I
have been pretty unhappy with the way things are going for media. There have
been a few things. Yes, some of it has been the Ferguson coverage, but there are
a few things.
One
was the coverage of Robin William's suicide. There were two things that
bothered me. One was their coverage of the cause of death. At first when they
gave a basic cause, I was a little worried, but then they kept adding more
details, confirming not just what he did, but also what he used, and the other
thing that he did to increase his odds of dying.
I
have several people whom I don't want learning how to commit suicide most
effectively. The only reason they are alive now are failed attempts. Teach them
how to be successful in anything but that.
I
discovered that this is actually something that is advised against, and not my
own concerns:
"Do
not go into great detail about the methods"
It
reminded me of the guidelines on covering mass shootings, and how they say the
expanded coverage leads to copycats, and it does, but the news stations still
can't seem to pull away.
That
was the other thing about the Robin Williams coverage, as they kept the cameras
outside his house. There was nothing to be seen there, or gained from this
coverage. There were other stories going on that could have used more time, but
they stayed like vultures.
Maybe
it became more obvious to me because I had started seeing so many compelling
video clips from home surveillance systems (see Monday's post), but I started
to think about our local news channel's propensity for footage of people not
answering doors, or asking restaurant employees about recent inspections, where
they clearly don't know what to say.
Is
this their way of showing us how hard-hitting they are? Letting us know that
the family of an arrested person doesn't want to talk about it? Understand, I
am not faulting them for going and asking, and if they got an interview and
there was good information in it, great, but as things are it feels pointless
at best, and bullying at worst.
There
is the lack of diversity in newsrooms, that leads to sadly biased reporting ("angry
black woman" and "no angel" come to mind just off the top of my
head). There is the Huffington Post attempting to crowdfund a reporter for Ferguson, even though they are a
wealthy organization and they would get revenue from the page hits generated by
that reporter. There is Sarah Kendzior losing her job for not being willing to
relinquish researching her own articles.
It
may simply be that no one believes that good reporting can make money now. Turning
a profit has become harder, and revenue is not just a nice thing to have, but
necessary for operating expenses, including wages.
Still,
it should never have been only about the money. Having a free press has been
one of this nation's most basic values, and investigation and reporting are
important tools for informed citizenship and for justice.
I
get a lot of my information via Twitter now, some of which is real time
reporting and some of which is links to longer pieces or commentary. Something
I am seeing more of lately is when several related tweets are put together via Storify,
which is also valuable, but it is a very patched together thing too, and it
feels like there should be more.
Not
long ago I wrote about how important it was for everyone to be able to write,
for self-expression, and analysis, and a creative outlet. I suggest to you that
it is also becoming important so that people on the ground in various places
can describe what is going on. The media is letting us down, but they are not
the only option.
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