Current Problems in the Media
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Current Problems in the Media discusses several issues facing modern journalism according to surveys and studies. It finds that public trust in media accuracy has declined significantly in recent decades. Mistakes and factual errors are commonly seen in news stories by the public. There is also a tendency toward sensationalism and chasing exciting stories rather than important news. Media outlets are investing less in reporting and face increasing consolidation, which some argue prioritizes profits over quality journalism. Journalists themselves agree that major problems exist in serving readers.
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Of the roughly 1,500 daily newspapers in the U.S.,
“Only a handful—at most a dozen, including The
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Current Problems in the Media
- 1. Current Problems in the Media Majid Heidari PhD student Media Management
- 2. Current Problems in the Media Based on Daily source.org March 1st.2015
- 3. High levels of inaccuracies .The quality or state of not being accurate
- 4. 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.
- 5. Errors and mistakes 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.
- 6. Level of inaccuracy The level of inaccuracy noticed is even higher when the public has first-hand knowledge of a news story.
- 7. Level of inaccuracy 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.
- 8. Level of inaccuracy 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.
- 9. 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.
- 10. Sensationalism 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. "
- 11. Sensationalism Another 85 percent of the public believes that "newspapers frequently over-dramatize some news stories just to sell more papers."
- 12. Sensationalism Over 80 percent believe sensational stories receive lots of news coverage simply because they are exciting, not because they are important.
- 13. Sensationalism 78 percent of the public thinks journalists enjoy reporting on the personal failings of private officials.
- 14. Sensationalism 48 percent of the public sees misleading headlines in their paper more than once a week.
- 15. Mistakes regularly left uncorrected A 1999 poll by the Columbia Journalism Review and the nonprofit research firm Public Agenda of 125 senior journalists nationwide found:
- 16. Mistakes …. Fully 70 percent of the respondents felt that most news organizations do a "poor" (20 percent) or "fair" (50 percent) job of informing the public about errors in their reporting. Barely a quarter called it "good." A paltry 2 percent awarded a rating of "excellent."
- 17. Mistakes… A remarkable 91 percent think newsrooms need more open and candid internal discussion of editorial mistakes and what to do about them.
- 18. Mistakes… Almost four in ten of those people interviewed feel sure many factual errors are never corrected because reporters and editors are eager to hide their mistakes.
- 19. Mistakes… More than half think most news organizations lack proper internal guidelines for making corrections.
- 20. Mistakes… A majority (52 percent) thinks the media needs to give corrections more prominent display.
- 21. Mistakes… Over 40 percent said their news organization does not even have a person designated to review and assess requests for corrections.
- 22. Poor coverage of important issues While the media is busy covering sensationalist stories, issues that affect our lives and the whole world receive little attention.
- 23. The Environment A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found the number of stories about the environment on the network news went from 377 in 1990 and 220 in 1991 to only 106 in 1998 and 131 in 1999.
- 24. Poor coverage of important issues At the same time, the number of stories about entertainment soared from 134 in 1990 and 95 in 1991, to 221 stories in 1998, and 172 in 1999.
- 25. Government “The Project for Excellence in Journalism, reporting on the front pages of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, on the ABC, CBS, and NBC Nightly news programs, and on Time and Newsweek, showed that from 1977 to 1997, the number of stories about government dropped from one in three to one in five, while the number of stories about celebrities rose from one in every 50 stories to one in every 14.
- 26. Foreign Aid and 24,000 Easily Preventable Deaths a Day According to the World Health Organization about 28,000 people who die every day around the world could be saved easily with basic care.
- 27. Education Large numbers of Americans give low ratings to the media for school coverage.
- 28. Education For example, in a joint survey by the Education Writers Association and the Public Agenda, 44 percent gave “print media with a national readership” ratings of fair to poor, while only 4 percent gave a rating of excellent.
- 29. Education About 84 percent gave “broadcast media with a national audience” ratings of fair to poor and only 1 percent gave a rating of excellent.
- 30. The media’s short attention span Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution in the 1970’s began observing what he called “the issue attention cycle” in the American media.
- 31. The media’s short attention span The cycle is: the news media and public ignore a serious problem for years; for some reason, they suddenly notice, declare it a crisis and concoct a solution; next they realize the problem will not be easily fixed and will be costly; they grow angry, then bored; finally, they resume ignoring the problem.
- 32. The media does not cover itself Of the roughly 1,500 daily newspapers in the U.S., “Only a handful—at most a dozen, including The [Washington] Post—actually have a reporter who covers the press full-time as a beat.
- 33. The media does not cover itself About 15 papers have an ombudsman on staff to respond to readers' complaints.
- 34. The media does not cover itself When it comes to looking at itself, society's watchdog is a lamb,” according to Sydney Schanberg, one of the most respected journalists of this era, he has been a reporter for The New York Times for more than twenty-five years, and recipient of many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize.
- 35. Focus on huge profit margins, not serving public 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.
- 36. Focus on huge profit margins, not serving public “Citizens are asking journalists and media critics why the media don't ‘do something’ to discover and publish ‘the truth.’
- 37. Continued… Margaret T. Gordon, a professor of news media and public policy at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington and formerly the dean of the school, in a Seattle Times column August 08, 2003.
- 38. Continued… 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.
- 39. Media outlets are investing less in the quality of what they do According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, there are 2,700 fewer reporters employed by newspapers in 2003 than there were in 1990. The number of jobs lost is believed to have continued falling in 2004.
- 40. Continued… According to washingtonspectator.com and speeches made by Bill Moyers, full-time employees of radio stations decreased by 44 percent during the period from 1994 – 2000.
- 41. Continued… Moyers also stated that since the 1980s, broadcast network correspondents’ numbers are down by one-third, and TV networks now have half the previous number of reporters in their foreign bureaus.
- 42. The public is misinformed and uninformed
- 43. Foreign Policy A Knight Ridder/Princeton Research poll of Americans showed 44 percent of respondents believed "most" or "some" of the 9-11 hijackers were Iraqis. Only 17 percent gave the correct answer: none.
- 44. Foreign Policy A New York Times/CBS News Poll revealed that 45 percent of respondents believed Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 attacks.
- 45. Media consolidation In 1945, four out of five American newspapers were independently owned and published by people with close ties to their communities.
- 46. Media consolidation Those days are gone however. Today less than 20 percent of the country's 1483 papers are independently owned; the rest belong to multi- newspaper chains.
- 47. Media consolidation Of the nation's 1,500 daily papers, nearly 1,200 — about 80 percent — are owned by the big chains, which concentrate on reaping large profits and are not much given to public self-examination on ethics and quality issues.
- 48. Sydney Schanberg : It is not apparent to many news consumers, but 22 companies now control 70 percent of the country's newspaper circulation and 10 companies own the broadcast stations that reach 85 percent of the United States.
- 49. Journalists agree that major problems exist. • The study by the American Society of Newspaper Editors found these startling facts: • Only 47 percent of journalists surveyed felt their publications were improving. • Only 39 percent felt their newspapers were usually very interesting to read. • A remarkably low 21 percent felt their newspapers were connecting very well with readers.