Desire
and Necessity: Reporters Contend with Two Evils
What does the
audience want to read?
A question posed
each day by newspaper editors and reporters alike, readership retention and interest
is top priority among print media moguls watching their industry fall apart.
Understandably, newspaper editors request that reporters propose stories of
intrigue and interest to the general public – an audience interested in the
story subjects will likely purchase and read the newspaper.
Yes, people like
humorous and heartwarming stories of humans doing good deeds or when dogs save
lives; throw a tragic story into the mix and newspapers will disappear from the
shelves. But do we really know what the entire audience wants to read? Or do we
focus on one type of reader, and hope that they will suffice?
My own
adventures into the field as an intern for the Utica Observer-Dispatch revealed
that newspapers often do not appeal to the low-income district, people who do
not care whatsoever about the latest additions to the city zoo. People from the
low-income district want to know about actual change in the “slums” of the
city, or at least why change does not come. Reporters quickly cover the events
that attract attention – tragic shootings, huge drug busts, and jaw-dropping
scandals – but attention needs to be brought to the corruption, the dangers,
and the lack of change that happens in every city, not just the “what” but the “why”
as well.
Herein lays the
problem: editors and publishers desperately want to – and need to – produce
news that the audience wants to read. However, there are multiple audiences in
each city, and newspapers have difficulty reaching separate audiences.
Kris Worrell,
editor of the Utica Observer-Dispatch, emphasizes the need to keep the audience
happy. Every day, she asks her staff: “What does our audience want to see?” Based
upon the stories found in local papers across the United States, many editors
seem to think that the audiences’ desires are obvious, that a cover of the
local fire truck exhibition or a cute report on children petting exotic animals
balances the tragic news that often appears on the front page.
Utica is not the
only small city in which the local newspaper slights the low income population.
Shootings, robberies, and rapes in the low income district of any metropolitan
area often go unnoticed by the larger public, and newspapers rarely report on
the death of a poor boy from the “wrong side of town.” But if the incident somehow
involves a prominent community member and becomes public knowledge, in that
case the poor boy’s tragic death captures community sympathy in an instant.
It cannot be a
call for only “happy” news; people love to read tragedies. Perhaps budget cuts
and the consequential size restrictions or lack of reporters limits the number
of stories brought to the paper. Or, maybe the important thing is not the
audiences’ happiness, but the power of city authorities who want to have
control over the way the newspaper represents the city. In an age where
newspapers are “dying out,” we cannot eliminate the idea that money, power, and
favors do not exist together in the realm of free speech.
But why can’t reporters cover the news that
the audience needs to read?
Affluent districts need to know about the
struggles of the less affluent. We cannot foster change within communities
without the knowledge that things are wrong in the first place. I do not mean
superficial knowledge – of course there are problems in every community, of
course there are things that can change. I mean the conscious knowledge of
people concerned with the well-being of others and the drive to witness and
enforce positive change, particularly among the youth.
Realistically, not every incident can be
reported on. And sometimes, the community wants to revel in events that uplift
morale and spirit – the enjoyment and celebration of “happy” events is
perfectly acceptable. Humanity needs to know that good things happen.
But,
ultimately, do newspapers have a responsibility to report news that the public
wants to read or needs to read? Reporters have the ability to voice concern
about the atrocities of society each day, even the smallest ones; I think it is
time that we re-learn how to use that voice, to let it bellow across communities
until change is reality.
