I spent yesterday afternoon on Iowa City’s “bad side.” What was interesting, in my conversations with young, African American youth there, was that they – without prodding – focused on how the news cover them. To counter the poor ways media cover their lives, I said that we all need to contact reporters about such coverage. But, I realized after I said it, that this is easier said than done.
Try to find a reporter’s phone number.
It’s great that many reporters’ information appears on the bottom of their stories, or in links on their byline, or in phone numbers under their names. But, in a world that is focused on websites and interacting with readers on online comments, reader blogs, etc., it seems ironic that the information on who covers what for whom is so hard to find.
Try this:
Go to the Press-Citizen website. You must find the following information. You have 30 seconds for each search.
1) Who is the local mayor and police chief?
2) What’s the name of the education reporter, or someone who seems to cover education?
3) How much does it cost to subscribe to the paper?
4) What’s the name of the city editor? How do I contact this person?
5) How do I place an ad?
Without fail, my students struggle with this activity. Well before the 30 seconds is up, they find the cost to subscribe and the names of local officials. However, they fail miserably at finding the names and contact information of local journalists.
Journalists have always seemed to like being elusive. It is up to THEM when they contact the public – and how.
Let’s look at some papers and how they approach contacting reporters. (This is just a random selection, but, of course it tends to lean towards papers I read or have worked at. And, I take a closer look at the media that are local to me right now.)
The contact button for even finding where to find reporters and editors is hidden at the bottom of the homepage. But, once you get there, the information seems pretty detailed, including coverage area, email address and phone number.
Contact button is hidden at the bottom of the homepage, under contact us. But it is a nice and easy way to see who works for advertising, PR, and then the newsroom. The information for reporters, though, is missing phone numbers, which limits how we can contact them. (Of course, someone says, call the newsroom and they will transfer you. Doesn’t seem, though, like a good business move — or a democratic method for engaging with the media.)
This is a complete design mess. I can’t even remember how I got to this page to find info for the WSJ, not madison.com, the Cap Times, or something else that’s owned by the same company. Still, the information for editors/reporters is pretty detailed.
The link is buried at the bottom of the homepage, but includes information about advertising and business and editors and reporters and multiple ways of contacting them.
Of all the sites listed here, this one has the cleanest spot to find the list of contacts (at the bottom of homepage, but highlighted). The focus on information for the newsroom is focused on the editors, though — not the daily reporters. To some degree, this selection might make sense since editors are the students who are around more consistently than the student reporters. The turnover is amazing.
The Gazette just relaunched their site, and I appreciate what they have done to their contact page. While it is still at the bottom of the site, there seems to be an incomplete list of people listed. I went through more than a dozen stories on the site and tried to match their names on the stories with the contact list. What I found were some names missing, which leads one to wonder what else isn’t there. (If you’re curious, here’s who I found missing. This is not exhaustive, of course, of what may not be there, but serves as evidence that the list needs more work.)
Jim Malewitz (who I used to work with)
Erica Pennington
Vanessa Miller (who has been in touch with me about wanting to do a story on an effort I am involved in. Still, there is no contact info for her here)
Kevin Kane
Additionally, columnists are missing.
How hard is it to put all of this in one spot?
By far the worst! Take a look at this contact page. I know we are in the city of literature, but do we need a contact page that has paragraphs of information about how to contact the press and why we may want to and that still lacks the information itself?
If the PC wants to be part of the community, then why distance itself? Or, if I am missing this information why was it so hard to find? (Other than me being, possibly, stupid.)
So what?
What does it mean that we can’t find reporters’ or editors’ information? I sat with a journalist friend the other day who said he’d love to see bios of each state- or city-paid employee that lists their name, contact information and their bios.
Such a stance for public employees is not new: It’s watchdogging, one of the media’s main tenents.
But why don’t reporters seek the same of themselves? More importantly, why don’t WE hold THEM accountable in these ways?
I sat with another journalist this week. He asked me, in all of my criticism of local news, what did I want them to do about it? Here is one of those answers: Be EASIER to access than business, politicians, and the rest of society. We need you to be.
That said, here are some thoughts:
1) The general “news” email seems to be out-of-date. I don’t want to send an email to God knows who. In a world of communication that’s focused on PERSONAL communication, what is the idea of having just a single generic email called news? Better question is: Why are we OK that this is a general email? Can’t I make a choice on who I want to talk to?
2) How about bios for reporters and in them, links to their corrections? Links to their “most commented” stories? Photograph? This isn’t unheard of elsewhere in the world.
3) Can we please stop burying the “Contact Us” buttons on the bottom of pages?
What else can be done?