The Growing Inaccessibility of Media

Introduction

If you were on the internet in the early 2000s, you probably remember when just about everything was free - no members-only paywalls, no unskippable ads before videos, no “accept all cookies”. Unfortunately, it was too good to last, and that free-range internet has devolved into the internet we have today. As the internet has grown increasingly restrictive, online accessibility to information has shrunk drastically. So, why are things like news, media, and research now so inaccessible? It all boils down to the profit motive - publishing academic research and hosting media weren’t always so lucrative. Let’s take a look at how this growing inaccessibility affects the public and the industries. 

News

With the dawn of the digital age, many once-popular newspapers have had to move to a predominantly online platform to keep up. Many of these sites, to make up for falling subscription rates, moved their online content to a subscription-based access model, as well. This was necessary for the news outlets, who would otherwise have no income pathways, but inconvenient for those who read the news, as many who grew up with the internet are firmly rooted in the belief that any and all information that benefits the public should be free. This created something of an impasse between many millennials/ zoomers and online news outlets. Some news outlets, such as Pew Research Center, are entirely free; others, like the Washington Post, allow a certain number of free articles for non-subscribers per month; still others, like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, have a subscription only policy. Unfortunately, this harms news reliability on the internet, in some cases drastically. A Pew Research study showed that 53% of Americans say they get their news from social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok), with 42% of Americans aged 18-29 saying it’s their primary way to get news. 28% say they primarily use news sites or search engines, though those numbers increase dramatically with age range. Nevertheless, social media as a substitute for proper news sites is a dangerous trend, with a high potential for the mass spread of disinformation. 

Media

If you’re in your twenties or older, you almost certainly remember when Netflix came out with online streaming. It was praised as the future of media, and many turned to it for its cost effectiveness and convenience. However, that quickly changed as every major media corporation jumped on the bandwagon and created their own subscription-based streaming platform. Now the number of media giants out there expecting your money every month is in the dozens at least - who can pay for all that? TV and movie piracy, which saw a decline after the dawn of Netflix, is rapidly making a comeback, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States is the #1 culprit in terms of online piracy, due entirely to the fact that media has become so expensive to watch legally. Additionally, HBO recently removed 87 shows from their streaming services with no warning, no rights transference to the writers, and nowhere else to watch them. It’s little wonder that Americans are donning their pirate hats once again - who wants to pay for a pricey subscription to a streaming service that will probably cancel your favorite show after two seasons, anyway? 

Research

One of the more disturbing inaccessibility issues comes when we consider research, particularly medical research. An increasing number of scientific institutions and journals are locking their content behind paywalls; a recent review estimated that only 28% of scholarly articles are open access (Day, et al). This has a number of negative effects: firstly, by making it more difficult for the public to access research, these institutions are removing a vital facet of accountability. Secondly, paywalls ignore the fact that public advocacy is an aspect of research, and one that many researchers expect in carrying out their work. Paywalls also ignore the public’s role in research: their roles as “funders, advocates, research participants, and patients” (Day, et al). Locking access to medical and scientific findings also negatively impacts public health and impedes the ability of the public to confidently make medical decisions or vouch for their own health. 

Conclusion

The free and open internet we once knew and loved may be gone forever, but there are still ways to get the information we want and need. While free information may be more difficult to find than it once was, it is still possible. Sites like JSTOR offer free academic articles (99 per month!), and free news sites like NBC are still out there, as well. So, while accessibility online is certainly not all it once was, it has not yet gone away entirely, either. And it won’t, as long as the public continues to lobby for an accessible, open, and unprivatized internet. 

Sources: 

 Shearer, Elisa. “86% of Americans Get News Online from Smartphone, Computer or Tablet.” Pew Research Center, 12 Jan. 2021. https://pewrsr.ch/2MZqns7. 

 Elad, Barry. “Piracy Statistics 2023 - Internet, Movie and Music Piracy Facts.” Enterprise Apps Today, 15 Sept. 2023, https://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/stats/piracy-statistics.html.

 Day, S., Rennie, S., Luo, D. et al. Open to the public: paywalls and the public rationale for open access medical research publishing. Res Involv Engagem 6, 8 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-020-0182-y.