Using the media

by Editor · September 4, 2013

Addressing �Catholic journalists in Johannesburg, Archbishop William Slattery pin-pointed the reason why the Church finds it so difficult to get its message covered in the secular media.

“Objectivity in the media has always been a myth, but the advent of so-called citizen journalism, especially on the Internet through blogs, videos, podcasts and so on, gradually diminishes journalistic accountability. ” Photo: Flickr CC rouelshimi

�The Church wishes to proclaim the Gospel and emphasises continuity. The press deals with news, new things. The Church wishes to promote unity and is apprehensive of dissent. Press barons realise that circulation is boosted by struggle and dissent,� he said.

Part of the reason why the Catholic Church more often than not gets bad press � aside from the times when the bad press is actually merited � resides in the secular media�s need to present news as drama.

The old adage, �if it bleeds, it leads�, has assumed a position of almost absolute primacy in modern news coverage.

The media�s need to accentuate shock value was particularly stark in its coverage of the recent unrest in Egypt. If one was exposed to an exclusive diet of US and British news coverage, one might have believed that the whole country was on fire.

What most viewers did not see was the solidarity which many Egyptian Muslims showed their Christian neighbours, or the desperation of local tourism workers who receive little income from working in their perfectly safe areas because the international media has, by selective and partial reporting, scared off visiting tourists.

Never let it be claimed that journalists are always just passive observers. How the media cover the news can shape the narrative of what they are describing.

As consumers of news, we share in the responsibility for the distorted picture of reality. Few of us want news that covers the ordinary.

We expect our news to deliver drama, discord and death, and most media comply with that expectation, and in turn feed the demand.

Few publications have the option to be free from these demands. Perhaps one reason why you are reading The Southern Cross is that it does offer a relief from the relentless din of bad and alarming news, and instead offers hope.

Objectivity in the media has always been a myth, but the advent of so-called citizen journalism, especially on the Internet through blogs, videos, podcasts and so on, gradually diminishes journalistic accountability.

The freedoms available to that brand of amateur media�especially from the boardrooms of media conglomerates, agenda-driven publishers and commercial interests�has created welcome potential for the exposure of scandal and injustice.

But it has also given rise to a regrettable dilution of journalistic standards. Too often agendas are pursued with the aid of unfiltered opinion and distortion by people who are answerable to no-one. Lack of training and resources may mean that a story is not be told in all its complexities.

Unlike traditional media � print and broadcast � there is no editorial control in much of citizen journalism, and little incentive to be accountable to readership or peers.

Where in the past readers of newspapers had a fair idea of how much trust they could invest in a newspaper, based on the publication�s past record, consumers of news on the Internet often have no record of experience to which they can refer.

Traditional media, especially print publications, are feeling the pinch of a changing culture of media consumption, one that emphasises the soundbite, videoclip and instant reaction over the printed word. No doubt the industry must continue to remodel itself in order to remain relevant.

Traditional journalists will need to collaborate with interested non-professionals as a way of disseminating news and views. In many ways, The Southern Cross has been doing this for many years, preceding the age of the Internet, by accepting and encouraging unsolicited news contributions from the community it serves. It is a model which the Catholic Church can fruitfully apply to the secular press.

Bishops and other Church leaders can offer leadership by writing opinion articles of broad interest for daily newspapers and their websites, as well as by cultivating good relations with editors.

Archbishop Slattery told the media workers: �Society and people have a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice and solidarity.�

Catholics have their part to play in facilitating that right.