BBC hosts many services, of which the free and superb BBC World is an example.
CNN is known for the excellence of their live coverages. Do you remember the Gulf War?
Público (Portugal) is a fine example of over the top quality!
Newspapers also fall in one of two bags: the fast food and the serious food. Fast food sells a lot, but experts usually edit their articles on higher quality press. However, there has been a growth of lighter publications.
Journalism, People, Democracy and Politics (part 1)
Many democracies, from Europe to the USA, now have to worry about concepts such as "an individual's popularity", "people's misinformation" and "lack of journalism quality".
Democracy is of course founded on the direct relevance of the people's opinions, so public information is of extreme importance, if sound choices are to be made. This means that democratic governments have the right to rule, but also the duty to better the available information. Problems begin right here.
In recent years, political parties started using exactly the same aggressive Marketing that cleaning and beauty products use! As a result of this strategy, political parties now have to strongly identify themselves with short / strong / effective messages... This boosts the importance of their leader's image and the importance of clear / straight communication that can easily be understood by wide audiences. Marketing always levels for the lowest common part...
In other words, recent years have shown political leaders that are more old-fashioned-actors than persons fit to trace a path for a nation, deep buried in a world of every minute changes.
The formula of selling "easy-to-consume" politicians works. People buy them. What's to worry about?
There are many things to worry about. For starters, there is a growing void between many of those who should rule, and those who do rule. In so many countries, power is NOT on the hands of the most capable on matters of economy, technology, science, ethics, foreign politics, and so on... but - instead - on the hands of those who best showed interest on doing it, applied to the job, and best convinced the voters.
Now that most "private economy" jobs pay better than public jobs, money is NOT what drives candidates. Surely there are many indirect incomes, but it seems that the most obvious one is... EXPOSURE. A politician now gets more exposure than most music, movies and sports' stars!
Be a star! Be a politician!
This should make it easier to understand that there is change of focus going on right now: for some politicians, focus is changing from country-interest to self-interest, and there lies the greatest problem.
People are to blame (and to reward, as we are in the context of solid democracies). Some countries have lived in such a social stability, that people forgot the past (the worst they could do) and started to lose connection to many great issues, on the assumption that the ones they alone elected will take care of such issues, better than anyone else, not needing further input. Wrong. This is overconfidence.
To make things worst, our world as reached such a complexity on so many areas, that "general journalism" is worthless and even dangerous, as it tends to broadcast reports that are more misinformation, than information.
For example, how many times did you watch a glitch-free report on Computer-Science, Medicine, Mechanics and so on? I bet that everytime you watch / read / listen something about a subject you're an expert on, you'll easily find errors on that news report, in case it is not signed by a specialist.
Journalists need specialization. CNN is a good example of how specialization should happen, as they have experts on the coverage of many subjects. Portugal's RTP2 is on the same path, on its news services, as they regularly invite people deeply involved on the covered matters. But BBC is doing what must be done for ages, and it surely is on the pole position of quality - have you ever noticed the quality of their "Learning Zone", running all nights? It is awesome!
Still, in many cases you are serviced with lousy jobs... where the person that signs the work knows zip about it...
There is too much misinformation going on. People are misinformed; people are making wrong judgments, forming wrong opinions and fighting the wrong causes. As a consequence, people might vote for what's not the best for their country... and the absolute best will hardly be available, as it is being attracted to alternative missions...
It will be dangerous if some insist on this vicious circle, for too long...
RTP2 is very different (for better) from all other portuguese TV news services: they try hard to bring in the experts. Still, some journalists simply can't cut the cake, and that easily shows on political interviews, where they show up with pre-determined attitudes towards some representatives.
Expresso is a long running portuguese publication, once the sole weekly reference.
Expresso usually delivers the deepest coverage, but high quality daily proposals - like Público - have diverted some customers.