Saturday, September 22, 2007
Lessons for readers
If readers were editors, would newspapers look different? Would they choose the same stories that professional editors choose? A study by the Project For Excellence in Journalism indicates readers' choices might be vastly different than the stories selected by mainstream media editors. Is there a lesson in this report for journalists? Steve Outing the publisher of a network of citizen-driven news sites, argues there are lessons for journalists in the explosion of blogs and citizen-generated news sites. Do you agree? Can you make both your traditional news stories and your blog postings more relevant and interesting? What do you think?
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3 comments:
The answer to the question of "should we accommodate our readers interests more?" is very simple: No.
Broadcast news is a medium which has taken great steps to appease viewers and given us 24/7 coverage of (white) teenagers lost in Aruba, (white) wives who went cold-turkey and claimed to be kidnapped by a black man, and (white) politicians deciding what issues to talk about and therefore what issues are covered.
Meanwhile, the atrocities in Darfur, the crumbling state of domestic education, and the terrible play for firefighters, police, and soldiers is left behind because heaven forbid the media report bad news that carries enough weight that it might demand action.
If readers want what broadcast journalism gives them, leave accommodating their interests to E! News and People magazine, and let principled journalists cover the real stories.
It is impossible to accomodate all the readers becase everyone cares about different things. The purpose of the newspaper is to provide information about the world and/or your community, not provide entertainment journalism, as Drew said, thats what E! is for. Besides most newspapers provide opinion pieces that is targeted towards the reader and spark intrest.If readers want more whimsical articles, then that is what a magazine is for, not a NEWspaper.
News judgment is often a balancing act.
The best solid, serious news judgment in the world isn't much good if nobody buys it and the publication goes out of business.
On the other hand, editors don't want to pander with too many Britney Spears follow-ups.
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