What a Hitman and Marshall McLuhan taught me about the Death of the Mainstream Media

Before I interviewed a well-known hitman in Bangalore in 2008, I told my editor at WIRED that if I didn't report back in 12 hours, I was already probably dead. I instructed him to get in touch with cop that was known to shoot first and ask questions later who was my best chance for a rescue...or revenge. The piece ended up being one of the most important pieces of journalism I ever produced--connecting the boom in the Indian tech economy to major American firms.

The more I think about what I actually needed to do to write that story, the more baffled I am that this kind of journalism ever gets done. See, while I was facing down the real possibility of getting shot and killed, I was also pretty close to dead-broke. I was more concerned with not being able to make ends meet if the story got canned than I was of the much more clear and present danger I was going into. This week's video is a doozy.

The encounter with the hitman got me thinking about how journalism has changed over the last 15 years. Magazines today are much less inclined to take risks than they once were, and how decentralized media distribution is going to fundamentally alter the way you get your news in the years to come. In other words, my encounter with the hitman has spiraled out into an existential crisis that has implications for the entire field of investigative journalism.

#mafia #MarhsallMcluhan #media

The Godfather of Bangalore (WIRED) https://www.wired.com/2008/10/mf-mobgalore/

Marshall McLuhan "Understanding Media" https://amzn.to/3rJnIHG

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