Advice for Furloughed Newspaper People
“Now that you have your mind off your regular work, you can read the papers and watch the news like a normal person, not like a news person. If the project is painting the bathroom, you have to cover the fixtures with newspapers, patch the cracks, prime the walls and apply two finish coats. To get this done in a day or two means getting up early, working steadily and being physically tired at night. Notice how little time you have to skim the headlines, much less read the jump on sprawling newspaper stories? Now that you have a fresh perspective on the press, you can begin to understand how your audience feels.”--Alan Mutter, blogger (“Reflections of a Newsosaur”),
former newspaperman, Silicon Valley CEO
and sometime journalism instructor. 2009
former newspaperman, Silicon Valley CEO
and sometime journalism instructor. 2009
Editorial Comment: Newspapers catch drips.
Newswatch: Updates on imprisoned U.S. journalists Roxana Saberi in Iran (homepage), and Current TV’s Euna Lee and Laura Ling in North Korea.
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Alan's reflection shows a common misunderstanding of journalism -- that there is a single "audience" that every story ought to be short and stimulative enough to rouse.
ReplyDeleteIn reality each of us reads or watches news individually -- looking for those stories that matter to us or engage us. When a news story crosses our concerns, we appreciate it when the reporter has anticipated and sought answers to our questions -- even if that makes the story "sprawling" for others. Stories designed to interest everyone are often important for no one.
A second point. An in-depth article need not attract most readers' attention to serve an indispensable civic need. Such articles raise the informational basis of discourse for the subset of the audience for whom the issue is important. They puncture myths. They put major players on record. They focus community attention on a problem -- legitimizing an issue. They help level the playing field between insiders (lobbyists) and citizens.
The effort by news managers to make journalism shorter and more stimulative has trivialized much of newspapers' content. It has trained people to think of news as unnecessary.