Last Updated: April 06, 2000
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Credibility
Mexican credibility project reveals discontent
Mexican journalists want to improve their newspapers,
long burdened by allegiance to politicians rather than readers
By Michael J. Zamba
The constantly beeping pager was beginning to annoy the reporter, so
he decided to turn it off. He knew he was 30 minutes late for an interview,
but it could be rescheduled. This was the first time a group of reporters
and editors from different Mexico City newspapers had been invited to a
focus group, and the talk at the table was too good to pass up.
Sitting across the table from him, a colleague from another daily told
the group of seven people seated around him: “I think that we, as a ‘new
generation,’ must aspire to get people to read us.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“At our newspaper, we are going through an internal crisis,” he said.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that we lack training and readers. We lack
everything.”
Seven experienced Mexico City reporters and a moderator wrestled with
questions about news sources, ethics, reliability and credibility. The
focus group was supposed to last only one hour; after two and a half, the
moderator finally had to cut off discussion.
One participant let out a deep breath and said: “I feel so much better.
This was like group therapy. I got so much out of my system.”
While therapy was not the goal of the focus group, the comment by the
16-year newspaper veteran demonstrates the frustration that Mexican journalists
are experiencing.
New realities
Mexico’s press, its sources and the government continue through a transformation
that started more than decade ago. While a notable selection of newspapers
have a long tradition of being independent — such as A.M. in León,
Diario de Yucatán in Mérida and El Imparcial in Hermosillo,
among others — many publications relied heavily on government incentives
(including cash payments directly to reporters) as a means of survival.
New economic realities, such as the 1994 peso devaluation, reduced the
government’s ability to continue the system as it existed. New realities
have also meant that many papers now must go it alone — building a base
of readers and a source of advertising revenue.
Clearly, there are several publications that still maintain strong ties
to certain political parties and many wonder how some smaller dailies (particularly
among the more than 20 newspapers in Mexico City) can survive with little
or no display advertising.
With the need to attract a broader base of readers, newspapers are finding
it necessary to build credibility with the public.
Poll numbers tell interesting story
In a poll, when Mexicans were asked what source was the most reliable
for election coverage in Mexico, 69 percent of eligible voters said that
television was the most credible. Only 5 percent mentioned newspapers as
the most reliable source. The national poll of 1,200 Mexicans of voting
age was commissioned by The Dallas Morning News and conducted in November.
“Readership of newspapers is at its lowest rate in history,” said Daniel
Lund, director of Mund, a research group. “Even though a few newspapers
have worked hard to be more professional, the public judges the industry
by its history. The inertia of perception is extremely strong.”
Television’s credibility ratings with the public are higher only because
of style, not substance, he said. “TV can be awful (in terms of reporting),
but its format is exceedingly credible because it is visual,” Lund said.
In another, journalists-only poll, newspaper reporters and editors were
considerably upbeat. When asked if they thought confidence in the Mexican
press was declining, 77 percent of the respondees said no.
However, the credibility of a news organization is the result of a number
of factors — including what is reported, balance, clarity of headlines,
errors in reporting and the ability to correct mistakes.
Some key findings:
On misleading headlines: 29 percent said they see misleading
headlines in their publications on a daily basis; 35 percent said they
see them more than once a week.
On sensationalism: 85 percent agreed or strongly agreed that
newspapers frequently excessively dramatize certain articles to boost sales;
only 9 percent believed that wasn’t the case.
Fact-checking and corrections
The survey asked if newspapers run stories without checking the facts
just because other dailies have run the articles. Sixteen percent “agreed
strongly” and 43 percent “agreed.” Twenty-eight percent did not agree.
“Unlike U.S. papers, we don’t do fact checking,” said an editor at a
top Mexico City daily who participated in one of the focus groups. “You
lose your credibility. Do you take the time to research and then publish
a story, or do you run with what you have?”
And when these stories have mistakes in them, corrections rarely run.
Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed did not even know if their paper
has space dedicated to corrections. Thirty-seven percent said their paper
has a correction box. Thirty-five percent said their paper does not.
“The culture to publish a correction does not exist,” said one reporter
who participated in the Mexico City focus group.
Telephone calls
Whether its because of errors they’ve seen or stories they’d like to
get in the newspaper, readers often try to get in touch with reporters
and editors, according to the survey. More than 20 percent said they got
calls from readers once or more a week, 46 percent said they got calls
once or more a month.
But what do they do with these calls?
Half said they listen to the reader’s comments and tried to explain
why something was published; 38 percent said they apologized to the caller
without explaining the situation. Twelve percent passed the call on to
someone else.
But newspapers rarely have guidelines as to how newsroom staffers should
deal with calls from readers.
In one extreme case, a reporter with a Mexico City daily said that readers
who call the newsroom often are told by that reporter is not in, and no
message is taken.
Coverage
“Many of us reporters write for people in power (such as) political
parties,” a journalist at a large-circulation daily wrote. “We don’t think
about real people. I’ve had fights with my boss (about coverage). There’s
a perception that this is a political newspaper.”
With the new realities, reaching a broader base of readers is becoming
a priority. Naturally, news coverage is the primary way to reach them.
When asked about newspapers and readers, more than a third of journalists
said their paper has a “good connection” with them, 30 percent said it
“sometimes” connected with readers, and 26 percent said their paper “rarely”
connected with readers.
Finally
With the survey and focus groups completed, the second step of the Mexican
credibility program is a pilot program at El Diario, a 70,000-circulation
daily in the state of Chihuahua.
Working with the Morning News, El Diario is setting up ways to reduce
errors and better connect with readers. We’ll let you know what our results
are.
Zamba is a special adviser to the president of The Dallas Morning
News, Bob Mong. A U.S. journalist with more than a decade of experience
in Mexico, he oversaw the credibility project.
