Current Problems in the Media discusses several issues facing modern journalism according to surveys and studies. It finds that public trust in media accuracy has declined significantly in recent decades. Mistakes and factual errors are commonly seen in news stories by the public. There is also a tendency toward sensationalism and chasing exciting stories rather than important news. Media outlets are investing less in reporting and face increasing consolidation, which some argue prioritizes profits over quality journalism. Journalists themselves agree that major problems exist in serving readers.

1. Current Problems in the Media
Majid Heidari
PhD student Media Management

2. Current Problems in the Media
Based on Daily source.org
March 1st.2015

3. High levels of inaccuracies
.The quality or state of not being accurate

4. High levels of inaccuracies
Public confidence in the media, already low,
continues to slip. A poll by USA
TODAY/CNN/Gallup found only 36 percent of
Americans believe news organizations get the
facts straight, compared with 54 percent in mid-
1989.

5. Errors and mistakes
According to an in-depth study by the American
Society of Newspaper Editors in 1999, 23
percent of the public find factual errors in the
news stories of their daily paper at least once a
week while more than a third of the public - 35
percent - see spelling or grammar mistakes in
their newspaper more than once a week. The
study also found that 73 percent of adults in
America have become more skeptical about the
accuracy of their news.

6. Level of inaccuracy
The level of inaccuracy noticed is even higher
when the public has first-hand knowledge of a
news story.

7. Level of inaccuracy
Almost 50 percent of the public reports having
had first-hand knowledge of a news event at
some time even though they were not personally
part of the story.

8. Level of inaccuracy
Of that group, only 51 percent said the facts in the
story were reported accurately, with the
remainder finding errors ranging from
misinterpretations to actual errors.

9. Sensationalism
There is tendency for the press to play up and
dwell on stories that are sensational - murders,
car crashes, kidnappings, sex scandals and the
like.

10. Sensationalism
In a study by the American Society of Newspaper
Editors, eighty percent of the American public
said they believe "journalists chase sensational
stories because they think it will sell papers, not
because they think it is important news. "

11. Sensationalism
Another 85 percent of the public believes that
"newspapers frequently over-dramatize some
news stories just to sell more papers."

12. Sensationalism
Over 80 percent believe sensational stories receive
lots of news coverage simply because they are
exciting, not because they are important.

13. Sensationalism
78 percent of the public thinks journalists enjoy
reporting on the personal failings of private
officials.

14. Sensationalism
48 percent of the public sees misleading headlines
in their paper more than once a week.

15. Mistakes regularly left uncorrected
A 1999 poll by the Columbia Journalism Review
and the nonprofit research firm Public Agenda
of 125 senior journalists nationwide found:

16. Mistakes ….
Fully 70 percent of the respondents felt that most
news organizations do a "poor" (20 percent) or
"fair" (50 percent) job of informing the public
about errors in their reporting. Barely a quarter
called it "good." A paltry 2 percent awarded a
rating of "excellent."

17. Mistakes…
A remarkable 91 percent think newsrooms need
more open and candid internal discussion of
editorial mistakes and what to do about them.

18. Mistakes…
Almost four in ten of those people interviewed feel
sure many factual errors are never corrected
because reporters and editors are eager to hide
their mistakes.

19. Mistakes…
More than half think most news organizations
lack proper internal guidelines for making
corrections.

20. Mistakes…
A majority (52 percent) thinks the media needs to
give corrections more prominent display.

21. Mistakes…
Over 40 percent said their news organization does
not even have a person designated to review and
assess requests for corrections.

22. Poor coverage of important issues
While the media is busy covering sensationalist
stories, issues that affect our lives and the whole
world receive little attention.

23. The Environment
A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs
found the number of stories about the
environment on the network news went from
377 in 1990 and 220 in 1991 to only 106 in 1998
and 131 in 1999.

24. Poor coverage of important issues
At the same time, the number of stories about
entertainment soared from 134 in 1990 and 95
in 1991, to 221 stories in 1998, and 172 in 1999.

25. Government
“The Project for Excellence in Journalism,
reporting on the front pages of the New York
Times and the Los Angeles Times, on the ABC,
CBS, and NBC Nightly news programs, and
on Time and Newsweek, showed that from 1977
to 1997, the number of stories about government
dropped from one in three to one in five, while
the number of stories about celebrities rose from
one in every 50 stories to one in every 14.

26. Foreign Aid and 24,000 Easily
Preventable Deaths a Day
According to the World Health Organization
about 28,000 people who die every day around
the world could be saved easily with basic care.

27. Education
Large numbers of Americans give low ratings to
the media for school coverage.

28. Education
For example, in a joint survey by the Education
Writers Association and the Public Agenda, 44
percent gave “print media with a national
readership” ratings of fair to poor, while only 4
percent gave a rating of excellent.

29. Education
About 84 percent gave “broadcast media with a
national audience” ratings of fair to poor and
only 1 percent gave a rating of excellent.

30. The media’s short attention span
Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution in
the 1970’s began observing what he called “the
issue attention cycle” in the American media.

31. The media’s short attention span
The cycle is: the news media and public ignore a
serious problem for years; for some reason, they
suddenly notice, declare it a crisis and concoct a
solution; next they realize the problem will not
be easily fixed and will be costly; they grow
angry, then bored; finally, they resume ignoring
the problem.

32. The media does not cover itself
Of the roughly 1,500 daily newspapers in the U.S.,
“Only a handful—at most a dozen, including The
[Washington] Post—actually have a reporter
who covers the press full-time as a beat.

33. The media does not cover itself
About 15 papers have an ombudsman on staff to
respond to readers' complaints.

34. The media does not cover itself
When it comes to looking at itself, society's
watchdog is a lamb,” according to Sydney
Schanberg, one of the most respected journalists
of this era, he has been a reporter for The New
York Times for more than twenty-five years, and
recipient of many awards, including a Pulitzer
Prize.

35. Focus on huge profit margins, not
serving public
In October, 2003, for example, Gannett Co. Inc.,
one of the nation's largest newspaper chains,
reported for the first nine months of 2003
profits of $853.2 million on revenues of $4.89
billion, a profit margin of 17.4 percent. In the
same month, the E.W. Scripps Co., owner of
another chain of daily newspapers, reported
quarterly profits of $60.9 million for the
company's newspapers on revenues of $164
million, a profit margin of 37 percent.

36. Focus on huge profit margins, not
serving public
“Citizens are asking journalists and media critics
why the media don't ‘do something’ to discover
and publish ‘the truth.’

37. Continued…
Margaret T. Gordon, a professor of news media
and public policy at the Evans School of Public
Affairs at the University of Washington and
formerly the dean of the school, in a Seattle
Times column August 08, 2003.

38. Continued…
It seems clear enough that the market/profit
mentality has won out, especially in electronic
news, and to a considerable extent in the print
media. ... Meanwhile, the push for corporate
profit margins much higher than those of
average American businesses goes on — with 40
to 100 percent in the electronic media and 12 to
45 percent in the print media common during
2003.

39. Media outlets are investing less in
the quality of what they do
According to the Project for Excellence in
Journalism, there are 2,700 fewer reporters
employed by newspapers in 2003 than there
were in 1990. The number of jobs lost is believed
to have continued falling in 2004.

40. Continued…
According to washingtonspectator.com and
speeches made by Bill Moyers, full-time
employees of radio stations decreased by 44
percent during the period from 1994 – 2000.

41. Continued…
Moyers also stated that since the 1980s, broadcast
network correspondents’ numbers are down by
one-third, and TV networks now have half the
previous number of reporters in their foreign
bureaus.

42. The public is misinformed and
uninformed

43. Foreign Policy
A Knight Ridder/Princeton Research poll of
Americans showed 44 percent of respondents
believed "most" or "some" of the 9-11 hijackers
were Iraqis. Only 17 percent gave the correct
answer: none.

44. Foreign Policy
A New York Times/CBS News Poll revealed that
45 percent of respondents believed Saddam
Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11
attacks.

45. Media consolidation
In 1945, four out of five American newspapers
were independently owned and published by
people with close ties to their communities.

46. Media consolidation
Those days are gone however. Today less than 20
percent of the country's 1483 papers are
independently owned; the rest belong to multi-
newspaper chains.

47. Media consolidation
Of the nation's 1,500 daily papers, nearly 1,200 —
about 80 percent — are owned by the big chains,
which concentrate on reaping large profits and
are not much given to public self-examination
on ethics and quality issues.

48. Sydney Schanberg :
It is not apparent to many news consumers, but
22 companies now control 70 percent of the
country's newspaper circulation and 10
companies own the broadcast stations that reach
85 percent of the United States.

49. Journalists agree that major
problems exist.
• The study by the American Society of Newspaper
Editors found these startling facts:
• Only 47 percent of journalists surveyed felt their
publications were improving.
• Only 39 percent felt their newspapers were
usually very interesting to read.
• A remarkably low 21 percent felt their
newspapers were connecting very well with
readers.

50. Problems of media….