Falling journ standards - who is to blame?

Lesley Cowling, senior lecturer at Wits University's School of Journalism and Media Studies, told Bizcommunity.com, “I am not so sure that we can say standards are falling generally.

“I don't think there is a lot of consistency across publications, broadcasters and individual journalists, and they range from really excellent to mediocre and, in some cases, quite lacking. This has always been the case in journalism in this country.”

Always a challenge

Cowling said that there is always a challenge for news media to maintain high standards, attributing this to a range of various factors and constraints.

“In the current financial climate, commercial media that depend on advertising for their revenue are suffering, and this means they will have to cut costs and jobs. This puts more pressure on newsrooms as individual journalists and editors have to do more with fewer resources,” she said.

The global economic downturn has triggered a wave of retrenchments around the world and the media industry has not escaped this apocalyptical trend, with hundreds of media jobs being lost in SA.

Raymond Louw, Southern Africa Report editor and publisher, told Bizcommunity.com, “Hundreds of journalists have been retrenched throughout the world, and apart from the personal harm that has caused them and their families, the drop in editorial newsroom manpower has brought a massive reduction in the extent of the coverage of news and gathering of information for publication.

“Severe contraction”

“While the full effects of this severe contraction in the gathering of news and of newspapers carrying out their traditional watchdog role over those in government and the private sector, there are fears that financial limitations on coverage will seriously weaken the news industry and reduce its ability to withstand the assaults on freedom of expression and a free media by the authorities and commercial interests.”

Each year, experienced journalists leave the profession in droves to seek greener pastures and better working conditions to improve their lives, which they say ‘are not going anywhere' due to continually ‘earning peanuts'.

Some observers say this engenders the juniorisation of newsrooms, and with media houses not investing enough in the regular training of journalists to help them adapt to changing political and socio-economic realities, quality of reporting constantly diminishes.

“Below corporate sector norms”

Cowling pointed out, “Journalism has always had a high attrition rate because when experienced reporters get to a certain level, they are faced with going into management or continuing to do the same old thing for salaries that fall below corporate sector norms.

“One way to keep experienced reporters and good writers is to pay them for their experience, and allow them the opportunity to work on more challenging assignments - long-term stories and [thought]-pieces, for example.”

Asked to comment, a local journalist said on condition of anonymity: “Before they blame us for this and that, these critics should know better that many circumstances are beyond our control. They should shoot the bosses, not the messengers.”