Media Criticism

I was scouring through the magazine rack at a local bookstore this past week and came across a British publication called Monocle. The splashy photos, digestible articles and mixture of the superficial with the complex appealed to me. I must admit that my search for magazines on a weekly basis is as much to find potential gift ideas for friends and family as it is a way to expand my horizons. Nonetheless, I came across an interesting article in the magazine about a pioneering Dutch newspaper called NRC Next.

I have conducted a bit of research on the Dutch newspaper market and come across a competitive marketplace that is deep and wide in terms of quality. Monocle’s article raises the question of the sanity of editor Hans Nijenhuis in his efforts to break into the Dutch newspaper world. I enjoyed reading the article because the entire staff seems to be taking a blogging and online approach to print media that could shake up the nation’s staid journalism.

One example of NRC Next’s intrepid approach to the daily newspaper came last month with a typical story of murder and intrigue. Longstanding newspapers in the Netherlands pasted pictures and details about the murder all over their pages in an effort to feed the public sensationalistic stories under the guise of public information. NRC Next provided a small mention deep in the pages of their paper and provided an additional box the next day providing a self-reflective view of the Dutch media’s coverage. The remarkable thing about NRC Next’s rising success is that it shares office space and resources with major newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

NRC Next has 55,000 subscribers and 30,000 additional readers on a daily basis. This number is relatively small but it takes small steps to take a nation’s media by storm. We need newspapers and other print publications to take a serious approach to criticizing media practices from within. I know that plenty of people love The Daily Show but it is a comedy show, not a serious effort at journalism. If you don’t believe me, read every interview with Jon Stewart over the last five years. NRC Next and other endeavors that boil the news down into something digestible and usable for young professionals will see a growth in their market share because people want information. The traditional media is not providing the coverage necessary for people to act on a daily basis and the blogosphere is unreliable due to the vitriol of most writers (myself included at times).

I always find it troubling when the media participates in raising false hope when an abduction or natural disaster occurs. This has happened with mine troubles out in Colorado and West Virginia over the past few years with talking heads spending hours bandying about conjecture under the guise of keeping hope alive. The disappearance of adventurer Steve Fossett on Monday has led to a week’s worth of stories stating that wreckage was found that was likely linked to Fossett.

The most difficult part of this type of disappearance is that there is no rhyme or reason to it. Steve Fossett has gone around the world in a balloon and a number of other daring feats that make a three hour flight seem routine. The press pushes local police departments and search teams for details in order to glean something newsworthy from their hopeful words. If Steve Fossett is found dead, the media as an institution will be happy because they can eulogize this great man without discussing the series of stories that built up the nation for a fall.

I don’t think this type of information is worth more than a few minutes each day on the news to update the public on the situation. Police crews, state search and rescue crews and family members will conduct their search without the help of the public. In fact, they should be given a wide berth to make their search without interference by the media or prying eyes. Cable networks and news papers are just showing their voyeuristic nature when they cover Steve Fossett’s disappearance endlessly.

The grand CBS News experiment with Katie Couric has more tangible evidence that it has created a perky but unwatched (and unwatchable) FrankenAnchor.

The AP notes the bad news for Couric and the Eye Network: Nielsens:
Real bad week for Katie Couric

An excerpt:

It surely wasn’t what CBS dreamed about when Katie Couric was hired: the “CBS Evening News” last week recorded its smallest audience since 1987, and probably many years before that.

It also didn’t help that the average of 6.05 million viewers came at the beginning of the important May ratings “sweeps.”

Hat tip to TV Spy.

CBS made a major mistake when it decided to let Bob Schieffer step down from The Big Chair. The numbers for the CBS Evening News under his helm were good (better than even Dan Rather’s) or at least non-Courician.

Here’s the problem: Couric has never had to cover difficult or important stories as a journalist. She’s your gal for cooking tips and celebrity interviews. But if you want to know if the USA is going to blow Iran off the map, well, she ain’t the one you turn to unless you want to know what Paris Hilton is going to wear to a nuclear holocaust.

Above: Katie Couric bowls for a good cause. But off the bowling alley, she’s laying down ratings gutter balls. Katie Couric & Friends Bowl to “Strike Out Colon Cancerâ€? for EIF’s NCCRA, May 9, 2007.

Katie Couric, TV news, media, CBS, CBS News, Bob Schieffer, ratings, Nielsens