Mainstream media has underserved the public during times of crisis within the last decade, says a U-M visiting professor who will lecture next month.
From the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, policy shifts — including two wars, and the global economic crisis in recent years, Americans have not received the vibrant, independent news coverage to help them understand the complex world, says communication studies lecturer Graham Griffith.
Photo by Scott Soderberg, U-M Photo Services.
“I believe it is our (media’s) job to prepare the general public so that it can make good decisions, and not panic in times of crisis,” he says. When a crisis hits, the media should inform the public about the players involved, the factors that led to the crisis and the range of responses available to officials, he says.
Griffith, who teaches the effects of digital media tools on journalism, will give the Department of Communication Studies’ Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professorship in Journalism Lecture April 7 in Rackham’s Amphitheatre.
“American Media’s Greatest Misses of the Twenty-First Century: A Look at Journalism During Periods of Crisis” begins at 5 p.m. with a reception, followed by the 6 p.m. lecture. It is free and open to the public.
The media’s performance in adequately informing the public has been mixed. Some do have moments. For example, the New Orleans Times Picayune’s coverage of vulnerable levees before Hurricane Katrina and “their relentless pursuit of the real story of Louisiana and Mississippi residents in the hurricane’s aftermath was a good example of one news source that did not let people down,” he says.
The pursuit of higher profit margins led to industry changes in recent decades, such as newspapers and broadcast networks downsizing operations and staff. Several outlets shuttered their foreign bureaus.
Journalists, he says, should run toward the complicated stories, and not simply respond to what people in powerful positions put forward as the stories that matter.
“We are living in a precarious time, as the old business models for news are almost certainly outdated, and we haven’t figured out the new ones yet,” he adds.
Griffith says he rejects the notion that people are reading less and are not interested in important stories.
“People are consuming information differently, and we have to learn more about how they are getting their news,” he says. “But in terms of journalism during periods of crisis, the first step is, frankly, to look at what we should have done better, and how we could have been more effective over the last decade.’’
