Alan O’Connor, Professor of Media Studies, Trent University
Six weeks into the Pandemic, how are news media doing?
One thing that is clear is that many of us still depend on daily newspapers, even if we mostly read them online. Clay Shirky’s prophecy that citizen reporters would take over from professional journalists has not come to pass. Citizen journalists are important in some parts of the world, but the internet is also full of clickbait and misinformation. Monthly magazines such as Jacobin and Monthly Review (in the USA), Tribune and New Left Review (in the UK) often publish thoughtful essays and reportage, but most of us still want local news and daily updates. See the array of articles in NLR (March-April 2020), free to read at: https://newleftreview.org
Although people are turning to news media for information about the Pandemic, advertising income has plummeted because economic activity has been drastically curtailed. Marc Tracy, News Media Outlets Have Been Ravaged by the Pandemic (New York Times, April 10, 2020) estimates that 28,000 workers at news companies have been affected in the United States. These range from 13 employees (4 journalists) laid off at the Denver Post, 31 lay-offs at Sports Illustrated, and a four-day workweek at VICE, with pay cuts of 10% or 20%. Jane Martinson reports in The Guardian (May 15, 2020) that BuzzFeed has closed its UK and Australian news operations.
In an interesting development, journalists’ unions in the United States are taking a more activist role, even exploring the possibility of public support for news organizations.
The Pandemic has put huge demands on news media. There is little doubt that news organizations with deep resources have performed better than local newspapers. New media such as VICE news do not have these kinds of resources, though VICE did release documents about poor behaviour by Amazon executives. The outstanding mainstream news organization is The Guardian. The New York Times is a more conservative newspaper, but has expanded its range in an interesting way. In his study of media coverage of the Vietnam War, Dan Hallin describes what he calls the “sphere of legitimate controversy” in mainstream media.
As the Pandemic unfolds in Europe and North America, the sphere of legitimate controversy has expanded. It is astonishing to see the New York Times on a single day publish four or five major news articles about social inequality, and to start questioning the American prison system. The Times has also initiated a series of Opinion pieces imagining a better America after the Pandemic.
A study of the field of news media during the Pandemic shows that it operates much in the same way as before the emergency. Much reporting is “spot news” of statistics, shortages of medical equipment, economic bailouts (data show that these are the most read stories). There is also a considerable amount of “news you can use” about surviving at home, cooking, coping with kids. Media organizations with deep resources (New York Times, The Guardian) perform better than many local news sources and new digital media such as VICE. Media in the isolated rightwing ecosystem in the USA (Fox News, Breitbart) continue as before relentlessly supporting President Trump (blaming China, attacking the WHO). As the emergency continues, this rightwing media operates as “flack” distracting attention from serious reporting.
Public radio broadcasting such as the BBC and the CBC have a significant role. Medical experts who are not normally heard are given a forum to speak, phone-in programs often reveal horrifying details, for example about work conditions. However, the quality of magazine programs often depends on the choice of experts invited to participate (an issue discussed by Pierre Bourdieu, On Television, 1998).
Update: By early May 2020 news organizations seem to have moved beyond the initial shock of the Pandemic. After six to eight weeks of emergency measures, news organizations are starting to publish critical reports on issues such as privatization of nursing homes and chronic staff shortages, and the government delays in issuing travel advisories in early March. The New Yorker and the New York Times have published lengthy articles about coronaviruses in general, environmental destruction that opens conduits from animal to human infection, and attempts by experts to warn about the possibility of a future pandemic. An article by David Quammen, Why Weren’t We Ready for the Coronavirus? New Yorker, May 4, 2020, asks tough questions about the poor response of the United States. A documentary on Netflix makes background information on coronaviruses available to a wider audience. However, these investigative articles and “long reads” will mainly reach middle-class audiences with higher levels of education.
The study is based on qualitative content analysis of print / online news sources: Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, New York Times, Irish Times, The Guardian, Pensacola News Journal (local news site), New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Fox News (website), and Breitbart. The period covered is from March 16, 2020 to April 19, 2020. The study does not include television news.
Herman and Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent (1988) propose an institutional theory of media institutions. Five factors explain why mainstream media are indexed to the worldview of economic and political elites. For example, a for-profit media organization that relies heavily on advertising support is not likely to be open to radical ideas about worker control and about curbing consumerism for environmental reasons.
Because of institutional pressures, the media tends to focus on spot news. What is announced as breaking news turns out to be a report on something immediate, dramatic, deviant or involving violence. An airplane crash is breaking news and it will get a lot of attention. But longterm problems in the industry, especially issues put forward by workers, are normally not considered to be news.
In the sample of news media included in this study there has been good work by local newspapers such as the Toronto Star and the Irish Times. But the most outstanding mainstream news organization (continuing a pattern from before the crisis) is undoubtedly The Guardian. With offices in London, New York and elsewhere, and several different online editions, the Guardian has provided good reporting, thoughtful “long reads” and a wide range of Opinion pieces, often written by experts in different fields.
It should be noted that these investigative and Opinion pieces are not usually the most read pieces online. This is now the distinguishing feature of quality mainstream journalism: to commission in-depth and thoughtful writing and to publish it even though it is not what most people are reading. Screenshot for The Guardian, April 9, 2020.
Trent Research Group on the Pandemic 