JOUR933 - Online and Research Journalism Assignment 3: Reflective Essay 1. Discuss the impact of commercial pressures on print news media investigation at the local level. ( Study Program, Week 9 ) We perceive the daily press as an important platform in our democracies because it acts as a watchdog, informs, comments and scrutinises, and gives access to individuals and groups to have a public debate. For various reasons traditional mass media are likely to continue to dominate the political discourse, and as a society we wish newspapers to keep their special role in this. Newspapers as carriers of content have had to yield various functions in the past c