge the implementation of the plan. The months to come will be defining on how this monumental contract is going to redefine journalism in California and possibly other states facing similar issues in the new industry.
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