Where Is The Media Going?

Background: Originally published June 14, 2006. This was one of the few times in my life that my employer paid for a business trip, and I was excited to write about what I had learned in Portland.

     Seventy-five percent of the American public do not consider the mainstream media to be credible. Many people also believe the media is more concerned with stories that increase ratings or profit margins, instead of reporting the actual news of the day. Such statistics from scientific polls can be found at the Pew Center For Civic Journalism (www.pewcenter.org).
     International journalist and author Mort Rosenblum peppered a recent speech of his with some of those sobering figures, during a presentation in Portland. The Society of Professional Journalists and the Asian American Journalists Association invited Rosenblum to give his perspective on "Ethics and the Future of Journalism" at Concordia University.
     Rosenblum recently lost his job with Associated Press due to AP's downsizing its foreign staff. The New York Times recently cut 500 positions. The Philadelphia Inquirer axed 75 jobs. The Los Angeles Times eliminated 85 workers. The list goes on.
     Rosenblum stressed that when journalists aren't "there" to report the news, then the public isn't there. In the day age in which we live, where global annihilation could occur in a matter of hours, Rosenblum chastised the current media conglomerates who are cutting jobs in order to give shareholders a few extra cents per share.
     Not only is the quality of news deteriorating due to the dismantling of journalism, but the industry itself is changing. Rosenblum suggested the day will come when television news and newspaper news are one and the same, and hard to distinguish from each other. Television stations now offer streaming video and updated news on their internet websites. Likewise, newspapers are now offering video on their internet websites.
     Diane Stevenson, photo editor for the Salem Statesman Journal, was another guest speaker at the SPJ seminar in Portland. Two weeks ago, her photo department was given two video cameras to use. Not only do newspaper photographers now concentrate on quality still photos to be placed in print, but they're now concerned with video clips to place on their website with the goal of obtaining as many hits as possible.
     When I was assigned last year to operate a KOBI-TV news bureau inside the Grants Pass Daily Courier, I was puzzled at first. It seemed like mixing oil and water. But such partnerships are likely to increase in the future, as both print and broadcast news operations struggle to compete against the unreliable, unsubstantiated blogs on the internet.
     Just reflect on the recent inaccurate rumors that surfaced over an alleged military recruiter spitting incident at Roseburg High School, when people were believing something reported on the internet.
     Multi-tasking is the key to any future job in journalism, whether it's print or broadcast. Some audience members at the Portland SPJ seminar expressed concern over diluting the quality of the product: Was it reasonable to expect one person to do more than one job and effectively serve the public?
     At the time, I chuckled to myself. That's what I'd been doing working as a "one-man-band" reporter in southern Oregon the past 16 years.
     Rosenblum's response had its usual blunt wit: "It doesn't matter whether you're using video cameras, a still camera, or writing a braille message on stone....the important part is the message."
     The bottom line: Journalists need to be prepared to do more jobs as the technology enables people to multi-task. The important thing is to maintain jobs in all areas, especially foreign countries. Journalists don[t lose when their positions are cut in far-away places. The American public loses because it no longer understands why things are as they are in the world.