Pile of newspapersJournalists think highly of what they do.  The average American does not.

In fact, only 29 percent of people believe that journalists report news stories accurately, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press’s annual Press Accuracy Rating.  Worse, only 18 percent of the American population believes that the news media treats all sides fairly.

It’s no wonder no one cares about the demise of print media—no one thinks it’s any good (plus why pay when it’s all free online?).  Newspaper circulation continues to fall, and in October the New York Times reported that it fell 10 percent nationally from 2008.

And, as Chris Anderson points out in his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, ad space in a printed paper is more valuable than it is online simply because there’s only so much physical space, whereas online space is limitless.  So online advertising isn’t really working out for newspapers, either.  And we already know that print advertising will die with print newspapers.

With all these problems, what is the future of the Fourth Estate?  Will poor-quality amateur blogger-journalists take over as the public’s primary source of news, potentially causing panic and the fall of democracy with faulty, poorly-reported stories (as many journalists fear)?

Will a few media moguls rise to the top and slowly squeeze the life out of the majority of unbiased, struggling newspapers?  Or will newspapers find a business model that actually works?

As a journalist, I sincerely hope that the industry finds a viable, profitable way to survive that allows us to maintain the integrity we think so highly of.  That is why I think journalists need to start a dialogue with their readers.

Enter metajournalism.

Journalism about journalism is nothing new, but it’s time to explore its potential as a conversational tool and an avenue for revitalization of a dying industry.

Without readers, journalism is pretty much pointless.  And with readers quickly losing interest in the media, journalists need to come off their high horse and talk to the people for whom they write.

This should be fairly easy to do—readers can comment on stories at most online newspapers.  But journalists, and by extension, editors and publishers, need to take the first step.

Articles like this one from Forbes address the media’s future.  So does this one from the New York Times. These are good starts, especially the Forbes article.

While a good start, the news industry will have to take it a step further to find a new business model that works.  So, journalists, talk to your readers.  Write about what you do, and let the people that are writing your paychecks give you some ideas.  I bet they’ve got some good ones.