As I thought about what to write for this blog I came across three articles that reminded me of the importance of journalism and its far reaching impact on society and the journalists themselves.
The first article I read was entitled Media coverage can impact financial markets, journalists say. The title tells it all. Journalists I feel have a responsibility to know the power the news has and unfortunately in some places the consequences can be more than financial.
The second article was the news of a grenade attack on a Mexican newspaper office, and as I scrolled through the related articles one read simply Another journalist murdered in Mexico. It seems the many criminals in Mexico do not like the attention brought by the journalists and newspapers.
However, even with these dangers, and other journalists being jailed or killed the world over, they continue to report what is important for others to hear.
On a lighter note apparently we can thank a journalist for our upcoming thanks giving break
According to the Science News website in the article Thank Journalist, Rather Than Pilgrims, For Thanksgiving Feast, “The holiday came about through fifty years of relentless promotion by Sarah Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine. She promoted it in columns and stories in her magazine until President Abraham Lincoln finally bestowed it national recognition.”
Maybe this year I will be thankful for journalism.
Just in time too. I don’t know about anyone else out there but I was getting a bit depressed and discouraged about the whole business of print journalism. At my core I truly believe and understand the importance of tangible things such as newspapers, but all the doomsday predictions and declining percentages had me really second guessing the future of print journalism.
That was until newspapers sales after election day. People apparently were running out of newspapers as they flew off the stands in record numbers.
As we have talked a lot about biases and other problems facing the coverage of the recent election maybe the publics interest has shown that right or wrong the media as a whole has taped into record breaking audiences.
Whether it was the historic nature of the election, or the way it was covered can be debated. I would like to think it was a combination of the two, what does everyone else think?
TV news enjoyed a record 71.5 million viewers tuning into watch. ABC was at the top of the prime time viewership and CNN, with the aid of some special effects, historically brought in the most viewers overall.
Digby Solomon, publisher of the Daily Press, in Newport News, Virginia - “We anticipated some additional demand, but this was an historic election… and (we) completely underestimated it, It shows that when something truly historic takes place, people want a printed record of it.” But perhaps what newspaper publishers need to remember most – they could do a lot worse than use it as a tagline for an advertising campaign reminding the public that newspapers are published every day, not just the day after Election Day – is what Shirley Holman, 59, of Dallas said: Seeing the news in print "makes it real."
Surely there’s a message there for publishers that if they put out a quality editorial product that its populace is really interested in, then print newspapers do just fine. Sure, the election of a Black man as President of the United States was historic and exceptional, but it goes to show people have not forgotten newspapers, and newspapers need to keep coming out with editorial products that people want to read, even keep.
So for me I am skeptical if Obama will really bring any of the change he promised, but if anything else thanks to him maybe newspapers can use this historical event as a spring board to reestablish the legitimacy with advertisers and naysayers alike.
Maybe if newspapers in the end don’t make it they won’t have anyone to blame except themselves for not putting out a quality product people want and feel is important. That quality I think lies in the hands of the journalists writing, taking the pictures, and helping put the final product together.
“The blogosphere has had its share of news breaks, but absent a functioning mainstream media to annotate, it could be pretty darn quiet out there.” wrote David Carr, in the article Mourning Old Media’s Decline.
In this article he sums up the decline of newspapers, and magazines that has been highlighted most recently by Gannett, who happens to be the nation’s largest newspaper company planning to lay off 10 percent of their newspapers staffers.
Many reasons are given for the decline including the economy and the decline of advertising revenue.
CNNMoney.com invites us to Read all about it...but not in your newspaper, saying “According to figures by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, between 2005 and 2010 the U.S. newspaper industry will go from a $60 billion to a $50 billion industry, as measured by revenue.”
I think 50 billion dollars is still a lot, but apparently not enough to keep things how they were.
Two more quotes from these articles stood out to me.
“Bob Iger, the CEO of Walt Disney, was asked what he thought about the newspaper industry's future. In so many words, he basically said that if the newspaper didn't exist and someone tried to create it, you'd be hard-pressed to dispute the appeal of a product that delivered the world to your doorstep every morning in a smartly-produced package. He then noted, with some relief, that Disney briefly owned newspapers but unloaded them more than a decade ago-largely to Knight Ridder.”
“At the recent American Magazine Conference, one of the speakers worried that if the great brands of journalism — the trusted news sources readers have relied on — were to vanish, then the Web itself would quickly become a “cesspool” of useless information. That kind of hand-wringing is a staple of industry gatherings. But in this case, it wasn’t an old journalism hack lamenting his industry. It was Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google.”
I guess my real question is with all these reporters and newspaper staffers being fired how long will it be until anyone notices the difference in news quality, or has it already happened?
It is certain that many people are interested in the news media and their coverage of the election, and more specifically the candidates. Both sides seem to want to argue that there is a bias for one thing or another. They want to claim agendas for determining what they cover, how they cover it, and how much air time theses issues receive.
James Rainey from the Los Angeles Times said this about these concerns of bias and agenda pushing.
Even though I agree with this outlook many people have taken the time to research the issues of media biases. One of which is the Center for Media and Public Affairs at GeorgeMasonUniversity, who says that ABC, NBC and CBS are more tough on Obama than on John McCain
Other groups seem to find the opposite true. The conservative MediaResearchCenter found after isolating stories on the ABC, NBC and CBS that 42 percent were positive and only 7 percent were negative.
Apparently Russian observers of the election have agreed with the later saying in a preliminary report that after observing ABC, NBC and CBS, Obama has a "hidden advantage."
I think bias and completely fair and balanced news coverage might be impossible to have, especially when as we have discussed in class observers will find what they are looking for.
Can biases be helpful to a journalist as long as they continue to responsibly cover the news?
One person who does not try to hide an obvious bias towards one side is Bill O'Reilly who recently used his biased commentary in order to secure himself a 4 year 40 million dollar contract.
So maybe in the end it seems to me like having an outrageous bias or opinion and being open with it is a great way to earn money while classical thoughts of an unbiased neutral media seem to be a sure fire way to being laid off or down sized.
For 10 million dollars a year what would you say on TV?
A lot of papers have been expanding their online features to attract and increase add revenue, and they were all betting for big returns.
Unfortunately in the last quarter online add revenue was down 2.4 percent.
To help slumping sales many in the industry struggle to decide whether or not to use add networks to fill up empty add space which would otherwise go unused. Others are limiting their add space and filling it themselves to improve their add revenue and percentages.
According to an article from Bloomberg.com Wachovia Capital Markets and Barclays Capital estimated that add revenue will continue to fall throughout this year and the next.
Some papers are taking drastic measures; the McPherson Sentinel from Kansas has cut out the entire day stopping the print of newspapers for Mondays.
From the same above mentioned Bloomberg article we get this quote from Nancy Conway, editor of MediaNews Group Inc.'s Salt Lake Tribune.
“You have to sort of weigh the service versus the cost, and right now newsprint is very costly…Revenue isn't what it used to be, so we have to make some tough decisions.”
Decisions that, for the Salt Lake Tribune, have meant merging and combining sections of the newspaper.
I feel as add revenue continues to slip down we will see newspapers finding new ways to adapt and cut costs.
Any guess what those will be? Comment what you think.
So after hearing the guest lecturer speak today I started to wonder about just how much a print journalist could make. So I just did a quick search on google and found some info on average salaries. As we learn more about journalists and what journalism is I think I discovered at least one thing today, and that is journalists don’t make a lot of money.
I think I have had in the back of my mind for many years this thought that journalists are celebrities in their own right. They are the ones giving us the news but by doing so they themselves become figures in the public light. So I guess with this thought I was surprised how easy it was to contact and conduct an email interview with a journalist Tim Woodward from my home town newspaper the Idaho Statesman. I enjoyed how friendly and how down to earth he seemed in our email correspondence.
Besides the things I learned from his answers was a truth I learned from the preface he gave me about the answers; he said “Sorry the answers were so rushed. Too many deadlines of late.” Being a journalist I think might be a little harder then I thought.
With that said the Q & A with Tim Woodward of the Idaho Statesman
ENJOY! I think he gave alot of answers that go along with the things we have discussed in class and our blogs.
Why did you go into journalism? I'd always wanted to be a writer. It seemed like a way of being able to
write and still earn a regular paycheck.
How did your break in the field?
I applied at almost every paper in the state. No jobs. Took a job as a
photographer for NationalSchool Studios, taking pictures of elementary
school kids. That lasted until the week I realized my travel expenses, which
came out of my own pocket, were within $10 of my salary. Quit on a Friday;
the Statesman called Saturday. I've been here ever since.
How do you define good journalism?
Accurate reporting, as objective and well written as possible, about
subjects that affect readers' lives.
Do you feel like your news organization practices good journalism?
Yes. How would you define the type of journalism you do?
I'm sort of a shirttail journalist. I've done about every kind of reporting, but in recent
years do mainly feature stories and columns.
Does your organization allow you to do the type of journalism you want
to do?
Yes
How does the journalism you practice serve your community?
Readers continually tell me I write about things no one else does, that I help keep
our local history alive, find stories about things they care about and bring
them to the forefront and occasionally bring about some sort of action such
as readers contributing to help needy subjects of my columns and stories,
correct wrongs (a misspelling on a granite memorial to the armed services is
a recent example) and recognize those who otherwise might be forgotten. I
write more about the little guys than the big names.
What is your opinion about recent movements such as community,
citizen, civic, and public journalism?
I think this would be a better question for one of our editors.
Have you ever had an experience in which you felt your work as a journalist really made a difference?
Yes. I did a series that resulted in a corrupt state official going to prison. Did some columns that got a man unjustly imprisoned out before he died. Those are two of many through the years.
How have your views about journalism changed over the years?
They haven't. The technology has, but the basics are timeless.
Have you been affected by dropping circulations, ratings, layoffs, and growth of citizen journalism?
Yes. We all have. My job is changing right now as a result of a smaller staff and a newsroom reorganization it necessitated. What advice would you give students wanting to go into journalism?
Study hard, work hard, get an internship that gives you hands-on experience. And
you might want to consider a medium other than newspapers, which are doing a
lot more laying off than hiring these days.
