INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ONLINE JOURNALISM BY

Due to the economic downturn in the American market, many U.S. news organizations are unable to perform their social role at the previous scope and scale, and have reduced staffing, coverage and services to their consumers. Specialty beats like science and environmental reporting have been hit particularly hard, and some national news organizations (such as CNN) have cut such specialty beats entirely. On December 22, 2008, floodwaters breached a retention pond wall at a power plant managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, releasing a large mixture of water and fly ash. Though the event would eventually be called “largest environmental disaster of its kind in U.S. history ” and would be rated as “50 times worse that Exxon Valdez, ” national media were slow to report the events or their implications, despite extensive coverage of local media and bloggers. This paper examines the limiting factors of 20th Century competitive culture and argues that one of the biggest challenges facing national media properties in regards to the civic function of surveillance is their unwillingness to adapt to the “share economy ” utilized by new media approaches to journalism. Consulting classic researc