Can the public trust the media?

One-day San Antonio conference delves into decining state of journalism

By Marshall Day
The Gatesville Messenger

Suffering from what some see as several self-inflicted black eyes, mainstream media was taken to task in San Antonio Aug. 9, accused of ignoring the interests of minorities and facing a crisis in trust across the country.

But, while the attack was being laid out, the underlying issue seemed to indicate that the need for niche publications was already being met by the growing community newspaper industry.

In other words, community newspapers, just by their natural makeup, are niche publications that meet the needs of the people they serve in the small market communities.

The conference, “Journalism and the Public: Restoring the Trust,” was part of the year-long project titled “A Wake Up Call — Can Trust and Quality Save Journalism.”

The 10-hour series of topics at the Marriott Rivercenter hotel featured a variety of individuals making up panels to address what the organizers pinpointed as the issues facing the media in America today.

Most of the panelists veered away from or were led away from their topics, but still managed to express an over-riding majority opinion that the mainstream media is not doing its job properly and declining circulation numbers bear that out.

Conference co-organizer Leonard Witt of Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga., set the tone for the gathering when he said trust of journalists is at an all-time low, reflecting a 10 percent drop in the past 30 years to a point where only 44 percent of the public believe or trust people in the journalism profession.

“They perceive journalists as sloppier, less professional, less moral, more biased and more harmful to democracy,” he said.

Cole Campbell, of the University of Nevada, the other co-organizer with Witt, said journalists have developed an ambiguous relationship with the people they serve and it is time for journalists to listen to those people and “treat them as our peers.”

Part of the change the media must address, Witt said, is the rapidly changing ways people have to access each other and information. He said the audiences that journalists must connect with now have access to video logs, iPods, eBay and the ever-increasingly popular blogging.

“Blogging is a growing influence and our attitudes much change,” he said. “Newsrooms are grounded in antiquated thought processes and must save themselves.”

Philip Meyer of the University of North Carolina, author of “The Vanishing Newspaper,” was blunt about his assessment of the state of journalism.
“Yes, we are in a death spiral,” he said, “and denial is a pretty good way to deal with this.”

He said newspaper readership among daily newspapers has been in a downward spiral for the past 45 years and indications are it will continue. He said in 1960, the percentage of people who read a newspaper every day stood at about 79 percent. That was down to 38 percent in the year 2000, and is expected to stand at 32 percent by the year 2010.

“We no longer have a monopoly on information,” he said. “The only monopoly we have is on being a newspaper.”

He said that readership declines are not based on people turning away from newspapers, but rather on the fact newspaper readers are dying off and each new generation is having a smaller percentage choosing to read the newspaper.

Meyer also emphasized the importance of bloggers and said they will become even more important in the future, even though there are huge drawbacks in the blogging community. Primary among those problems is the fact that bloggers are often unwilling or unaccustomed to making corrections properly. “We just can’t give up the notion that everybody needs an editor,” Meyer said.

Meyer pointed out that the decline in trust in government has directly coincided with the decline in trust in the media.

Dori Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in California, attacked the mainstream media for not making information available that African-American or other minorities feel is important or interesting to them.

She used that morning’s edition of USA Today in which there were front-page articles on white news anchor Peter Jennings’ death and the death of Jet and Ebony founder John H. Johnson. She pointed out Jennings was featured more prominently than Johnson, who is black and his story was buried on page 4.

“They (minorities) do not read this stuff because it is not very relevant to their lives. This is the same feeling people of color have about main stream media,” she said. She added that minorities feel they are under-represented in lifestyles and government and therefore they are getting less and less information that is important to them.

“We need to understand each other, not necessarily agree with each other,” she said.

Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity and president of the Fund for Independence in Journalism, said mainstream media is more arrogant and is ignoring the ordinary citizens and events — the things that affect people’s daily lives.

Dan Gilmor, author of “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People,” put in words what many of the panelists throughout the conference danced around when he said, “Those who are closer to those they are serving have a better level of trust capture,” which singled out the community newspaper’s advantage over mainstream media.

Alice A. Tait, professor of journalism at Central Michigan University and an African-American, said 45 percent of African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans and Native Americans prefer ethnic radio, ethnic television and ethnic newspapers as opposed to mainstream sources. She said Hispanics are the only ethnic group that prefers the offerings of mainstream media.

Tait’s panel, which featured all members of minority ethnic groups, criticized mainstream media for lack of sensitivity in trying to adjust to the preferences of minorities.

Tino Duran, publisher of La Prensa of San Antonio, said the only time mainstream media expresses an interest in niche or minority publications is after they realize there is a potential for a profit in catering to them.

One of the few positive presentations for the community journalist came from Jock Lauterer, a University of North Carolina professor. A longtime supporter of community journalism, Lauterer said there is a direct correlation between access and trust in the media and that “stickiness” is the big reason community newspapers are so successful.

“Stickiness — it remains with you,” Lauterer said, referring to the community newspaper that continues to buck the trend of the dailies by showing growth in circulation.

“The emphasis is on local, local, local,” he said, pointing out that 97 percent of the newspapers in America have a circulation of 50,000 or less and their content is predominantly made up of local news and information.