Last Updated: December 29, 2000
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American
voters — unplugged
Editors: If readers don’t care, we should try harder
When reader interest wanes in, say, tennis, newspapers redirect resources
to the sport of the moment — say, golf.
But ask a dozen editors if a similar reallocation should be made as
the public seems to be losing interest in politics, and the answer is a
resounding “no.”
One editor even challenges the premise of the question, saying interest
in politics in his community is still very much alive and well.
“Politics is still a major pastime in New Hampshire on all levels,”
says Mike Pride, editor of the Concord (N.H.) Monitor.
“What happens at the town, city and state levels is of great interest
to readers. They also care about national politics, including the presidential
race,” Pride adds.
The Granite state might be an aberration, though. Other editors concede
that readers seem less engaged in political news than they have been in
the past. But they view the difference between politics and sports — or
most any other topic newspapers write about — as the essence of democracy.
Society will survive if the public doesn’t know who won an early round
in the U.S. Open, but you can’t have a sound “government by the people”
without an informed electorate.
“Newspapers have a moral obligation to their community to inform the
electorate,” says Gar Joseph, assistant city editor/politics, for the Philadelphia
Daily News.
“The challenge of waning reader interest is to provide that coverage
in ways that engage the reader, whether they are interested in politics
or not,” Joseph adds.
Bill Bartel, public life team leader for The Virginian-Pilot, agrees.
In response to sagging interest, he maintains, newspapers shouldn’t lessen
coverage of politics. “We should improve it.”
“We have an undeniable responsibility to our communities — and our country
— to inform citizens in a way that shows them what government is doing
and how people can get involved.”
Jane Amari, editor and publisher of The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson,
also resists the idea newspaper content should change to reflect consumer
interest.
“Although newspapers are a consumer product and, like all products,
are market-driven, I believe we have a responsibility to inform,” Amari
said. But, she added, “We also have a responsibility to make it interesting.”
Newspapers must accept some responsibility for lower interest in politics,
Amari and other editors believe.
“Too many newspapers, and mine is certainly not perfect, let the candidates
frame the issues and the discussion when the voters should be in charge,”
she said. “We need to make that happen.”
Jeannine Guttman, editor of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram,
criticizes newspaper coverage for focusing too much on the horse race and
the “daily calamity/misstep/faux pas” — rather than the issues and what
voters think about them.
Bartel blames, in part, the media’s misplaced focus on the minutia of
the political conflict instead of the issues and leadership styles that
help citizens understand what government is doing and why.
“Politics is boring because we choose to make it boring,” he says. “If
people don’t see why they should care then we’re not using the proper methods
to show them how this connects to their lives.”
— By Pam Luecke, editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader
