Dive Deep

The competition among news outlets, especially electronic outlets, has driven news organizations to broaden coverage and territory. This is done electronically and physically traveling to the hot spots where news is happening. Well, that is the way it was. Today, that approach is too costly.

The result has been a series of cost cutting, image enhancement, and headline hunting. The strategy is to build audience, so ad rates are high and produce outstanding revenue streams. Cost cutting has occurred in backroom operations. Editorial staff, staff reporters, investigative background work, and a host of other mainsprings of accurate news writing, is absent. What we have are talking heads and opinion makers.

Then there are the shows that interview countless ‘experts’ or background guests. Over and over they are pummeled with questions to extract the messages sought by the talking head anchor. What we have is far from investigative reporting.

Cable news magazines are what we need. What we have is anything but that.

The ’60 Minutes’  type program is desperately needed. Each news item became newsworthy because of a long string of cause-effect-result happenings. These evolved not only over time, but also over a number of related players. News, like history, is the result of many prologue events. Crossover developments from commerce, industry, entertainment and literary sources are common and natural. This is the way a complex society lives.

The news emerges from this complex of action and interactions. A news gathering organization must be astute and agile to piece this together and think. Think and analyze. Think and research. Think and answer the age-old questions – Who, What, When, Where. But all of this leads to the Why.

That is missing in American news programming today. Competition for audience has produced lowest common denominator news coverage to grab audience and ad rates. The deep work is not done. The brain drain continues as a result of cost cutting.

When will this self-devouring of an industry end? When will viewers finally get the news quality we need to maintain a free society?

A free press is essential in a democracy. The press, however, is not free from expenses; it must be paid for. How will that be done? How will budgets be pruned and revenues boosted to afford a deep diving news organization? Can this be done in an American-style democracy? Is there enough separation of commercial influence and news accuracy and openness? Is the news industry – we used to call this journalism! – capable of governing itself to produce professional results that inform the public of information it needs?

Electronic media has pace and rhythm. Time is compressed. Print media is/was rushed as well, but it had the block of hours to do its job. It researched, interviewed, read and wrote reams of supporting material before the final story was printed for all to see. That backroom function is still needed. Sadly it is missing now in newspapers as well as cable network news organizations.

Perhaps we need fewer competitors in the electronic press? Perhaps news organizations become the public service organizations they need to be, were meant to be? Perhaps, like politics, the money-power-profits, should be removed from news organizations?

What would this look like? How would it be governed?

The polar extremes are currently on display. American electronic journalism is anything but, yet it is much freer and open than the Russian press controlled by the state. What might be in the in-between?

Journalism schools have much work to do it seems.

April 6, 2022

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intimacy

As we mature, we become deeply involved in relationships. Some of this is basic family relations – siblings, parental – and the like. Next is friends who enter our homes and we theirs. Neighbors, classmates, mutual hobbyists and so forth. Then we develop friendships that go much deeper. We comfort one another when we are hurting physically or emotionally. We discuss the matters of life and learn much more about ourselves and each other. We can even anticipate how others will react to various situations and stimuli. Good friendships do not spread to everyone we know. No, good friendships are special, close and deeply personal. We focus attention and brainpower on these few friends. Some special relationships focus on specific topics of interest and importance. Yes, we have specialized friendships. Most common. But one day, we get to know one person very well. An emotional connection forms with deep roots. A need to know the person more fully expands in personal ways. We sense this b...
Read more

Bits & Pieces

Pie: Apple pie more specifically. With Thanksgiving just passed, many of us enjoyed a good apple pie. Sure, there was pumpkin to accompany the turkey, but in our family multiple pies are offered in the holidays. Apple is surely one. Pecan, pumpkin and others, too. But I almost always choose apple. When I was in college, I was asked what kind of pie did I eat most often. In front of my mom, I answered apple, because I was always looking for a pie as good as mom’s own. Of course my mother was pleased, but it was a true statement just the same. When I was married, Ann’s pie was darned good. Her mother’s recipe. But we fiddled with the recipe until it took on its own generational name, and boy, was it good! Today I still order apple pie for dessert because I am always looking for a great pie to challenge our family recipes. I rarely do find such a prize. Do others do the same? Do you search for a great pie of choice, continually? If you do, what’s your story? Why do you do this? ...
Read more

Remembering Tom Sherlock

Tom Sherlock died on Wednesday, April 3rd. He was 65 years old and did not survive a heart surgery. That was his unexpected end and sad enough. But there is more to his story. Tom joined Dan Schuyler and George Safford to create what became the Village Chronicles, a weekly newspaper serving Warrenville, Illinois. That paper expanded to serve Winfield and then West Chicago. The paper published for eight years and built a good reputation for itself. Tom served the paper in several ways. He was our information technology guru, provided hardware and software to support the paper's operations. He was our sole bookkeeper, accountant and financial manager. He designed our distribution process and provided office space for meetings and layout and typesetting. His efforts supported the work of 32 volunteers who wrote and reported on the communities we served.  The newspaper broke even financially most of the time, but it was a struggle. Tom managed to find money to keep the newspaper afloat...
Read more