Message From Michael
July 11, 2011
SHOCK AND AWE IN THE MEDIA WORLD
LIVE FROM YOUR TV SET, THE LATEST STUDY
EVERYBODY WHO IS ANYBODY HAS ONE
JOURNALISTIC SHOCK FELT AROUND THE MEDIA WORLD: UK Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered an inquiry into "press ethics" after the scandal about phone hacking by the News of the World. It is expected to be far more critical than the Federal Trade Commission or the Federal Communication Commission studies of the media here in the U.S. Three fairly recent surveys of public opinion of the news media raise the question of how the U.S. media would fare in such an inquiry.
Only a quarter of Americans say they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers (28%) and television news (27%), according to a Gallup survey. In fact, more (one third) say they have very little or no confidence in newspapers (31%) or television news (32%).
A fourth of all Americans (26%) say they are "very angry" with the media with nearly two thirds (61%) saying they are at least "somewhat angry" with the media, according to a survey by Rasmussen Reports.
More than half of Americans (54%) say they are not at all confident about the media's impartiality in reporting political and economic issues, according to Harris Interactive survey. Just under half (45%) say the media in America portray conditions in the country less accurately than they did five years ago. As the authors of the Harris survey say, the story about media bias is an old one. But, they say, "The media needs to do a good job of not just using slogans, but actually proving that they provide all sides of each and every story."
If it's any consolation, the Harris survey, which looked at the public perception of media in five other countries, seems to indicate that the public perception of the media in the U.S. is about in the middle. Germans have much more confidence in their media than any other country, with a fifth (20%) saying they are either "extremely" or "very" confident in their media's impartiality. That is four times more than the U.S. (5%), which, in turn, was double most other countries. The Italians have the least confidence in their media's impartiality with three quarters (74%) saying they are not at all confident. That could be attributed to the fact that the head of their country, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconni, is also the head of the country's largest media empire and could probably also claim the title of head scandal maker in the country as well. Interestingly, in light of the News of the World incident, Britons were the most unsure about their country's media's impartiality. One in five (20%) answered "not sure" when asked about media impartiality. That was more than double any other country.
In the Gallup survey of 16 'institutions", newspapers and television news ranked 10th and 11th in terms of confidence, just ahead of banks, organized labor, big business, HMO's and Congress which ranked last. The Presidency ranked 8th, and the institution that gets the greatest vote of confidence in American – the military with more than three quarters (78%) saying they have a great deal or lot of confidence in it.
For a little more perspective on the ranking of newspapers and television news, weigh the percentages of people who have little or no confidence against the percentage who have a great deal or a lot of confidence. The net result is you get a negative three points for newspapers and a negative four points for television. For even more perspective, the high point for newspapers came in 1990 when more than a third (39%) had much confidence while for television, the high point was 1993 when it was nearly a half (46%). Since then there has only been a point or two difference between the two.
The Rasmussen Reports make a distinction between what it calls the mainstream and the "political class" with the political class being defined by three loaded questions – do you trust the judgment of the American people or political leaders more, has the federal government become a special interest group, and does government and big business work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors. So, yes, their survey should probably be taken with a grain of salt. The Rasmussen and Gallup surveys were both done last month while the Harris survey is from February of this year.
The British tabloids have long been noted for their sensationalistic coverage, often acquired through – pick your term – pay-to-play journalism or checkbook journalism. It's a charge that is now being leveled more and more often at American media. The New York Times had a lengthy report titled "The Gossip Machine" which looked at how celebrity and gossip shows and websites are "feeding the public's seemingly bottomless appetite for dirt about the famous." And it's not just the TMZ's and Radar's of the world. Many so-called "mainstream" media are doing the same, although disguised as paying for pictures, not interviews. AdWeek recently did a profile piece on Barcroft Media which "serves up oddities from around the world to major TV outlets – for a price." Once primarily focused on British news organizations, the group has expanded into the American market and so-called 'traditional' media outlets. Remember the story about the Indonesian infant with the two-pack-a-day cigarette habit? You can thank Barcroft Media for that.
The other criticism is the "cozy relationship," as PM Cameron put it, between the British media and British politicians. Exhibit A: The Prime Minister himself who hired fa ormer News of the World editor as his official spokesperson. The American version: Comcast hiring FCC commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker, who after voting for the merger of Comcast and NBCUniversal, left the FCC to head NBCUniversal's 'governmental affairs' division. Or, if you want more, take a look at the various reports detailing the media members on the cocktail circuit "inside the beltway."
Okay, okay, enough, you say. The real reason that News of the World is being shut down has nothing to do with any journalistic principles. It is a business decision. Advertisers were fleeing along with readers. The Murdoch family was willing to sacrifice the News in hopes of preserving the BSkyB deal. Besides, News Corporation British subsidiary News International was planning to expand The Sun newspaper into a Sunday edition any way. And I agree with all that. Just as I agree with the New York Times public editor, Arthur Brisbane, when he says the media needs to cover "events and culture wherever they may lead" even if it seems "the culture is headed for the curb." (And, no, I don't know exactly what that means.) But, as he also says, there is a question of standards as you cover stories "loitering on the edge of propriety."
LIVE FROM YOUR TV SET, IT'S THE LATEST STUDY: Despite all the reports about consumers time-shifting their viewing, despite all the talk about consumers' desire for convenience and choice in their viewing and despite all the ways to watch video, most people prefer to watch TV programs the Leave it to Beaver way – Live and at its regular time. That's according to a survey by Knowledge Networks which found that twice as many people (47%) preferred watching TV shows live versus watching it on DVR's (23%). Not surprisingly, two-thirds (66%) of the Beaver generation (aka Baby Boomers aged 46 -64) preferred Live TV viewing. Somewhat surprising, nearly half (44%) of the Gen Y-er's (13 to 31) also preferred Live TV – more than double the percentage who preferred watching on DVR's (16%). Actually the Gen Y group's second choice was Internet viewing (24%). More surprising, it was the so-called Gen X group (32 to 45) which showed the least interest, with nearly equal percentages preferring DVR's (35%) as Live (38%). The Gen X group was not far behind Gen Y when it came to Internet viewing with a fifth (18%) voting for Internet viewing. Also in the not-surprising category, very few Baby Boomers (6%) expressed any interest in Internet video viewing. And, if you can take one more "despite"… despite all the emphasis on VOD by cable and ADS systems, only four percent of the Gen Y group, two percent of the Gen X group and one percent of the Baby Boomers picked VOD or pay-per-view as their favorite way to view.
EVERYBODY WHO IS ANYBODY HAS ONE: According to the latest comScore report, more than 234 Million Americans from the age of 13 and up, use a mobile device. For a little perspective, the Census Bureau says there are 243 Million people aged16 and up in the U.S. Add another 10 Million to that number to account for the three extra years and you get roughly 253 Million 13-plus-year-olds. By my calculation, that means roughly 92% of everybody over the age of 13 has a cell phone. The firm says nearly 77 Million of those mobile devices are Smart Phones. More than two-thirds (69.5%) send text messages on their mobiles while more than a third use it either to browse the Internet (39.8%) or use mobile Apps (38.6%). Other uses are games, of course, (26.9%) and listening to music (18.6%).
Another survey, this one by Prosper Mobile Insights, found that SmartPhones and Tablets are taking the place of many common household electronic devices including alarm clocks (61.1% say they have replaced them with their SmartPhone), GPS (52.3%), Digital Camera (44.3%), Landline Phone (40.3%), MP3 Player (37.6%) and Video Cameras (34.2%). And more than half (57.7%) say they would be comfortable using their SmartPhone to make a purchase in a store. A caveat here – the survey is based on a panel of people created by Prosper and only 149 people took part in the survey.
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