Newspapers: Foundations of News Echosystem

This week's issue of MMU's own newspaper.

 “Newspapers are in a perilous position: Traditional readership is declining even as papers are struggling to create a profitable online business model.” Understanding Media online text.

In 2021, newspapers are a shadow of what they once were. In media history, we are studying the legacies of the great 19th century publishers, Hearst and Pulitzer. In their era, they wielded power and defined a whole new, important information industry.

Newspapers are at the root of news in this country, and those roots are deep and ancient. Thomas Jefferson, the country’s third president is often quoted by newspaper fans: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Those are Jefferson’s verified words, but he also wrote: “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

Clearly, Jefferson was conflicted, but the papers of his era were deeply partisan and not at all neutral in their reporting. In media history at the end of this week, we’ll talk about why that dramatically changed, first with the rise of Pulitzer who emphasized fully reporting each story, and then with Adolph Ochs, the “New York Times” publisher who will reshape the media industry early in the 20th century.

For more than 200 years, newspapers were the key way most people got information about the events of the day. That monopoly on news ended in the 20th century with a series of three media revolutions—the coming of radio, then TV, then the internet.

This century, the 21st, has seen a great decline in the number of papers published, the number of journalists working at papers and the profitability and viability of many newspapers. The public has broken its newspaper habit in this century.

Two newspaper front page from Feb. 20, 2021. Note that both in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (above) and San Antonio, Texas (below) the ongoing winter weather crisis in Texas is top news--although in Iowa, it's all about a local restaurateur going to Texas to help.

And the unfortunate truth is that nothing has yet arisen that neutrally, effectively and objectively reports news the way that newspapers did. Many of our current political problems are partly due to competing versions of reality that can exist in a social media environment—a reality that did not exist in that form in the newspaper era.

It’s also true that part of what has ended the newspaper era is declining literacy. There are young readers—I’ve had spirited discussion with more than one MMU students about the new novels by Hank Green, for example. Yet reading is not understood as central to getting information as it once was.

But it is. There’s the rub. To a frightening extent, people who say they get their information from sources other than the printed word—who don’t read newspapers—are often people who don’t know disinformation from information—fake news from reality.

I don’t mean to imply that I think all is lost if we don’t go back to the newspaper era. It’s something that can’t and won’t happen—history doesn’t move in reverse. Yet, the energy in news media today, the innovation and creativity, is around new online sources.

In Iowa, for example, The Gazette works hard to be an online publication as much as it is a paper newspaper. New sources such as Little Village Magazine compete to delivery news. The investigative role that newspapers in Iowa once fulfilled is partly taken on by an online nonprofit, Iowa Watch, located in Iowa City but independent of the university there.

Home page of Iowa Watch, an investigative foundation in Iowa City that distributes its news stories for free.

 What is the role of a newspaper? Here are its traditional functions:

• Acing as Gatekeeper or agenda setter. Local papers still help define the conversation, the issues that people talk about or care about; yet they are not as important in this area as they once were, as social media today creates the cultural “buzz.” When papers did act as information gatekeepers, one advantage society had was that there was some sense of professionalism in terms of what was treated as a fact—whereas today, the information environment is looser and less easily defined. Newspapers saw their agenda-setting function degrade when radio and TV came on the scene, but it was the internet that mostly ended this role.

• Being a watchdog. That’s honestly one of the key roles newspapers still provide. What does a “watchdog” do? Think of what you know about the Watergate scandal of the 1970s—at the time, it was two reporters for “The Washington Post” who uncovered corruption that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Even today, some papers, such as the Post and “The New York Times,” and, in Iowa, “The Gazette” still strive to fulfill that function. But an issue in our culture today is that many communities have become “news deserts” where local papers have failed—and that can create a situation where actions of government are not monitored much anymore.
  

• Providing “objective” information. Media bias is a complex issue, and not a “fake” thing because all media has some point of view—it’s just not the simple case of “liberal” mainstream media that is sometime portrayed. Nevertheless, traditionally, newspapers provide the most basic, factual account of events of day. They still do, where they exist, but it’s more important for consumers of information to be wary of the cacophony of disinformation available today that can drive out information.

Feb. 20 front page of
Iowa's largest paper.

Anyway, we are in a state of flux in media. The “news” function that newspapers fulfilled is still important, and the remaining newspapers are still often the best sources you can find about events in a community. Yet the culture is shifting away. Dried ink on newsprint is the 19th century way of sharing the news. Sadly, for all our modern sophistication, the 21st century media has yet to evolve something that can take newspapers’ place.

Perhaps it won’t be one thing. Perhaps there is some new balance between competing sources that may yet emerge and provide us with some clarity and some insight that we need. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, be aware that whether you’re looking at Fox, CNN or the New York Times, you may be looking at lots of different kinds of materials in the same place. To be a literate consumer, recognize that most media outlets may give you:

• Opinion writing. The Gazette has two on-staff opinion writers whose stories are not meant to be objective journalism, but are interpretive. Often, inexperienced readers or student researchers will quote something from, say “The Wall Street Journal,” without realizing they are quoting an opinion writer or columnist, not a news report. When you consume news, understand what you’re looking at.

• Inverted pyramid reporting. “Plain vanilla” news stories—most reports of breaking news that you can read either online or in print—use this format. The story starts with a “summary lead,” a first paragraph that states what the latest development is. It then reports information in descending order of importance. One way to know whether you’re reading someone’s interpretation of the news or an actual news report is to be used to seeing and recognizing this story format.

In sum: Newspapers remain, even in 2021, an often important, fundamental part of the news ecosystem. But they are not the central element that they once were.

As with last week, here are some additional posts that cover important newspaper-related topics:

Thoughts on MMU’s newspaper, which won seven awards from a state media organization, February, 2021.
https://iowamedialife.blogspot.com/2021/02/mmu-times-wins-7-icma-state-awards.html
A previous post about a previous semester of this class, has spoilers about your next paper, February, 2015.
https://iowamedialife.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-sudden-appearance-of-newspapers-for.html
How newspapers fix the memory of national trauma, thoughts on the Parkland, Florida school shooting, February, 2018.
https://iowamedialife.blogspot.com/2018/02/front-pages-fix-memory-of-florida.html
Why the student newspaper experience is important—why you should join the staff of the “Mount Mercy Times” even in this post-newspaper world, April 2009.
https://crgardenjoe.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/future-of-college-newspapers/
Some thoughts on the role of newspapers as a Mount Mercy journalism class tours The Gazette, April 2015.
https://crgardenjoe.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/drinking-from-the-firehose-learning-what-journalistm-is-like/

ICMA report 4: Observations on Students and Media

Panel of student journalists who worked with Iowa Watch on caucus night--from Iowa State University, Buena Vista University and Simpson College. They might be, right to left, Alex, Kiley, Zach, Brittany and Michelle. Or perhaps they are in some other oder.

Well, they are young, most of them. And they use media differently.

For example, there were free piles of “The Des Moines Register” readily available, but I saw few college students walking around with them at the Iowa College Media Association convention, held in conjunction with and hosted by the Iowa Newspaper Association convention.

Cell phone use. Bet my picture is better.

At ICMA/INA sessions, when something cool happened, mostly you saw cell phones taken out to snap photos or video. I saw at least one BVU student with an SLR camera, but it seems like my generation is the one more likely to use a camera. Not that old people don't take images with an iPhone, I just noted what I think was a trend as a lugged around my Nikon.

Several Friday, Feb. 4 sessions at ICMA featured advice for student journalists and/or shop talk from them. And even if it would give an old man some comfort to see these youths actually looking at a newspaper, I can take some solace in the quality of their anecdotes.

They care about journalism and think deeply about it.

A one session, Lyle Muller of Iowa Watch invited a panel of reporters who had covered the Iowa Caucuses to speak. Iowa Watch did a project on the caucuses, and two of my students took part. See their posts here and here.

Ahh! Justice! I think that's the name
of the BVU student with the camera.

Anyway, Michelle Hartmann, who I think was from Simpson College, described what it was like to have the Secret Service move you at a Ben Carson rally. I noted that when the Secret Service moves you, you do move. Muller added that you also don’t move until they do move you. “Your instincts (to get on some stairs for a better photo angle) were right,” Muller told Hartmann.

I hope I have the names right. I know Lyle, so I’m pretty sure about him, but there were five panelists from three colleges, and although I wrote their names down from a “names” slide, they were not sitting in the order they were listed. So Michelle might have been Brittany and Brittany/Michelle might have been from Buena Vista University. At least only one student was from ISU!

Lyle Muller is Iowa Watching you.

To me, the irony of my name confusion is that the session with Muller came right after a session on reporting basics by Brian Steffen, professor at Simpson College, spoke to ICMA about how easy it is to get basic facts confused when you report. As I like to warn my own students—get the information right when it’s in front of you. Don’t assume you can check it later. True, that’s advice that I should have followed.

A photographer who was moved by the Secret Service.

Anyway, back to Muller. Brittany Robb from BVU, or possible Michelle, said that covering the caucus night was a lesson in “being prepared for the last thing you would expect.”

That, I think, sums up a lot of what journalism is. In addition, as Steffen said in the previous session, you must verify information. Again, as Robb or someone else said: “Take anything you hear from a candidate with a large grain of salt.”

As Muller pointed out, that’s because a politician is trying to persuade, to sell an action. They are not trying to win the truth-telling contest.

Anyway, I have no way to fact-checking this. It’s just my personal impression, which makes it more blogging than journalism. I sensed enthusiasm at ICMA for basic shoe leather reporting. And I think the students who joined the Iowa Watch effort really gained from that experience, and not just the ones who spoke at ICMA.

As I noted earlier, two of my students wrote caucus accounts for Iowa Watch. Later, versions of their stories will appear in the MMU Times. While it’s great to write for the Times—MMU students, any of you who want to be in a communication-related field should do that—I’m sure the thrill of seeing your mug on the Iowa Watch site is a bit more of a rush then when it appears in the Times.

And it does give me pleasure to work with bright young people (and some not so young) who still seek that rush.

Brian Steffen at the earlier session. The pride of Simpson College.