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Press Going Too Easy on Bush
Bottom-Line Pressures Now Hurting Coverage, Say
Journalists
by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
Overview
Section I: Views on Performance
Section II: Covering
the President and the Campaign
Section III: Today's
Changing Newsroom
Section IV: Values and
the Press
NOTE: This report is also available on
the Pew Research Center Web
site.
Section I: Views on Performance
Journalists are divided over whether their profession is
advancing or regressing. Only about half of local journalists
- and even fewer national journalists - feel their profession
is moving in the right direction. In particular, national
TV and radio journalists are the most negative, with 61% saying
the field is headed in the wrong direction, compared with
just 33% who say the opposite.
There also is a significant divide between executives and
reporters in these national organizations, with executives
seeing the profession headed in the right direction (by a
57% to 38% margin) while reporters say things are declining
(by 54% to 39%).
Continuing Concerns Over Quality
Problems with the quality of coverage remains a major concern
of journalists, but an increasing percentage mention business
and financial factors. A plurality of national journalists
(41%) cite quality concerns such as sensationalistic coverage;
the need for accuracy; and a lack of depth, relevance and
objectivity as the most important problems facing their profession.
Collectively, these were also the top concerns volunteered
by national journalists in 1999, and in a similar survey a
decade earlier.
Among local journalists, however, business and financial
problems are now mentioned as frequently as concerns over
the quality of coverage. More than a third of local news people
(35%) cite business and financial factors as the biggest problem
facing journalism, up from 25% five years ago.
Print Journalists Worried About Losing Readers
There are significant differences among journalists in different
media, as well as those working at local and national news
organizations, over the biggest problem confronting journalism.
Broadcast journalists, especially at the national level, cite
issues relating to quality much more often than do their print
counterparts. Roughly half of national broadcast journalists
(51%) cite quality concerns, compared with 32% of national
print journalists.
By comparison, declining readership is cited by 15% of print
journalists at both national and local news organizations,
but no more than 2% of broadcast journalists view loss of
audience as the most important concern. Instead, broadcast
journalists view limits on resources - and the pressure to
make profits and get bigger ratings - as the biggest financial
problems.
Despite the growing concern over business and financial
issues, fewer journalists mention an overly competitive media
environment as the biggest problem. In 1999, 17% of national
and 15% of local journalists specifically mentioned increasing
competition as a problem; just 5% of national and 2% of local
journalists say this today.
While the quality of coverage and business concerns are
seen as the leading problems facing journalism, the single
word mentioned more frequently than any other by journalists
assessing their profession is "credibility." Roughly
a quarter of both national and local journalists mentioned
problems with public trust and confidence in some form, and
one-in-five specifically mentioned credibility as the biggest
concern for the profession.
Print journalists are far more likely than those in broadcast
to see credibility as the biggest problem facing journalism
today. Four-in-ten (39%) journalists working at national newspapers,
magazines and wire services say credibility is the biggest
problem, compared with just 15% at national TV and radio outlets.
And this gap exists at the local level as well, with local
print journalists nearly three-times as likely as local broadcast
journalists (33% vs. 12%) to cite credibility as their greatest
concern.
There is also a sizeable difference between younger and
older journalists in perceptions of the credibility problem.
Just one-in-ten journalists under age 35 cite concerns about
credibility and public trust as the biggest problem facing
the profession, compared with about quarter of those age 35
to 54 (26%), and a third of those age 55 and older.
Though a number of journalists specifically mentioned recent
scandals involving New York Times reporter Jayson Blair and
USA Today's Jack Kelley in describing why the profession has
lost credibility with the public, relatively few expressed
concerns with any broader ethical problems in their field.
In fact, just 5% of national journalists (and 6% of local
news people) cite ethics or a lack of standards as the biggest
problem in journalism, about half as many as in the 1999 survey.
Plagiarism Not Widespread
The vast majority of journalists of all backgrounds and
at all workplaces say that plagiarism is no more prevalent
today than it has been in the past, just more of a focus on
the problem. More than seven-in-ten national (77%) and local
(72%) journalists agree with the statement "We are hearing
more about plagiarism but its prevalence has not increased."
About one-in-five at both the national and local level (21%
of national journalists, 23% local) say there is more plagiarism
today than in the past.
There is virtually no difference across different groups
of journalists in this perception. Broadcast and print journalists,
as well as executives, senior editors, and reporters all predominantly
say that recent incidents of plagiarism do not signify a wider
problem in the field. There is similarly no difference in
this view between young and old, those who are more and less
experienced, or those who are more and less educated.
What the Press is Doing Well
Print and broadcast journalists also differ over what journalism
is doing well these days. Print journalists most often point
to the quality and depth of coverage that is provided. They
describe the volume of topics covered, coverage with context
and insight, and an ability to make the news interesting and
relevant. Fully 42% of local print journalists and 31% of
their national counterparts cited some aspect of the quality
of coverage as journalism's best performance trait, compared
with just 18% of local broadcast journalists and 19% of national
broadcast journalists.
Those working in television and radio are more likely to
cite the timeliness and speed of reporting as what journalism
is doing best today. Among local journalists, broadcast journalists
are more than twice as likely as those working in print (33%
vs. 14%) to cite the immediate coverage of live and breaking
news as journalism's greatest strength. This gap is even wider
within the national press, with 37% of national broadcast
journalists - and just 11% of national print journalists -
citing timeliness and speed as the best aspect of today's
news.
The watchdog role of the press is cited as journalism's
strength by fewer in the field. Print journalists are about
twice as likely as those in broadcasting to say investigative
reporting and watchdog journalism is what the press is doing
well these days. By contrast, those in TV and radio make far
more mention of the value of news websites and the use of
production technology to better deliver news to the public.
As was the case five years ago, roughly half of journalists
say the profession does a good job of striking a balance between
what audiences want to know and what's important for them
to know. This opinion is held by comparable numbers of national
and local journalists, as well as among those working in both
print, broadcast, and Internet media.
Criticisms of the Press
Nearly eight-in-ten in both national and local news organizations
believe the criticism that the press pays too little attention
to complex issues is valid (78% national, 77% local). This
is comparable to findings in previous press surveys conducted
in 1995 and 1999. Roughly two-thirds also agree that there
are too many talk shows on cable television today, and this
view is shared equally by both print and broadcast journalists.
Most journalists also accept as valid the criticism that
the distinction between reporting and commentary has seriously
eroded, although the percentage who cite this as a valid criticism
has, if anything, declined since 1999. However, far more national
and local journalists regard this as a legitimate critique
than did so in 1995.
A growing number of national journalists, in particular,
say news reports are increasingly full of factual errors and
sloppy reporting. The number of national journalists who view
this as a valid criticism has increased steadily from 30%
in 1995 to 40% in 1999 to 45% today. A comparable percentage
of local journalists say this is a valid criticism (47%).
That represents a decline from 1999 (55%), but is higher than
the 1995 level (40%).
In both 1995 and 1999, slim majorities agreed with the criticism
that the press was too cynical, but this perception has ebbed
among both national (37%) and local (40%) journalists today.
In fact, more national journalists say the press is too timid
(47%) than too cynical. In addition, the proportion who feel
the press can be criticized for becoming out of touch with
their audience has dropped slightly within both groups of
journalists.
Grading the Media
Journalists give the highest ratings to major national newspapers
- 92% of national journalists and 80% of local journalists
give national newspapers a grade of A or B. By contrast, local
TV news receives the lowest grades; just 32% of local journalists
say local TV news outlets deserve a grade of A or B and national
journalists' grades are even lower (21% A or B).
Grades for other news media - network TV news, cable TV
news, and local newspapers - fall somewhere in between national
newspapers and local TV news. In that regard, little has changed
from nine years ago, when journalists gave very similar grades
to these media organizations.
Most journalists give their own news organization middling
grades. Just 22% of national journalists, and 14% of local
journalists, gave their organization an A, though roughly
six-in-ten of both groups gave their own organization a grade
in the B range. These grades also are similar to the grades
journalists assigned in 1995.
Print journalists are particularly critical of network and
local TV news. Just 32% of national print journalists give
favorable grades (A or B) to network TV news, while twice
as many (65%) assign grades of C or D. Journalists at local
newspapers are, at most, only slightly more favorable. By
comparison, a majority of journalists working at both national
and local TV and radio outlets give favorable grades to network
news programs.
Nearly half (47%) of local TV journalists give favorable
grades to their own field's performance, compared with only
18% of local print journalists. The print/broadcast gap is
slightly narrower among journalists at national outlets, but
only because ratings of local TV news are low among all national
reporters whether in print or broadcasting. Among broadcast
media, cable TV news channels are the exception to the media
divide, as they are graded similarly by both print and TV/radio
journalists.
Journalists were also asked to give a grade to national
news organizations for their websites, and the marks were
fairly strong. Sizable majorities of both national (70%) and
local (57%) journalists gave grades of A or B to major media
websites. And the grades among local journalists are lower
only because more said they were unable to rate these websites
- very few in either group gave poor marks to the websites.
Why is Journalism on the Wrong Track?
In the general evaluation of whether their profession is
headed in the right direction or the wrong direction, journalists
were almost evenly divided in their view. While those taking
a pessimistic view were not asked directly what they had in
mind, an analysis of their responses to other questions provides
some indication of the factors behind this opinion.
In particular, journalists who say things are going badly
are significantly more likely to take their profession and
employers to task for the quality of the news product. They
believe the press has become too timid, and almost unanimously
say the press pays too little attention to complex issues.
Nearly three-quarters of journalists who say the profession
is headed in the wrong direction say the distinction between
reporting and commentary has seriously eroded, compared with
only half of those who think things are on the right track.
Concerns about the impact of bottom-line pressures also
are far more prevalent among those saying the profession is
on the wrong track, which is closely related to concerns about
sloppy reporting and the increasing commercialization of the
news. Many say the emergence of the 24-hour news cycle has
weakened journalism and that news reports are increasingly
full of factual errors. And those critical of the overall
direction of journalism more frequently cite sensationalistic
reporting and an emphasis on ratings as the biggest problems
facing the profession.
Within the newsroom, those who are unhappy with the leadership
of their own news organization are far more negative about
the profession as a whole compared with those who are satisfied
with their bosses. In addition, those who have participated
in training or professional development over the past 12 months
are significantly more optimistic about the profession as
a whole than those who have had no such training.
But overall cynicism about journalism is not simply an expression
of sour grapes on the part of those who have faced economic
pressures or staffing cuts at their own place of work. Those
who have seen their newsrooms shrink, or who say that resource
and staffing limitations are the biggest problem facing the
profession, are no more or less likely to be negative about
the direction of journalism than those who have not faced
resource limitations.
Similarly, there are no generational or ideological divides
on this general evaluation of the state of the profession.
Journalists young and old, liberal, moderate and conservative
are all about evenly divided in terms of whether they are
optimistic or pessimistic about the field.
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