Building Up Walls: How paywalls and unequal access to information are doing us no favors in ensuring

For anyone who’s tried to get around the New York Times paywall, maybe even giving them your email in exchange for a few free articles, you know how frustrating it is to see that little pop-up encouraging you to “Enjoy unlimited access for $1 a week for your first 6 months!” It may seem futile to rebel against the system and continue to seek ways around it, because, after all, there are hundreds of news websites for us to choose from. But the question stands: is news accessible to everyone, regardless of the paywall?

In a world with a climate crisis, several relentless wars, and a slowly receding pandemic, it’s more important than ever that people are able to readily access information about current events. However, it’s hard to receive this news without paying the price.

People with higher incomes are typically targeted by online news sites, which is the way that 52% of American adults receive their news (Pew Research Center). These more affluent communities can afford to buy their way past paywalls, but what about those who can’t?

Another key problem that runs deeper than the existence of paywalls is the lack of relevance of news for all people. According to The Atlantic, there are huge information gaps that make it hard for low-income consumers to get news that’s pertinent to them. In his article, “Getting the News to Everyone, Not Just the Wealthy,” Joe Pinsker says, “When people are pitching stories, somebody will say, ‘Well, why would “Mary” care about that?’ And ‘Mary’ is in her 50s, she's well-educated, she's white, she's affluent. And Mary is not Maria, you know?” To Pinsker’s point, news is often skewed towards richer populations with a higher education, when everyone wants to receive news they can understand and relate to.

The questions I pose are: If our biggest news providers aren’t working to ensure that everyone is getting equal access to news, could this be a problem for a small high school newspaper putting out no more than a few articles per week? Are we facing similar issues, perhaps if we’re not making sure that everyone knows how to access information about opportunities at Jordan? For example, if all of the articles the Post publishes are written in English, students who have a different preferred language could be excluded.

I hope that this is more than food for thought, because this nationwide problem could easily be affecting the Falcon Post. I urge our writers and readers alike to consider the impact of the news they write, consume, and share, and how their access to information could be very different than that of the person sitting next to them in class.

Works Cited

Pinsker, Joe. “Getting the News to Everyone, Not Just the Wealthy.” The Atlantic, 11 May 2015, wwwtheatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/getting-the-news-to-everyone-not-just-the-wealthy/392672/.

Shearer, Elisa. “More than Eight-in-Ten Americans Get News from Digital Devices.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 12 Jan. 2021, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/01/12/more-than-eight-in-ten-americans-get-news-from-digital-devices/.

Sung, Jun, and Alexandra Chan. “Paywalls Contribute to the Gatekeeping of Information.” Washington Square News, 7 Oct. 2019, nyunews.com/ops/2019/10/07/journalism-paywall-subscriptions-payment-low-income/.