The question is how do you expect quality information to be produced if it isn’t paid for? I think it’s terrible we have to think in those terms but as the other person said, that is reality.
Linux is a prime example of quality that isn’t paid for. No one forces you to pay for Linux, you can of course support the maintainers and donate, but it’s not a for-profit endeavor.
Linux is the result of a massive number of people working at their own paces with no deadlines and no expenses other than time and the computer they already own, as well as foundations where people get paid and pay others do tasks. Lots of private companies are also involved, and they exist because of profits.
Quality, relevant journalism has hard costs associated with it and has to move very fast. I’m not even talking about the twitter blitz that leads to sloppiness. I’m saying any and all breaking news. How do you plan on getting any on the ground reporting in Gaza?
What you are suggesting would mean that only those who don’t need an income can participate in the endeavor. Which unfortunately is also the case with Linux - big contributors have to stop all the time, projects die regularly, because “life gets in the way.” It just shifts the problem.
Open source programming and journalism have some parallels I’m sure but this comparison just doesn’t work on many levels.
How do you propose these “open source journalists” make a living? Corporate grants or straight-up corporate jobs just like a huge chunk of Linux development, landing us right back at square one, if not even somewhat behind it. At least independent media exists nowadays, but if the assumption is that all news has to be freely available, like acastcandream said that’d just lead to journalism being very effectively locked out as a career path for anyone who’s not independently wealthy or somehow able to make people actually donate or pay for a subscription despite the content being available for free – and that hasn’t worked out too well for most publishers so far.
The largest code contributors to Linux are corporate contributions
Regular people who contribute to OSS do so as a passion project, as a hobby, and have other unrelated jobs that pay the bills. Those people still have to make a living, they’re just not doing it from their software contributions. Journalism isn’t a hobby and you can’t work a day job and still be an effective journalist. News orgs don’t come together as hobby projects.
I’m not defending advertising. I hate it and think it’s ruined the web. I’m just addressing the analogy here wrt Linux.
The question is how do you expect quality information to be produced if it isn’t paid for? I think it’s terrible we have to think in those terms but as the other person said, that is reality.
Linux is a prime example of quality that isn’t paid for. No one forces you to pay for Linux, you can of course support the maintainers and donate, but it’s not a for-profit endeavor.
Linux is the result of a massive number of people working at their own paces with no deadlines and no expenses other than time and the computer they already own, as well as foundations where people get paid and pay others do tasks. Lots of private companies are also involved, and they exist because of profits.
Quality, relevant journalism has hard costs associated with it and has to move very fast. I’m not even talking about the twitter blitz that leads to sloppiness. I’m saying any and all breaking news. How do you plan on getting any on the ground reporting in Gaza?
What you are suggesting would mean that only those who don’t need an income can participate in the endeavor. Which unfortunately is also the case with Linux - big contributors have to stop all the time, projects die regularly, because “life gets in the way.” It just shifts the problem.
Open source programming and journalism have some parallels I’m sure but this comparison just doesn’t work on many levels.
How do you propose these “open source journalists” make a living? Corporate grants or straight-up corporate jobs just like a huge chunk of Linux development, landing us right back at square one, if not even somewhat behind it. At least independent media exists nowadays, but if the assumption is that all news has to be freely available, like acastcandream said that’d just lead to journalism being very effectively locked out as a career path for anyone who’s not independently wealthy or somehow able to make people actually donate or pay for a subscription despite the content being available for free – and that hasn’t worked out too well for most publishers so far.
I’m not defending advertising. I hate it and think it’s ruined the web. I’m just addressing the analogy here wrt Linux.