Survival for a local newspaper, not so long ago, depended on just one factor – credibility.
A weekly title provided its own unique challenges. It couldn’t just echo what the regional daily produced, its remit was to reflect what was happening in the communities it served. In the main the paper was ‘softer’ than the daily or evening titles; more feature led and always more ‘local’. That credibility produced a fierce reader loyalty, generating more contacts and content, producing more sales, producing more revenue.It was a formula that worked and the mantra was always one of “Inform, educate and entertain”. Even in the digital age that should have been a fail-safe business model.
And, of course, it was all wrapped up in a code. Newspaper practice combined with law, public administration and, of course, shorthand, were the foundations of “fair and balanced” reporting. Any mistakes that appeared reflected on everyone involved in the paper’s production – from editorial to reception to advertising to production to proprietor.
Naturally revenue, local and national, was a top priority, along with circulation and your ABC figures but that all rested on your position in the community and that in turn depended on that one key factor – being a credible source.
Sales are now digital clicks, and they convert into cash. Credibility is considerably less important than those clicks. The line between the two is blurred with interaction and response seen as important as trust. Yet this ‘new’ business still wears the cloak of the ‘old’. While hard copy sales have plummeted that has been excused by a growing digital audience and a constantly driven message from the title that it is reaching a bigger audience than ever.
This is hardly a revelation but the clickbait phenomenon would seem that growing that audience is no longer built on “Inform, educate and entertain” but “Misinform, confuse and infuriate”.
Most local papers would say it is only providing a platform via its online presence for its readership to interact. And while that’s true, so is the fact that as the comments rocket the click counters celebrate, and it is this lack of responsibility that is offensive and dangerous.
Ironically, some readers/visitors have posted warnings that this platform is being misused and abused and the newspaper needs to exercise some form of editorial control - pleas that have met with no official response but, ironically, generate more clicks. It is irresponsible to open that platform then hope others will provide the balance that is lacking.
A number of Fife local titles recently celebrated its reportage of the pandemic, highlighting their efforts with the comparison of it being the biggest story they had covered since the Second World War.
The self congratulations focused on how staff had got to grips with the many dimensions of the Covid 19 crisis, from a personal and professional viewpoint.
This made their stance on the new lockdown perplexing when an open question was posted on the titles’ Facebook pages inviting views, then they stood well back.
The response was as you would imagine but, as always, there are those that shout louder and more often than others, leading the ‘discussion’ into their chosen realm.
It didn’t take long for the case to be made for abandoning face masks. The argument was basically that since we were in another lockdown it conclusively proved wearing masks was pointless – so abandon them.
That produced a lot of likes and a growing support.
The next leap was, of course, the case that there was no pandemic. Everyone who had died or was in hospital was simply being classed as a Covid case because of the great control conspiracy. Doctors and nurses were party to the elaborate lie; the 70,000 UK deaths (the same total as those civilians who perished in WW2) were a fiction. Other than a small number all of these people were going to die anyway.
And then the comments moved on to the vaccine. It didn’t work, was the claim; this attracting more likes. In fact, all vaccines were useless, that apparently had be true because someone quite important said it on television. Again this produced more likes and more endorsement for refusing the shot.
A day before, a public Facebook post from a Fife nurse beseeched people to stop spreading this very message. But this, one would say more credible, source received no reportage yet the conspiracy theorist was given free rein on the newspaper platform. Where is the journalistic responsibility in this?
It may be the local press is happy to see a debate open up as to whether children once again should be widely exposed to smallpox, polio, rotavirus etc. After all vaccines have remained a controversial issue since Edward Jenner’s late 18th century experiments and there will no doubt be those who would like to see work on vaccines against malaria and HIV halted. With it estimated over six million children die every year globally who could be saved by vaccination programmes, this is obviously a serious academic, scientific and socio-political, issue and should not be dealt with flippantly or loudly by armchair quacks.
Allowing your title to provide a platform for those urging others to refuse to wear masks, or to undermine the vaccine rollout and then to hide behind the shaky argument that others are free to climb aboard and provide the trapdoor and rope for the extreme and the eccentric.
There are consequences in creating an unchecked forum, possibly fatal ones.
A number of Fife local titles recently celebrated its reportage of the pandemic, highlighting their efforts with the comparison of it being the biggest story they had covered since the Second World War.
The self congratulations focused on how staff had got to grips with the many dimensions of the Covid 19 crisis, from a personal and professional viewpoint.
This made their stance on the new lockdown perplexing when an open question was posted on the titles’ Facebook pages inviting views, then they stood well back.
The response was as you would imagine but, as always, there are those that shout louder and more often than others, leading the ‘discussion’ into their chosen realm.
It didn’t take long for the case to be made for abandoning face masks. The argument was basically that since we were in another lockdown it conclusively proved wearing masks was pointless – so abandon them.
That produced a lot of likes and a growing support.
The next leap was, of course, the case that there was no pandemic. Everyone who had died or was in hospital was simply being classed as a Covid case because of the great control conspiracy. Doctors and nurses were party to the elaborate lie; the 70,000 UK deaths (the same total as those civilians who perished in WW2) were a fiction. Other than a small number all of these people were going to die anyway.
And then the comments moved on to the vaccine. It didn’t work, was the claim; this attracting more likes. In fact, all vaccines were useless, that apparently had be true because someone quite important said it on television. Again this produced more likes and more endorsement for refusing the shot.
A day before, a public Facebook post from a Fife nurse beseeched people to stop spreading this very message. But this, one would say more credible, source received no reportage yet the conspiracy theorist was given free rein on the newspaper platform. Where is the journalistic responsibility in this?
It may be the local press is happy to see a debate open up as to whether children once again should be widely exposed to smallpox, polio, rotavirus etc. After all vaccines have remained a controversial issue since Edward Jenner’s late 18th century experiments and there will no doubt be those who would like to see work on vaccines against malaria and HIV halted. With it estimated over six million children die every year globally who could be saved by vaccination programmes, this is obviously a serious academic, scientific and socio-political, issue and should not be dealt with flippantly or loudly by armchair quacks.
Allowing your title to provide a platform for those urging others to refuse to wear masks, or to undermine the vaccine rollout and then to hide behind the shaky argument that others are free to climb aboard and provide the trapdoor and rope for the extreme and the eccentric.
There are consequences in creating an unchecked forum, possibly fatal ones.
It is irrelevant whether these views are seen as misinformation or disinformation. On a personal account, commanding comparatively few ‘friends’ or followers, they could be seen as personal opinions protected under freedom of speech. But, on a newspaper site, welded together under one information umbrella boasting tens of thousands readers/visitors beneath it, this has to be viewed as spreading misleading and inaccurate information. These comments invited and received support, without challenge from the platform operators, allowing the spread of uncertainty, fear and recruiting those susceptible to a loud assured voice.
While this remains unchecked, the titles carry on with headlines concerning the pandemic, apparently unconcerned that in the comments below each post there are those urging others not to believe.
Perhaps for a local paper this is indeed the biggest ‘story’ since the Second World War and while there won’t be any reporters sitting at laptops who covered the 1939-45 conflict, the old bound volumes and the British Newspaper Archive are there for scouring and there will be few, if any, column inches allocated to readers calling for the community to abandon the blackout and to proudly light up the sky for the Luftwaffe.
Once proud publications have become pin boards for the malevolent, misguided and the mischievous. The quest for clicks has provided a shameful conduit for extremism. The abandonment of editorial control and responsibility is a disgrace and sullies the original mission statements of the titles whose banners are still flown and the legacy they should have been allowed to leave.
While this remains unchecked, the titles carry on with headlines concerning the pandemic, apparently unconcerned that in the comments below each post there are those urging others not to believe.
Perhaps for a local paper this is indeed the biggest ‘story’ since the Second World War and while there won’t be any reporters sitting at laptops who covered the 1939-45 conflict, the old bound volumes and the British Newspaper Archive are there for scouring and there will be few, if any, column inches allocated to readers calling for the community to abandon the blackout and to proudly light up the sky for the Luftwaffe.
Once proud publications have become pin boards for the malevolent, misguided and the mischievous. The quest for clicks has provided a shameful conduit for extremism. The abandonment of editorial control and responsibility is a disgrace and sullies the original mission statements of the titles whose banners are still flown and the legacy they should have been allowed to leave.
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