Category: Media

ADD journalism

I made a brief attempt to earlier write something as eloquent on ADD journalism. Instead, Google Reader brought me this little gem from Zuckerman.

In a print age, media pack behavior made slightly more sense. Most readers read only a daily newspaper or watched a specific newscast. If that news outlet didn’t report on Michael Jackson’s death, their viewers wouldn’t have this critical bit of cultural information – it made sense for all the outlets to flock to the key stories. But it’s a maladaptive behavior in an internet age. If the Times is all over Yemen like white on rice, I don’t need the Post to be as well – in fact, I’d probably benefit if they were able to turn their attention to another part of the world, one not at the top of the news agenda today, but likely to be important in the future. Or if they used the shoebomber story to explore other related issues – Muslim/Christian tensions in Nigeria, the fact that the alleged bomber was the child of great privlege in Nigeria (characteristic of many terrorists, countering the narrative that terrorist cells prey on the weak, disadvantaged and ignorant), or even on the weird Ghana connection to the story.

Attention deficit disorder-afflicted journalism is virtually guaranteed to be bad journalism. The reporters jetting off to Sana’a don’t know the country as well as people who cover the country through news droughts as well as floods. Foreign Policy Passport has been doing an excellent job of lining up knowledgeable Yemen commentators, offering a useful Yemen for Dummies, links to Ginny Hill’s exemplary Yemen reporting, and Marc Lynch’s caution against military intervention in Yemen (or virtually anywhere else).

continued here.

Sometimes, I regret that the few magazines or online newspapers I get to write for are not as widely published or quoted as the New York Times (my ego might be a tad healthier). But, in their ability to be under the wire, these newspapers have found their own niche: one probably more sustainable than the mega-corporations of CanWest (broke) and others.

Of course, these papers operate on pathetic budgets and are regularly seeking donations. They do not, and will not, have regular work, job security, big pay checks, or health insurance. However, without them, my news intake would be a lot less colorful and my news output almost zilch. See Toward Freedom, THIS Magazine (less under the wire, but still sitting on the ‘indie’ fence, ZCommunications, I don’t write for them, but many incredible individuals do) and the Upstream Journal.

unesco youth forum.

Flying to Paris in just under seven hours. Follow the 6th UNESCO Youth Forum here (Twitter) and here (blog). As one of the five youth journalists, I will be representing the North America/Europe region. If you want to contribute to the Forum, feel free to contact me and write-up a guest post on the UNESCO blog. The main theme is “Investing out of the crisis: towards a partnership between UNESCO and youth organizations,” with the cross cutting theme, “Investing out of the crisis – through action in social domains (Education, Sciences, Culture and Communication).

of lacking.

Some twit-bitter towards CNN:

At the moment, the only true advantage (at least, in terms of access) that CNN enjoys is their access to the world of Paris Hilton et al: if you really want to get 60 minutes of infotainment brainwashing on what is going on in Paris’s head, you can’t really trust citizen journalists with the task. No self-respecting celebrity – save for the really desperate ones – would sit down with bloggers for that long on a regular basis. There is nothing very surprising, then, that CNN is trying to use this access advantage to its fullest; it’s more popular – plus, it’s also much cheaper.

In light of all this, one lesson that I draw from the “CNNfail” debacle is that CNN as an international news venture is dead. Of all stories they had to report in the Middle East this year, this was the most important one – and they failed badly, which, to me, is the best reflection of their priorities. What we really need to figure out is how to fill in the CNN vacuum. I happen to think that cultivating demand and interest for international news is incredibly worthwhile, but also very tough (however, not impossible). I don’t think that we can simply leave this task to the market forces; the fact that there is arguably much more international content on the Web – Twitter, Facebook, Global Voices Online and many other sites are great examples – does not mean that there is any more demand for this content.

Yet others are saying that independent media (or sponsored) is what is really failing. With the death of classifieds, the consequent downfall of the great newspaper (read NYT’s debt) and the conglomeration (over the years) of our media, I think we’re all being pushed towards the brink. I look forward to finding that one newspaper/online publication that is bringing together the voice of the people – opinions, public spheres, debates, engaging – the happy medium between profit and public accountability. That might exist in the BBC, for example, or in the Guardian, but North American media has thus far fallen on the wayside.

in media for money.

These numbers make me question our priorities. Yet, they also come as no surprise (from PDNPulse):

Gatehouse Media, Inc.
Publisher of 90 daily newspapers. Posted a $583 million operating loss in 2008.
Michael E. Reed, Chief Executive Officer. No bonus. Total compensation $874,118.

Interpublic
Owner of several major ad agencies, including McCann, Lowe and draftfcb. Has laid off 2,800 employees, or 6 percent of its workforce, in the last six months.
Chairman and CEO Michael I. Roth. Incentive compensation of $2,500,000. Total compensation of $10,843,080.

Meredith Corp. (For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008)
Publisher of Better Homes & Gardens and other magazines. Recently folded Country Home.
President and CEO Stephen M. Lacy. Incentive compensation of $531,250, total compensation of $4,050,775.

Omnicom Group
Owner of several major ad agencies, including BBDO and TBWA, which have undergone layoffs. Recently drew fire from photo trade organizations over payment terms.
President and CEO John D. Wren. Incentive compensation of $1,750,000. Total compensation of $2,953,384. This included $172,807 in “personal use of aircraft hours.” (Note that in 2008, Omnicom cut executive bonuses to about 25% of their 2007 levels.)

Philadelphia Newspapers
In bankruptcy. Laid off many employees including several photographers.
Owner, CEO and publisher Brian Tierney earned a salary of $653,653 last year, plus a $350,000 bonus, according to a court filing. His compensation also included $81,252 in transportation costs, $14,870 in meals and $9,044 in lodging.

Sun-Times Media Group
Owner of the Chicago Sun-Times. In bankruptcy.
Former president and CEO Cyrus F. Freidheim, Jr. No bonus. Total compensation $1,387,939. (Friedheim resigned effective February 28, 2009.)

Time Warner
Posted a $16 billion operating loss in 2008 and laid off 2,800 employees, including hundreds at magazine publisher Time Inc.
Chairman of the board and CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes. Incentive compensation of $7,600,000, total compensation of $19,850,350.

Tribune
Owner of several major newspapers including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. In bankruptcy. Has laid off hundreds of staff at its newspapers, including many photographers.

Tribune is privately held and does not file financial reports with the SEC. Last year, Tribune owner and CEO Sam Zell said he was taking an annual salary of 50 cents. Zell is number 205 on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people.

According to a Tribune bankruptcy document, the cost of compensating current and former officers and directors at Tribune Company from December 2007 to December 2008 totaled $24,096,215. Tribune recently filed a document that contains the salaries of some management, but asked that it be kept sealed. In a court motion, the company argued that “such compensation information is confidential and warrants protection from public disclosure.”

Other companies
Many companies of interest to photographers are privately held and not required to disclose their financial information. Some of these companies including Hearst, Landmark Media Enterprises, MediaNews Group, Newhouse (Condé Nast), Rodale and Stephens Media.

preventing hysteria.

A decent, short commentary on the role of newspapers in spreading bad news:

Hay added that swine flu is different because the species barrier between pigs and humans is much lower. Yet this time, the press has been less hysterical. The story broke on Saturday 25 April, but four Sundays didn’t even put it on the front page and the Sunday Times and NoW placed it on page two, traditionally the page for news thought vaguely important but intrinsically boring.

True, Sunday papers don’t like news on Saturdays, because it usurps the scoopettes (“Apprentice star: I’m a swinger”, revealed the NoW). But did editors also think, if only subliminally, “flu pandemic, been there, done that”?

Perhaps, too, some editors are beginning to realise their interests do not lie in spreading panic. The conspiracy theories are already circulating on the internet: swine flu is caused by a genetically engineered virus released from a laboratory, either accidentally or deliberately; it’s a scare invented by governments to distract attention from their mishandling of finances. At times like this, people turn to newspapers for reliable risk assessment, not for more spurious alarm.

The redtops seemed inclined to treat swine flu almost as a joke. “Pigs ‘ere” was the Sun’s splash headline on Tuesday. A leader counselled: “Britain is one of the best-prepared countries on earth. So the last thing we need is for families or governments to panic.” The paper’s columnist Fergus Shanahan made the very unSun-like point that malaria, which kills millions of Africans, has a bigger claim to be called a world health emergency.

Nevertheless, it’s hard for news journalists to suppress instincts to highlight the most alarming prognostications. Several papers, and particularly the Daily Mail, gave prominence to Professor Nigel Dimmock, a Warwick University virologist, who warned “this has the potential to be bigger than Spanish influenza”, the 1918 pandemic that may have killed 50 million worldwide. Dimmock, as no newspaper mentioned, founded a university spin-off company called ViraBiotech, which is seeking investment to develop “an entirely new method of protecting against flu” (I quote from a press release smartly issued by Warwick University last Monday, with a footnote admitting it was using “the current heightened global concern” to help raise funds). I do not suggest this influenced Dimmock’s views in any way. But it would be helpful if newspapers informed us of these things.

–

But I am not sure the press can take much credit. Scares come and go – millennium bugs, BSE, Islamist terror, bird flu, swine flu – and they are all treated in much the same way. There is no hierarchy of alarm and habitual non-alarmists, such as the Guardian’s Simon Jenkins and the Sunday Telegraph’s Christopher Booker, are equally indiscriminate in denouncing politicians and lobbyists as self-interested scaremongers. The only modifying factor is the existence of other exciting news, such as the travails of a crumbling government. The danger is that, having lived through so many scares that came to nothing, readers don’t recognise a real cause for concern. The British are often praised for being phlegmatic in a crisis. With a press like ours, they have to be.

behind hype.

Getting through the hype is never easy. In the day of 24-hour-news and Internet, this hype is omnipresent. The swine flu has been a typical case: do we believe the over-excited newspapers handed out for free on metros and buses or the mostly reliable New York Times or the Guardian UK? How do we look behind the nature of newspapers – informing and engaging the public – to sales numbers and what flashy headlines mean for paying the bills? This op-ed carries a few suggestions:

So what is the answer for confused media consumers in an era of 24/7 television and Internet coverage? Possibly it is just this: first, people may need to abandon their hope that the many, many voices that make up the world’s media today will suddenly start singing as a chorus, and figure out which of those many voices seem to regularly deliver credible information. Then, as Dr. Goldacre advises, we may all have to accept that disease forecasting — like weather forecasting — is more of a guide to what might happen that a certain prediction of what will happen.

It’s important to remember that the media has its own distinctive agenda. While often this is partisan, it is also, particularly now with so many newspapers folding, financial. Personally, when it becomes a matter of ‘hype’ and the line between true and false becoming even more blurred, I’m left wondering where to turn to.

with frivolous news.

Le Monde wags an (eloquent) finger at the ‘Western’ world’s empty, self-absorbed and sensationalist TV news:

Les rédactions croulent sous les informations, les avis, les commentaires sur tout et n’importe quoi, les résultats de sondage, les mesures d’opinion qui se multiplient. Il leur appartient ensuite, et le tri n’est certes pas facile tant les pressions sur les niveaux d’audience sont fortes, de sélectionner ce qui constituera la matière de leurs journaux. C’est le lot quotidien de tout journal quelque soit son support, papier, électronique, télévisuel, radiophonique.

C’est surtout une très forte responsabilité car ce qui aura été sélectionné deviendra pour l’opinion publique ce qu’il est important de retenir dans l’actualité, ce qui deviendra matière à débat. En fonction de la spécialisation des médias, de leur couleur politique, de leur lectorat, les choix sont évidemment différents. Certains privilégient la politique, l’économie, le fait divers, d’autres, les événements régionaux ou le sport. D’aucuns parleraient en priorité aujourd’hui de la préparation du G20 et de ses enjeux pour la planète, d’autres focaliseraient sur la «banane» de notre Président. Chacun son choix.

Ceci étant, dans la responsabilité, il y en a qui, comme le disait notre regretté Coluche sont «plus égaux que d’autres». Il s’agit notamment des journaux télévisés qui ont par nature, une audience très large. Ils représentent surtout pour beaucoup de nos concitoyens qui n’ont pas accès pour diverses raisons, à d’autres médias, la seule source d’information.

Il leurs faut donc être plus attentifs que d’autres aux conséquences de leurs choix.

Je pense notamment à une grande chaîne nationale publique – mais elle n’est pas seule -, qui a fait le pari d’une ligne éditoriale basée sur les faits divers et le sensationnel. C’est son droit le plus légitime et il semble, qu’au strict plan des résultats, les téléspectateurs soient au rendez vous.

Les illustrations quotidiennes sur les effets de la crise sur les «vrais gens» – c’est le nouveau credo ! – se situent bien évidemment dans cette ligne. Force est donc de s’habituer aux sujets quotidiens sur la consommation en temps de crise, les loisirs en temps de crise, les comportements sociaux en temps de crise, les voyages en temps de crise, l’alimentation en temps de crise…

Ceci étant, je pense qu’il y a des limites à ne pas dépasser.
Celles de la dignité et de la décence.

Comme l’indiquait justement et sur la même chaîne Monsieur Boutros Boutros Galli, la crise se traduit dans les pays les plus pauvres, par la faim, la famine, le désespoir et la mort. Il disait, dans une colère digne, contenue et bien compréhensible, combien il était dérisoire et insultant pour ces pays, de voir certains médias occidentaux commenter à pleines pages la moindre fréquentation de leurs restaurants.

(Cont. here)

sanitizing media.

Here’s a great post by a guest blogger on Stop Conflict. He first brings up the doctoring of photographs from the Madrid train bombing to describe the sanitization of images applied to a Western audience. There’s also this:

I’ll finish on recalling the exact moment I lost faith in Barack Obama, because it encapsulates what I’m rambling on about in this piece. Obama said in his inauguration speech that “We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense”. Now, I have always believed that you have to be humble in the face of experience, that when you are confronted with an event that challenges your worldview, that perhaps even criticises your attitudes and beliefs, you should not try to remain the person you were before, to deny the event, but instead to commit to it, reflect upon it and ask questions.

When we are confronted with some little opening in the media’s narrative of how the world functions, as in the case above and the limb of some unfortunate passenger, we must not turn away from it. We cannot deny we saw it, and we should not avoid asking the questions that such an image raises.

When Obama writes that “We will not apologize for our way of life” he presupposes that we in fact understand the costs involved in our way of life. I would argue that we do not, that in fact we work hard, as a society, to avoid being confronted with the consequences of our “way of life”. We in fact should always be ready to apologise for our way of life when it is shown to bring misery to others, and we should never simply run to its defence without first thinking about what it is we are committing ourselves to.

the western voice.

Admittedly, many Western journalists do write like this. It sells to the overworked editor and the local audience. It also destroys any semblance of progress that African states are making. I’d like to say we can do better. Of course, a bit of disillusion will slip in there every once and a while – just as it does when I think about the drug and prostitution problems in Vancouver.

Also. I just started reading Dambisa Moyo’s book, Dead Aid. If she wants her thesis to be agreed with and, consequently, acted upon (weaning African countries off aid), then she will have to take a permanent hold of the media and reverse the long ingrained trend of neo-colonial aid and development discourse.

censorship in senegal.

Senegal has long been cited as one of the most democratic countries in Africa. Yeah, right:

Reporters Without Borders condemns a decision by the National Council for Broadcasting Regulation (CNRA) on 14 March to suspend three community radio stations based in the Dakar suburbs for two months for violating the rules governing their operations by covering political issues relating to the current local election campaign.

“Contrary to all our hopes and despite our repeated calls for respect for diversity of views, President Abdoulaye Wade’s government has again set a bad example,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Coming after the three-year jail sentence for 24 Heures Chrono editor El Malick Seck, the suspension of these three radio stations dashes the illusions of those who might still have believed in Senegal’s democratic image. It heightens our concern about the way the authorities will behave towards independent news media during this election period.”

The press freedom organisation added: “It is time the government rescinded article 19 of the community radio regulations, banning them from covering political issues, especially during local election campaigns. This double standard, in which those who support the president are allowed to speak and those who do not are silenced, is unfair and absurd.”