Alan Stewart Carl, a moderate blogger, writes: “If the fall of the newspaper business is inevitable, the question is: what does that mean for society? The Internet allows for practically infinite discovery, but it invariably fractures us into subgrou….

One trend is the trend to electronic delivery format, the internet. Some folks find that aesthetically regrettable, and maybe it is, but it’s not alarming by itself.

The other trend is that the failing business model that provides the revenue for professional journalism is leading to decreased resources for quality in-depth investigative reporting. That’s far more alarming to me.

I am the first to criticize the many faults of modern media, especially the trivializing of news as the wall between news and entertainment gets destroyed, and also the inherent biases both in the process and in the minds of many of its practitioners.

Nevertheless, the media still serves an important watchdog role, and at this point we have no way of knowing whether the new ways will provide the same level of watchdogging as we have all grown accustomed to. It’s too early to declare that the sky is falling. We may well see a rise of enterprise investigative journalism. But if we do, we must of course be prepared for a concurrent rise in industry-financed biased journalism.

The traditional vie of journalism pays a lot of credence to the important role of journalists in comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, and that alone explains whatever progressive bias the media may have.

The real unanswered question for the future of journalism is whether the new ways will provide the same paying market for stories about things like the local hack working 10 hours a week at his 40 hr job, or the conflict of interest in that doctor collecting big fees to recommend drug x, and on and on and on and on. All the way down to routine coverage of the goings on of local govts, board meetings, and so on.

What worries me is that the decline of financing for professional public-interest journalism will make it easier for powerful folks to get away with corrupt activities. So I hope that the new models find ways to make this kind of stuff keep happening. We will have to wait and see, but it seems to be nearly a given that future coverage will be less even, less comprehensive, and less in-depth.