Last Updated: February 03, 2000
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Credibility
Smaller newspapers face the twin hurdles of being tarred
as 'The Media' and not having the resources to fact-check, edit and report
better
People rank journalists' credibility alongside that of car dealers,
politicians and lawyers. That is enough to send shudders through the industry.
But look closer.
People make fun of car dealers, but when they need a vehicle they select
a dealer they believe they can trust and make their purchase. They will
rant and rave about the industry as a whole, but they will recommend their
dealer to their friends. The same is true of politicians, lawyers, and
yes, newspapers.
We are accused of being sensational, of making too many mistakes, of
lacking credibility. Yet, when vital community news breaks especially at
a smaller newspaper, news racks sell out and the newsroom is flooded with
calls for information. Negative opinions don't mean that the world is coming
to an end - as long as readers continue turning to newspapers when they
feel the need for information.
Yet credibility is a separator. Whether it is the tabloids or TV, declining
standards or a perception of media self-interest, the public's views on
media credibility are much worse than they were 30 years ago. This was
documented in the April ASNE report, "Examining Our Credibility: Perceptions
of the Public and the Press."
Editors at small newspapers, while battling all the same credibility
issues as their larger brethren, find that many of the perceptions about
"the media" begin at the national level but work their way down.
"When the reader believes there's a credibility problem with the media
in general it is brought home when he or she reads a local sports story
that identifies a defensive back on the local football team as a linebacker
or a wedding story that has an incorrect first name for one of the bridesmaids,"
said David C. Miller, editor of the 12,800-circulation The Sentinel-Tribune
in Bowling Green, Ohio.
"Community newspapers do not generally snoop in trash cans or turn over
rocks looking for worms," said Dave Story, publisher of The Claremore (Okla.)
Daily Progress, circulation 6,000. "But, community newspaper people are,
nevertheless, journalists, and it is their job to report the news - good
or bad - that will concern or motivate their readers."
Readers expect the smaller daily, with its painfully finite resources,
to provide a complete and metro-like report - as well as providing coverage
of Boy Scout meetings, grade school soccer and club notes.
"Readers calling my office complain about poor spelling, bad grammar
and headlines that have no connection with the stories they top," said
Stephen A. Trosley, editor and publisher of the 8,900-circulation Norwalk
(Ohio) Reflector. He added that he sees many incidents of "source remorse"
and often hears from readers wondering why the story they heard about on
"Oprah" or "Rush Limbaugh" isn't in the paper (many assume it's bias).
"What do I tell them? That the 27-year-old news editor is still learning
his craft and doesn't know that anyone watches 'Oprah' or listens to Rush?
That the managing editor meant to call AP and ask for that story but she
had to snap a picture because the photographer worked the weekend and has
today off? That the reporter who didn't handle their quote in context was
the only one who applied for the job?"
How big is the credibility problem facing small city dailies?
"It's very difficult to measure," said Miller in Bowling Green. "The
actual number of credibility-related comments I hear from our readers would
be under 10 percent of those people asking to speak to the editor. How
many other readers share those opinions is unknown. It's enough of a problem,
however, that I take it seriously and try to address it whenever I speak
at public meetings in our community."
Speaking to public groups is one of the strategies suggested by editors
at small newspapers to address the issue. That ability to reach key decision-makers
and the fact that newspaper staffers and their sources are neighbors and
often bump into each other are advantages small newspapers have and should
exploit. Most can't help it: When something isn't right, they tell them.
"Good community newspapers are usually trusted by their readers, primarily
because the readers are usually on a first-name basis with the publisher,
the editor, the reporters and most of the folks in the backshop," Story
said.
In small towns, "the readers know the publisher's opinions before he
writes them because of what he said at the coffee shop that morning," he
added. "They know that he does not blindly follow the lead of the national
media, and that he is a hell of a lot more interested in filling the chug
holes on Main Street than he is with the sex lives of professional politicians."
"When mistakes are made in the newspaper, folks come straight to me,"
said Gary Tanner, managing editor of The Daily Citizen-News in Dalton,
Ga, circulation 13,600. He said that readers call to tell him when they
are canceling subscriptions, whether it's because of delivery service or
content.
"No one screens my calls and there's no guard at the front door to keep
people away who don't have an appointment," he said, adding: "Perhaps my
sense of fairness is sharper for knowing that I'm going to have daily contact
with readers, who are daily judges of the newspaper's credibility."
Other strategies that have been used by small newspapers include community
councils and accuracy surveys.
Community councils generally comprise a broad swath of people in the
community who are asked questions about the newspaper. The broader it is,
the more likely that constituents for most aspects of the newspaper will
be selected.
Accuracy surveys also can help battle the perception that newspapers
never get anything right and that they are unfair in their coverage. Typically,
stories are selected at random then mailed with a questionnaire to a source
in the story. The source is asked to comment on the accuracy, fairness,
completeness and headline of the story.
Newspapers using this method find that people are impressed that the
paper cared enough to ask them about the story. While it doesn't negate
the mistakes that do appear, there is more of a perception that the paper
is trying to get it right.
"I guard accuracy and fairness very carefully," said Tanner in Dalton.
"People who were at events we've covered must be able to pick up the paper
and say, 'Yeah. That's how it was.'"
But difficulty in hiring - and retention - contributes a great deal
to a newspaper's credibility (or lack thereof).
The "constant parade of young staff who aren't 'from here' and who always
'go home' on their days off (makes it) damn near impossible for them to
accurately reflect a community they are not part of and will be in for
only a short time," Tanner said. "Sources constantly complain - and rightly
so - that they just get to know and trust a reporter and then that person
is gone.
"Small newspapers could greatly increase their credibility if they would
make commitments to recruit hometown folks and make it possible for them
to spend their careers there," Tanner said.
But if they choose not to do that, higher pay will draw the young people
away, as it always has.
"The problem with our credibility," Trosley said, "is that we've been
giving our communities the newspapers they can afford - not the newspapers
they deserve."
Doyle, editor of the Walla Walla (Wash.) Union-Bulletin, is chair
of the Small Newspapers Committee.
