|
2003
Spring Conference
Corruption
in today’s news media
Where should bewspapers go from here?
Gary Gilson, executive director of the Minnesota News Council,
leaned against the table edge, folded his arms across his chest
and asked NDPC conference attendees: “Is the New York Times embarrassment a tragedy or a blessing?”
Gilson answered his own query saying, “It could be considered
a tragic event for the reporter, the public, and for the New York
Times ... but this event is a blessing that will force everyone
to take a good long look at themselves.”
Gilson continued, “The most important commodity we have
is trust. And the four most important words we can ask are, “Do
we know this?’” But instead of asking these simple questions
and building up trust, today’s news media tries to avoid outside
scrutiny and questions altogether. They simply reply by saying,
“You don’t understand. We are the professionals.” These
statements and the use of self censorship has led to the corruption
of trust and truth.
“Journalist have become more important than religion, city
hall, the Supreme Court and the owners of the Twins,” said
Gilson. “A homogeneralization of content has taken over.” News stories and event coverage has been changed based on public
response. They have taken on a “scoop mentality,” building
up hype and puffing up facts. This leads into a media spiral of
entities trying to out-do each other.
USA Today tries to look like an ABC television news format and
in turn, ABC wants to look more like USA Today with small, compact
stories bringing immediate attention to them. With that came the
development of tabloid news shows and syndication of shows like
“Hard Copy,” CNBC and MSN. MTV changed its communication to fast
cut, suggestive material with eccentric camera angles.
Everything feeds on each other and amazingly, it works. The pace
of the medium effects everything in communication. “In a
regular 30-second commercial there are 18 picture changes that
bombard the five senses,” said Gilson.
So how do we as media professionals solve this ongoing problem?
Gilson responded by saying, “The newspapers act like they
are not in a relationship with the reader and that could spell
trouble for the newspaper and its constituents. We need to be
a responsible organization and stop eroding our own standards.
We need to let the public know what standard to hold them [media]
to. Encourage newspapers to print corrections and publish letters
to the editor. The key to trust is openness. That’s what the public
wants.”
- Jennifer Dobrowski |
