Message From Michael -- April 14, 2008

THE ONLINE CREDIBILITY GAP

NUANCES OF PUBLIC SKEPTICISM

TEN MOST POWERFUL NEWS PEOPLE

FACTOID OF THE WEEK

COCKTAIL CHATTER – SMALLER IS BETTER

ASKING A FAVOR


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THE ONLINE CREDIBILITY GAP: That is the title of a survey produced by the Associated Press Managing Editors, but which (as far as I can tell) shows there is no credibility gap. The survey done with the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri compared public opinion with the opinion of newspaper and online editors. For example, on a scale of one to seven, both the editors and the members of the public who are users of online local news (an important distinction) gave a score of six or better to such basics of journalism as verifying information, getting the facts right, correcting mistakes, journalists taking responsibility for accuracy, journalists limiting their roles to independent observers, labeling any commentary and keeping advertising and news clearly separate. Similarly, both the editors (91%) and the public (72%) thought ‘actively seeking viewpoints from people to comment on the news’ would be somewhat or very beneficial to good journalism online; both editors (92%) and the public (73%) thought ‘giving the public ways to provide information for news stories’ would be beneficial; and both editors (88%) and the public (79%) believe ‘enforcing standards on such as crude language and personal attacks’ is important. Interestingly, a slightly higher percentage of the public (74%) than the editors (69%) believed that the same standards should be applied to news produced by citizens as is applied to news written by journalists. Oddly, slightly more of the editors (47%) rated the accuracy of so-called ‘citizen journalism’ as Good compared to the public (37%) which was more likely to rate it Fair (56%) compared to editors (44%). But more of the public rated citizen journalism’s coverage of ‘what is important to the community’ as Excellent (10%), Good (59%) or Fair (31%) compared to editors who rated it Excellent (8%), Good (43%) and Fair (42%). Similarly the public rated citizen journalism higher in terms of ‘coverage of what is of interest to you’ than the editors.

Disclaimers: And they abound. For starters, only three quarters (75%) of the 500 members of the public had Internet access at home and/or at work, although the study authors say this is in line with national figures. Of those who did have access, only a third (32.2% or 161 in actual numbers) qualified as ‘users of local online news.’ Of that number, two thirds (67%) actually sought out the news while a quarter (25%) just happened across it. BUT a whopping third of those surveyed (34.2%) said they did not use local online news ‘AT ALL’ and a somewhat less whopping fifth of the public (22.4%) said they ‘HARDLY EVER’ use online local news. Local TV remained the primary source of local news (47%), followed by newspapers (33%) and with radio (8%) actually beating out the Internet (7%).

NUANCES OF PUBLIC SKEPTICISM: That is how the State of the News Media report describes the public’s view of the news media. (I know, I’m going for the beating a dead horse award in writing yet another story about the report, but really it’s worth it.) The ‘nuance’ comes in the fact that people like what they actually watch, read and know, but they “dislike and distrust the hypothetical monolith – the behemoth called the news media.” The report says the public’s overall view of the news media remains as negative in 2007 as it has been in the past, but the negative view is particularly noticeable in terms of coverage of the presidential campaign, driven in part by the ‘acid’ criticism of mainstream media by bloggers. The report says the political partisanship is creating distinctly different audiences with ideology as strong an indicator of their view of the media as any other basic demographic measure. Most Americans believe journalists are often inaccurate (55%), do not care about the people they report on (53%), are biased (55%), one sided (66%) and try to cover up their mistakes (63%). If it’s any consolation slightly more believe news organizations are moral (46%) than immoral (32%), protect democracy (44%) than hurt it (36%) and are highly professional (66%). The moral percentage is up (although only slightly) in 2007 from when the question was asked in 2005 while the protect democracy percentage is down slightly. But professionalism is up fairly significantly. Further consolation is that substantially more people think well of network news programs (71%) than of Congress (45%), the Democratic Party (55%) or the Republican Party (42%). But again, in keeping with the earlier point, 80% of Americans have a positive view of their LOCAL television news and their LOCAL daily newspaper.

The Internet News Audience: Despite the report above, and just to confuse you further, the Project for Excellence in Journalism report says a quarter of all Americans now get news on a daily basis from the Internet. This audience is also more critical of traditional news sources than other Americans with roughly four out of five having unfavorable opinions of national newspapers, network TV news and cable TV news. Yet the report notes the dichotomy that trust does not necessarily correlate to usage with “some of those most distrustful of media… its heaviest consumers.”

The Kicker: Despite the fact that her program is consistently third in the ratings and despite rumors that she is being ousted, Katie Couric is America’s favorite journalist BUT with only 5% of the survey respondents picking her. Close behind is Bill O’Reilly (4%), Charles Gibson (3%), and Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams and Anderson Cooper all at 2%. What is more significant, says the report, is that none of the on-air journalists have the star power or prominence of their counterparts in the mid-80’s.

TEN MOST POWERFUL NEWS PEOPLE: Topping the TVWeek list is NBC news president Steve Capus who beats out Fox News CEO and Chairman Roger Ailes. Interestingly or oddly, the two simply swapped positions from last year’s ranking. Coming in #3 is ABC news president David Westin, followed by Tim Russert. CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton and CNN/U-S president Jon Klein are lumped together in the fifth position. Then it’s Keith Olbermann, Bill O’Reilly, CBS news and sports president Seam McManus. In ninth place is the N.S. Beinstock agency, with a combination of Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler coming in tenth because “they get it.” It may say something about the validity of the list that everybody on the list this year, except O’Reilly and Poehler, were on the list last year.

FACTOID OF THE WEEK: The latest report from Nielsen Online says the total number of video streams increased in February to 6.3 Billion (from 6 Billion in January) even though the number of unique video viewers dropped in the shorter February month. YouTube accounted for nearly half of all those video streams (2.9 Billion). Even more significant, the average streams per viewer was up (54.7 from 51.3) and the average time per viewer was up (130.7 minutes from 124.4).

COCKTAIL CHATTER: The Polaroid company which recently stopped making its namesake instant camera has started making a digital version which is a mini, hand-size printer that makes 2x3 inch pictures from your cell phone or digital camera using a new kind of paper labeled Zink. In line with smaller is better, New York Times tech guru David Pogue says ‘one of the most significant electronics products of the year’ is a tiny stripped-down video record the size of a digital camera and called The Flip which, he says, looks like a ‘cheesy toy’ but is the ‘purest essence of video capture.’ Despite the drop in consumer confidence and buying, consumer research firm BigResearch says one in ten Americans (10.6%) plan to buy a TV in the next six months, (possibly because of the digital conversion?). And in its monthly report of What’s Hot, the firm says cooking at home ‘Energy Star’ appliances, bike riding and gardening are rated particularly high among consumers. Finally, the U.S. Government’s Homeland Security agency is getting into the business of text messaging on cell phones sending out security alerts.

And in a category not exactly Cocktail Chatter is an online simulation game named Station Manager where you take control of a small, independent TV station about to go bankrupt. You have to decide on the programming offerings, arrange the advertising deals, figure out the promotional schedule, and even produce your own programming if you don’t like the choices. The website is tvstationmanager.com, and the price for downloading it is $19.95. (Thanks to Todd Fantz of Intelligent Media Consultants for this tip.)

ASKING A FAVOR: Okay, folks, this is a blatant request for help from all of my friends, semi-friends, acquaintances and casual readers of my weekly newsletter. The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is conducting an online survey to evaluate its educational goals and it wants feedback from professionals like you. I promise it will only take a few minutes and you will have my undying gratitude. Okay, that may be a little overboard, but seriously it will be appreciated. The survey is done through Survey Monkey and you can access it by either linking to or copying and pasting the following address:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=WaF_2f1G6F1rrZ55kJ6ATpVw_3d_3d

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