3 posts tagged “journalism”
On Friday, Minnesota Public Radio's Midday program will air a discussion about the changes in journalism. Average people who just consume news sat with people in the press who are dedicated to reforming the way it's done.
As the moderator of this forum - I sometimes played devil's advocate.
One woman had just complained that reporters, in their rush to get the story first, sometimes botch it or missed the broader details.
To keep the conversation moving, I said something about how competition has long been a hallmark of the profession. And if you have reporters competing, that forces information out there quicker.
"Isn't that what people want?" I said, playing that contrary role.
Another woman, her name is Elizabeth, said in a baffled tone - "You're not competing against each other. You're competiting for us."
Got it. Oh my, how we've gotten it. People's trust in the press is low. And there are challenges in keeping readers, viewers and listeners in a much more fractured media universe.
Let's get back to that notion of compeition for a second. Understand that journalists have always loved to get the story first, to beat the others in town and strut for the next day. Conversely, you would stew and mutter when a reporter from a competing outlet beat you on a story. You'd vow to get them back.
That competition sizzled the juices. And we truly believed that this competitve environment meant more news getting out to the public. Then came consolidation of broadcast outlets ... and towns that lost all but one newspaper. How our profession lamented the loss of that competition. We'll be sleepy, we thought, we won't be as tenacious.
Then came the Internet and the currency of "the scoop" became devalued. Now you measured you're ability to get things first in hours or minutes rather than days.
And the explosion of media meant news programming had to compete with other forms of content. And there was much more of it out there. The competition didn't go away... but it morphed.
But more importantly, there was the idea that people had felt estranged from their news sources. A colleague of mine, Michael Skoler, likes to talk about a recent Zogby poll that showed roughly two-thirds of the people valued news that helped them with their civic life... but that about the same amount felt they weren't getting that kind of information.
Competition for its own sake wasn't enough. What were we telling people? How did that information enlighten them? Were we helping people to make sense of things?
Maybe these were the new challenges.
What I like about the people in my profession is their tenacity. Oh, yes... we grumble with the best of them. And we can whine. But I'm telling you that the best journalists rise up to challenges. And I'm convinced we are ready to compete for, as Elizabeth put it, you.
The truth is, however, that people in the profession will take different routes to compete.
Some will embrace a philosophy or ideology and champion it.
Some will go for the sizzle of gossip and celebrity coverage.
And some will try to become indispensible civic tools - providing information for an informed community and convening those people by any means at their disposal.
Tim McGuire, a former Star-Tribune editor who now if faculty at the Cronkite School of Journalism, puts it best. He talked about newspapers - but it goes for all forms of the press: "One of the greatest threats to democracy is that our long-tailed world might destroy all sense of community. It should be newspapers that save us from that fracture..."
How about we give that one a try Elizabeth.
Mr. Lucky's signs (written about in my last post) got me to thinking ...
Just what signs have you seen that stand out... that make you wonder... that say something more about who we are?
American Public Media, my employer, produces everything from news stories for the statewide Minnesota Public Radio network to national programs like Marketplace and Speaking of Faith.
And APM likes to reach out to the public for story ideas and angles. The effort - Public Insight Journalism - is where I toil. We do it a number of ways including survey forms on topics.
So how about this topic - what signs do you see in your day-to-day life that make you pause. We're looking for signs that give not only their overt message, but maybe tell us something more about our current state.
Mr. Lucky's sign surely says something more about our world (especially after the Supreme Court has begun changing gun rights)
So what about you? What are the signs with meaning in your life?
Why not share the story ... maybe to a large audience, and help us get at the state of our society through unique storytelling.
If you're game just click this link. The survey you'll see starts like this....
So how does it feel my journalism compadres?
How do you enjoy the life of being examined from every corner, judged on every output?
Once upon a time we'd have to deal with angry phone calls or letter to the editor. We could field the call and chalk it up to "another disgruntled reader/viewer/listener." The letter might make in the paper, might not.
We did our thing and who would really change it.
Oh, but now it has changed. We - the scrutinizers - are being scrutinized. From every corner and in every fashion.
We have our constant critics and our in-house complaint stations. We have the self-investigations and the reformers.
So tell me my fellow-journos, how's it feel being on the inside of that globe?
I'm a sports junkie and a devotee of the New York Mets. The team has played lousy and just changed manager. The new man in charge, Jerry Manuel, has a gift of the gab. Over the weekend he entertained the press before the team was ready to head back to their home field. The fans have been rough on the under-achieving Mets. Some players are getting booed just as they step onto the field.
So one of the reporting gaggle asked Manuel how one of the boo-birds favorite target - a scuffling reliever - would handle the hoots back in New York. Manuel spoke about how the most beautiful flowers need not only fertile soil but fertilizer. It was a colorful way of saying that the booing can only make the players stronger.
But that's not how the New York Post heard it. "Manuel Likens Angry Mets Fans To Fertilizer," was the headline. This has long been the Post's scrubby style - twist and turn words so that it fits a nice narrative, in this case: New manager kicks fans and keeps the team in a beleaguered state.
The old days might have meant a phone call to an editor (likely ignored) or a piece of mail plopped in the ghetto of the letters section.
Now ... the Post is judged -- and with the full quote provided so you can make the call. And it's not just by one blogger, but by many. And the press performance also becomes part of the narrative. And sometimes it leads to a public flogging by none other than Keith Olbermann.
So how does it feel to be judged, dear journalists? It's damn uncomfortable sometimes. And it can throw us offguard, make us think twice about a story approach or the use of a quote (although I doubt the NY Post feels the same. To them any publicity is good publicity).
Perhaps, in this case, turnabout is not only fair play but maybe makes the press play fair.
Maybe it makes our work stronger (And note, I'm not bringing fertilizer into this, lest someone gets the wrong idea).
