by frog
I get the feeling most political journalists want to be reporting on issues rather than ‘the game’. And most politicians want to be talking about issues rather than the game. But somehow both sides are caught in a trap where they need to focus on the game stories.
Case in point – a story that No Right Turn highlighted earlier yesterday about the campaign in Nelson. The first half of the story is about Labour and National MPs abusing each other. (Mostly, in this case, National’s Nick Smith lowering the tone by talking bout Michael Cullen’s sexuality, but it’s unsurprising given the example the Prime Minister is setting on the campaign trail so far.)
Then, at the very end of the story a brief mention of Nelson Greens candidate Diane Mellor, who tries to talk about important issues for the Nelson region such as water quality and pollution. From what I know of Diane I doubt she’s the type of person to move herself to the front of that story by accusing Nick Smith of being straight and possibly even in a heterosexual relationship. But that could well be the lesson she took away from that story.
And of course opinion polls are the biggest game story of all. Who is winning? Who is losing? How is the head to head battle shaping up?
There has been some good discussion among blogs recently about opinion polls and their value or not following the Prime Minister’s ‘fairies in the garden’ comment. There is a legitimate question about the accuracy and efficacy of opinion polls and especially the way that their mathematical meaning is distorted through media coverage that tries to shorten and simplify the message.
But in the end it’s very rarely that media coverage of polls is not in or about the right range for the election result come polling day. Until that changes we are probably stuck with them.
More interesting I think is this post at World Changing that looks at media more generally and suggest that traditional media is not working as it used to:
It’s not so much the journalism that’s broken, but a scarcity-based, ad-supported model that’s broken. Publishers wake up in the middle of the night asking, “How do I not end up like the record companies?”
And that bloggers are not the answer (thankfully!)
Participatory media are louder, faster, funnier, but not necessarily likely to fix the problems with professional media. As professional media does less and less “difficult” journalism – international and deep investigative work, in-depth reporting in certain areas – blogs aren’t necessarily picking up the slack.
As the story suggests I think part of the answer lies in investing in public service journalism so that it can provide the in depth investigative issues based journalism that other media outlets and new media can then feed off. Otherwise we can probably continue to expect more and more ‘game’ coverage.
Published in Campaign | Media by frog on Tue, September 23rd, 2008
Tags: Blogs, diane Mellor, journalism, Michael Cullen, Nelson, Nick Smith, Polls
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
“..international and deep investigative work, in-depth reporting in certain areas – blogs aren’t necessarily picking up the slack..”
ahem..!..could i alert you to the 20 thousand + stories at whoar.co.nz..
(just in case you’ve never been there..eh..?..)
where..as an example of doing a job of work that piss*s all over the lame offerings from our mainstream media..
i issued my first alert to the (current) economic meltdown..on the 4 of august..2006..
..and since then you will find links to authoritative details/analysis detailing/forecasting everything that is now happening..
..(and in case you are wondering..?
..no..!..paulsens rescue package ‘won’t work’/save the day..
..details/reasons at whoar..)
the depth and breadth of the material on whoar..esp. (but not only) green/vegan/animal rights..is such..
the site has become a resource in its’ own right..
..you are wrong frog..there is me..a ‘generalist’ news-site..
..and there are other more specialist blogs doing fine jobs in providing far more complex/layered news/analysis/commentary..
..than the mainstream media has (ever) come within a bulls’ roar of..
..they are dinosaurs..
..i mean..that i..one person..can turn out a far superior product..each and every day..
..than the hundreds/thousands(?) working at the new zealand herald..
..couldn’t be a clearer example of their dinosaur/environmentally rapacious status/model..
.. i look at a herald..
..and wonder..
..what do they do all day..?
..most of it is just copy and paste from other mainstream media outlets..
..s.f.a. analysis/interesting commentary..
..and mainly ‘parish-pump’..
..how can such an inefficient/’useless’ model hope to survive the upcoming ructions..
..eh..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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“investing in public service journalism”
You mean like the trust that ‘maintains the independence’ of the Guardian newspaper?
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Just to clarify. I saw a comment by bill browne pointing at the newswire article, read that and decided that I sick of the bloody stupid MSM treating polls as some kind of gospel. I hadn’t seen Helen’s remarks when I wrote my post on saturday. She has said them before.
Hell I’ve been telling her that I thought the out-from-the-election polls were useless crap long before – at least back to 1999. Playing around with canvass data does that. They get more accurate closer to the election.
But the loss of their underlying access method (listed landlines) is making them even more unreliable. It is a problem for both polling, and also mass canvassing.
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