Columns:: Worth repeating

since 12/15/98

Columns::November 18, 2002

Worth repeating

Geneva Overholser, the Curtis B. Hurley Professor of Public Affairs Reporting at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, delivered the 24th annual Ralph McGill Lecture for the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication Nov. 6 in the Chapel. She focused on the challenges journalism faces today. Some excerpts:
“Journalism in America is dangerously threatened, and I think that a decline in America’s journalistic health leads directly to a decline in America’s civic health. And I think that the best hope for protecting journalism, for once again nourishing it, lies in a public clamor for good journalism . . .
“The tendency to rush herd-like toward one story, which drowns out all others, has surely been exacerbated of late, with 24/7 cable news channels and the newspapers on line competing to be just as fast and just as catchy as anybody. . . . Number two: The culture of news organizations is risk-averse. This is an understatement. We are slow to make changes, even when solid evidence indicates the need. For example: An interesting research project out of Northwestern University recently found that it isn’t that the public is uninterested in the news, but rather that the public is unhappy with many of the choices that we editors make. Respondents to the survey ranked stories about ordinary people as number one among their preferences, and ‘how I fit into my community’ as number two. National and international news is third. . . . Yet such heavily covered stories as crime ranked eighth in reader preference, and sports ranked nine. Altogether a pretty good indication, I think, that we’re not matching our coverage to the public’s interests.”

--Beth Roberts

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