Current Problems in Mass Media
The encumbering problems with the media have been documented in great detail by researchers and journalists themselves:
High Levels of Inaccuracies
- Public confidence in the media, already low, continues to slip. A poll by USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup found only 36 percent of Americans believe news organizations get the facts straight, compared with 54 percent in mid-1989.
- According to an in-depth study by the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1999, 23 percent of the public find factual errors in the news stories of their daily paper at least once a week while more than a third of the public - 35 percent - see spelling or grammar mistakes in their newspaper more than once a week. The study also found that 73 percent of adults in America have become more skeptical about the accuracy of their news.
- The level of inaccuracy noticed is even higher when the public has first-hand knowledge of a news story. Almost 50 percent of the public reports having had first-hand knowledge of a news event at some time even though they were not personally part of the story. Of that group, only 51 percent said the facts in the story were reported accurately, with the remainder finding errors ranging from misinterpretations to actual errors.
- When reporters and editors interviewed in the ASNE study were asked why they thought mistakes were being made, 34 percent said the "rush to deadline" was the major factor, one third said it was a combination of being "overworked" and "understaffed,” and the remaining third said it was "inattention, carelessness, inexperience, poor knowledge" and just-plain-bad editing and reporting.
- The Columbia Journalism Review and the nonprofit, nonpartisan research firm Public Agenda polled 125 senior journalists nationwide in 1999 on various questions. When asked: "Have you ever seriously suspected a colleague of manufacturing a quote or an incident?" a disturbingly high 38 percent answered yes.
Sensationalism
There is tendency for the press to play up and dwell on stories that are sensational - murders, car crashes, kidnappings, sex scandals and the like.
- In a study by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, eighty percent of the American public said they believe "journalists chase sensational stories because they think it will sell papers, not because they think it is important news. " Another 85 percent of the public believes that "newspapers frequently over-dramatize some news stories just to sell more papers." Over 80 percent believe sensational stories receive lots of news coverage simply because they are exciting, not because they are important.
- 78 percent of the public thinks journalists enjoy reporting on the personal failings of private officials.
- 48 percent of the public sees misleading headlines in their paper more than once a week.
Focus on huge profit margins, not serving public
- Geneva Overholser (former Editor of The Des Moines Register and board member of the Pulitzer Prize Board and American Society of Newspaper Editors) describing in 1990 a list of factors rapidly eroding the quality of reporting, said, “There is the fact that newspaper corporations typically retain truly remarkable profit margins: 30 percent is not unusual and the metro average has been somewhere around 17 percent. That's 17 cents on every dollar made as profit for the company, yet the average beginning salary for a newspaper reporter last year was $17,000.”
- Current data supports Overholser’s assertions. In October, 2003, for example, Gannett Co. Inc., one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, reported for the first nine months of 2003 profits of $853.2 million on revenues of $4.89 billion, a profit margin of 17.4 percent. In the same month, the E.W. Scripps Co., owner of another chain of daily newspapers, reported quarterly profits of $60.9 million for the company's newspapers on revenues of $164 million, a profit margin of 37 percent.
It seems clear enough that the market/profit mentality has won out, especially in electronic news, and to a considerable extent in the print media. ... Meanwhile, the push for corporate profit margins much higher than those of average American businesses goes on — with 40 to 100 percent in the electronic media and 12 to 45 percent in the print media common during 2003.
“For all sorts of reasons, timidity, self-satisfaction, greed, inappropriate desire to belong…for all these reasons and more, there is an awful lot that the press keeps from you.... we'll begin with squeamishness... and an overdeveloped fear of offending someone... orthodoxy, conventional thinking, a misplaced pleasure at being on the inside, incompetence and laziness.... greed.... the fact, for example, that too many papers by far do not wish to offend major advertisers....
Reporters who are incompetent, lazy, lack fire in the belly.... You put all these sins together, and there are more, and you come up with a public-press know-nothing pact that makes some sizeable contributions, I would argue, to our national problems currently.
Break this know nothing pact now and you will have taken as mighty a step as you can as an individual to help see to it that we as a nation move together toward a lively, hopeful, confident, and all-embracing future.”
Reporters who are incompetent, lazy, lack fire in the belly.... You put all these sins together, and there are more, and you come up with a public-press know-nothing pact that makes some sizeable contributions, I would argue, to our national problems currently.
Break this know nothing pact now and you will have taken as mighty a step as you can as an individual to help see to it that we as a nation move together toward a lively, hopeful, confident, and all-embracing future.”
Occupational Health and Safety
Sporadically journalists are becoming the story as they strive to get closer and closer to breaking news in perilous environments or are targeted as they go about their duty. But the conditions, long drives, technology and equipment and long hours, deadlines, stress, play a focal part in creating an unsafe environment for media workers.
In 2002 the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance came to the conflusion of the need for the drafting of a safety code specially for media workers including photographers, graphic artists, camera and sound crews as well as journalists. The Alliance noted that unsafe work situations confront journalists in their daily work, particularly when reporting wars, bush fires, even political events and court cases.
Individuals identified a small set of tasks that had a negative impact on the welfare of the worker. Carrying heavy loads, which is generally undertaken by camera crew and photographers has it repercussions. Travelling can be another detrimental task, which is certainly undertaken in the field of media, which can also connote fatigue, stress, poor vehicles, dangerous situations, if they were covering dangerous stories or such. Which can cause a strain on an upcoming, or experienced journalist.
It also well established that good standards and procedures for lifting and carrying are important when in constant motion of moving heavy loads to and thro. Which can naturally put the worker in potential risk of back injury from working with heavy equipment. Participants described the dangers of travelling in a variety of vehicles and under a number of circumstances. In particular, concerns were expressed over travelling for long distances and durations without adequate rest or time for recovery, and travelling under pressure.
The pressure to get a story was regarded by some as inhibiting common sense when it comes to personal safety and, in some cases, the safety of others. Participants recounted examples of knowingly travelling in unsafe conditions.
Increased work intensiÞcation had two specific impacts on risk to worker health and safety: negative detriment to health as a result of fatigue, and increase in the possibility of injury or accident when fatigue combined with other potentially hazardous practices and situations, for example, driving a vehicle or working in a war zone. Several participants, especially those working on rural and regional newspapers, talked about doing much more work in every hour than ever before. At several work sites, staff numbers had been reduced whilst the number of publications or the number of pages in each publication had increased. Consequently, fewer people were producing more work.
"The problem is not about the length of hours, its about what
you have to cram into them. What you actually have to
produce and retain some standard of quality." (Print
journalist)
It was very common for participants to complain of high risk resulting from a combination of factors. It seems there is a Ômultiplier effectÕ that increases the level of OH&S risk experienced by many news media workers. For example, the act of word processing might in itself be considered a low risk task. However, if that word processing is performed for long durations without breaks, the risk of injury (RSI) increases. Add the pressure of multiple deadlines, poor ergonomic equipment and extended hours, the risk of injury and detriment to health increases even further. Driving a car brings with it risk but that risk increases signiÞcantly when the driver is fatigued and has just completed a nightshift.
Working in a war zone is inherently risky to personal safety but participants felt strongly that those risks grow when there are fewer people working together, and to an unacceptable level when they are working alone. There was no evidence that assessment of multiple risks is occurring. This is not to say that they are not happening, rather that workers experiencing these risks are unaware of them, which to a large degree limits the effectiveness of any management strategies.
Industry competition was also a recurring driver for risk-taking activity. Participants were much more likely to take questionable risks when they were under pressure to break the story or get the photo. Even greater competition is faced by some contractors who compete against other individuals to sell their work in the news market place. Participants described specific circumstances where the responsibility for OH&S risk was shouldered exclusively by the contractor.
Overall workers from the ABC appeared to enjoy the most managed risk in terms of their OH&S than any of their commercial and most of their SBS counterparts. There was much more evidence of explicit guidelines and standards for safety practice and safe work procedures. There was more safety training, more evidence of active safety committees and much less reported incidence of stress being experienced by workers who, in some cases, worked in the most volatile overseas environments. However, work intensification was still regarded as a critical issue for ABC news and current affairs workers and it was evident that this had grown in significance as a result of staff reductions, in particular, reductions in camera crewing.
The group shouldering and self-managing the greatest levels of risk were contract workers. According to participants, contracted work is an increasingly popular option for budget-conscious employers. If this is the case, then it is even more important to consider the OH&S issues of this Allegiance Media group more closely than has been possible.
In 2002 the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance came to the conflusion of the need for the drafting of a safety code specially for media workers including photographers, graphic artists, camera and sound crews as well as journalists. The Alliance noted that unsafe work situations confront journalists in their daily work, particularly when reporting wars, bush fires, even political events and court cases.
Individuals identified a small set of tasks that had a negative impact on the welfare of the worker. Carrying heavy loads, which is generally undertaken by camera crew and photographers has it repercussions. Travelling can be another detrimental task, which is certainly undertaken in the field of media, which can also connote fatigue, stress, poor vehicles, dangerous situations, if they were covering dangerous stories or such. Which can cause a strain on an upcoming, or experienced journalist.
It also well established that good standards and procedures for lifting and carrying are important when in constant motion of moving heavy loads to and thro. Which can naturally put the worker in potential risk of back injury from working with heavy equipment. Participants described the dangers of travelling in a variety of vehicles and under a number of circumstances. In particular, concerns were expressed over travelling for long distances and durations without adequate rest or time for recovery, and travelling under pressure.
The pressure to get a story was regarded by some as inhibiting common sense when it comes to personal safety and, in some cases, the safety of others. Participants recounted examples of knowingly travelling in unsafe conditions.
Increased work intensiÞcation had two specific impacts on risk to worker health and safety: negative detriment to health as a result of fatigue, and increase in the possibility of injury or accident when fatigue combined with other potentially hazardous practices and situations, for example, driving a vehicle or working in a war zone. Several participants, especially those working on rural and regional newspapers, talked about doing much more work in every hour than ever before. At several work sites, staff numbers had been reduced whilst the number of publications or the number of pages in each publication had increased. Consequently, fewer people were producing more work.
"The problem is not about the length of hours, its about what
you have to cram into them. What you actually have to
produce and retain some standard of quality." (Print
journalist)
It was very common for participants to complain of high risk resulting from a combination of factors. It seems there is a Ômultiplier effectÕ that increases the level of OH&S risk experienced by many news media workers. For example, the act of word processing might in itself be considered a low risk task. However, if that word processing is performed for long durations without breaks, the risk of injury (RSI) increases. Add the pressure of multiple deadlines, poor ergonomic equipment and extended hours, the risk of injury and detriment to health increases even further. Driving a car brings with it risk but that risk increases signiÞcantly when the driver is fatigued and has just completed a nightshift.
Working in a war zone is inherently risky to personal safety but participants felt strongly that those risks grow when there are fewer people working together, and to an unacceptable level when they are working alone. There was no evidence that assessment of multiple risks is occurring. This is not to say that they are not happening, rather that workers experiencing these risks are unaware of them, which to a large degree limits the effectiveness of any management strategies.
Industry competition was also a recurring driver for risk-taking activity. Participants were much more likely to take questionable risks when they were under pressure to break the story or get the photo. Even greater competition is faced by some contractors who compete against other individuals to sell their work in the news market place. Participants described specific circumstances where the responsibility for OH&S risk was shouldered exclusively by the contractor.
Overall workers from the ABC appeared to enjoy the most managed risk in terms of their OH&S than any of their commercial and most of their SBS counterparts. There was much more evidence of explicit guidelines and standards for safety practice and safe work procedures. There was more safety training, more evidence of active safety committees and much less reported incidence of stress being experienced by workers who, in some cases, worked in the most volatile overseas environments. However, work intensification was still regarded as a critical issue for ABC news and current affairs workers and it was evident that this had grown in significance as a result of staff reductions, in particular, reductions in camera crewing.
The group shouldering and self-managing the greatest levels of risk were contract workers. According to participants, contracted work is an increasingly popular option for budget-conscious employers. If this is the case, then it is even more important to consider the OH&S issues of this Allegiance Media group more closely than has been possible.