Our news is in jeopardy. And I don’t mean the news industry.
I mean the very content we read in the newspapers, in news magazines, on the web, and watch on TV, is in a perilous state. Take a look at the links under “Popular News” on CNN.com: “Miley Cyrus spotted ‘full on making out,” “Model’s breast implants prove key to identifying body,” and a short video about a teenage millionaire. Granted, Cyrus only makes it to number six on the Top 10 Most Popular Stories list, but the fact that the story got more hits than one detailing “alleged abuse inside CIA secret prisons” illustrates the disservice our news agencies are providing.
The top two stories in 2008, according to the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, were the presidential election and the economic downfall. These two stories comprised 50 percent of the newshole, or print-space/air-time available. The election alone consumed one-third of the newshole. This left very little room for topics like crime, natural disasters and immigration. The War in Iraq virtually disappeared from the headlines as well as coverage of countries of American interest such as Iran and Pakistan.
According to Alisa Miller, CEO of Public Radio International, news networks have reduced their foreign bureaus by 50 percent. Aside from ABC’s one-person mini bureaus in Nairobi, Kenya, New Delhi and Mumbai, India, there are no network news bureaus in India, Africa and South America. In her webcast on TEC.com, Miller said that in February 2007, U.S. news accounted for 79 percent of all network/television. Russia, China and India accounted for less than one percent. One American story got more coverage than any country other than Iraq-the death of Anna Nicole Smith.
And now as Michael Jackson has passed on with a delay in his burial, a legal battle ensues over custody of his children and controversy surrounds the manner of his death. We’re already tired of hearing about it, as we got tired of hearing the drama of the aftermath of Anna Nicole Smith. And like Smith, we won’t hear the end of Michael Jackson until the end of next year.
It’s hard to say whether this phenomenon is a blip or a trend. Yes, the sinking and shrinking of the news industry is partly to blame for the lack of content. But it’s not the iceberg in this titanic problem. The shortening time span of the news cycle, the increase of online media and online reading, the decrease in revenues all contribute to what’s happening. Right now, the best solution is for citizens to take a little responsibility in what we read and, for those who do so, in what we write. And what we write can make all the difference.
Miller said in her webcast that a study in e-content showed that most of the global news from American news creators is just recycled stories from Reuters and the Associated Press, providing no way for local readers to relate to them. Everything is becoming all the more relative in this highly globalized world. Though there are a few organizations and publications out there working to fill this void, this burden cannot be shouldered by only a few.
Jon Sawyer, former St. Louis Post-Dispatch Washington bureau chief and director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, said in a February 2009 speech that a reliance on too few journalists in the beginning years of the War in Iraq hurt the industry as it began to crumble. Sawyer said, “The absence of multiple journalists’ voices in the field was in my view, a huge disservice to the public, to journalism and even to the administration of President George W. Bush.”
It’s interesting that in this large world of large voices our news and our perspectives narrow. Right now, only the public can do something; otherwise, what we know of the world will be in jeopardy.
Allison Reilly is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.
