Definition of problems

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Response to: How newspaper covered the newspaper “crisis”

Most times innovative ideas do not come from extraordinary creativity. In many cases, individuals or organizations fail to properly define a problem and their solutions based on the wrong evaluation of the situation usually lead to the wrong direction. In light of that, it was interesting to read how news media described their own failure in the market.

As evidences confirmed through the paper, it was not surprising to see that the struggling news media had difficulty achieving the facts-based reporting, due to the conflict of interest or emotion-laden nature of the industry as the paper pointed out. Self-reflecting reporting cannot avoid criticism.

However, the criticism not only relies on the conflict of interest or emotion-laden nature, but also lies on their inaccurate evaluation on their failure. Increasing debts and costs, falling profits, and readership are not the causes of the newspaper crisis. Those are more likely to be characterized as symptoms of ‘ill organizations’. Instead, they should have reported the causes bringing the organizations not to adapt to new era of ‘digital world’. Moreover, they should have considered why their news value is not same as the one in the past.

In sum, their description on newspaper crisis reminds me of why they have had hard time to adapt to the new world. The innovative solutions come from the correct assessment of the problems.