Newspaper media is not dying because they are running out of money, advertising or readership.

The newspaper media is dying because they no longer have anything important to say and they only say it once a day.

News organisations will often scoop themselves with updated online content, creating a media swarm around a story and then cutting off interest by the time the butcher’s paper runs off the printer.

However not only hard copy news is feeling the pinch, the Global Mail recently announced that their primary backer and Chairman, Graeme Wood, would be pulling his support for the project.

The Global Mail was created in 2012 as a non-profit independent new organisation whose focus is on ‘independent journalism’. The assumption being that because the organisation was not part of a conglomerate it could claim no editorial interference.

This highlights a potentially inherent flaw in the way news organisations, even independent ones, are run. The assumption that journalists act according to objective principles is a lofty ideal, yet it is one that demands a high level of trust from audiences. Trust that over a long period of time has been eroded by the less ethically minded members of the profession. In a media market where information is consistently speculative, journalists are not a trusted source of information, no matter how well intentioned.

It’s a problem that stems from the concept of journalism as a ‘professional’ endeavour, one that requires a degree or massive portfolio to create a critical mind. It’s an attitude that dismisses those outside of the profession as amateurs, untrustworthy or unreadable.

Ironically the positioning of journalism within the ‘professions’ has not helped the way in which journalists are perceived. In the 2013 Roy Morgan professions survey print and television journalists ranked 20th and 21st out of 30 occupations for ethics and honesty. Well below lawyers, bank managers and a popular dead horse that the Abbott government is currently flogging: public servants.

This isn’t to say that a robust media isn’t an important factor in keeping the government, the judiciary and the media of the day honest. However the focus of many media outlets on moving from reporting to comment has meant that they have become as robust as a paper bag full of cat’s piss.

The age of talking down to consumers is drawing to a close, as can be seen from the success of citizen journalism and media outlets such as Independent Australia. User generated content enables consumers to establish a link with a real contributor who exists outside of the media scrum.

Problems with the journalistic profession were highlighted for me when I interned at Crikey.com under the brilliant, acidic and sardonic Bernard Keane. His interactions with other journalists were fascinating to watch, ranging from collegial warmth to well… this sort of thing:

Journalists are like any other employee in the country, they earn money by doing what they are told to do, the problem is that while the code of ethics promotes objectivity, journalists and organisations tend to differ on the meaning of ethics in real terms.

Fair or not the impression of mixed morals sticks indelibly to all journalists and it would be remiss of me to not place myself in this category.

However the strange thing about information is people don’t mind if it’s subjective as long as you say it’s subjective. Consumers of citizen journalism realise that what they are getting is often a truth filtered through experience, one that creates a relation to the consumer rather than leaving them sitting on the outside of the story.

Citizen journalism may be a misnomer when it comes to the contributions of citizens in the media cycle because it suggests that only journalists are worth listening to in ongoing community conversations.

The internet has taken power from the media and placed it back in the hands of citizens for the first time since the height of the renaissance pamphleteer. Therefore media organisations should be encouraging involvement from non-journalistic sources rather than living in fear of a more powerful fourth estate.

Note: Thank you to everyone who made critical suggestions on this piece. Due to frustration, time limits and tiredness it was quite under-edited making my point about the lack or readability in citizen journalism a tad unsound. However it has highlighted the collaborative nature of this medium. I shall endeavour to do better in the future.