{"id":126817,"date":"2018-11-29T06:48:06","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T04:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/why-the-demise-of-specialist-reporters-is-a-loss-for-any-democracy-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2018-11-29T06:48:06","modified_gmt":"2018-11-29T04:48:06","slug":"why-the-demise-of-specialist-reporters-is-a-loss-for-any-democracy-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/why-the-demise-of-specialist-reporters-is-a-loss-for-any-democracy-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the demise of specialist reporters is a loss for any democracy | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why the demise of specialist reporters is a loss for any democracy<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Journalists, especially those with specialised knowledge, can shed light on important issues.<\/span> Davide Bonaldo\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The newspaper industry in many countries is in the doldrums. Retrenchments have become the norm with experienced journalists who specialise in a particular reporting area \u2013 known as \u201cbeat reporting\u201d \u2013 are among the first to go.<\/em><\/p>\n

An ongoing global journalism survey, The New Beats, explores, among other things the steady decline of beat journalism. The Conversation Africa\u2019s Natasha Joseph spoke to Dr Glenda Daniels, who is heading the South African leg of the research, about why beat reporting matters and why it\u2019s at risk.<\/em><\/p>\n

What is a \u201cbeat\u201d journalist, and what\u2019s their value as reporters?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A beat journalist specialises in a particular field. They have covered a particular \u201cbeat\u201d or area and know it inside out. Beats include areas like politics, business, environment, education, science, labour, local government, courts and health.<\/p>\n

When people read a beat reporter\u2019s byline (their name on the story) they expect expert and factual news and analysis. It\u2019s the opposite of generalist reporting.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the state of beat journalism globally?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beat journalism worldwide is disappearing. There are several reasons for this, among them the corporate and commercial pressures of going digital and competition from social media. Media companies retrench experienced reporters first to cut their salary bills \u2013 and beat reporters tend to be among the more senior staff.<\/p>\n

I attended a symposium on the New Beats project in Australia earlier this year which highlighted a decrease in beat reporting across countries ranging from Finland, Brazil, Indonesia, US, Netherlands, and Canada.<\/p>\n

This has consequences. In a discussion paper at the symposium based on his research, Professor Matthew Ricketson from Deakin University showed that without \u201cboots on the ground\u201d \u2013 beat reporters covering, for example, court or rural issues \u2013 indigenous people\u2019s issues are disappearing from media coverage. <\/p>\n

For the most part in Australia, news about indigenous groups comes from activists\u2019 tweets or from research conducted by academics, rather than from the mainstream media.<\/p>\n

How does South Africa stack up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Africa appears to be following a pattern established in the western, developed world. There have been several waves of retrenchments. Experienced professional journalism staff are down to a minimum. Certain specialist sections or pages have been cut altogether \u2013 a books page, for instance, is increasingly rare.<\/p>\n

And certain beats have been abandoned, for example labour reporters haven\u2019t been replaced. This beat is covered by politics desks. The lack of magistrate court reporters and local government reporters \u2013 which used to be important beats \u2013 means there\u2019s a lot going on, on the ground, which the public misses out on. <\/p>\n

What do journalists think of this trend?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the South African respondents in the Job Losses\/New Beats survey had scathing things to say about what happens when specialisation or \u201cbeat\u201d reporting is lost.<\/p>\n

One said:<\/p>\n

\n

Journalism has become increasingly undervalued as a profession. Too many bad writers and too few beat specialists, which means that people in power are getting away with murder.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another said:<\/p>\n

\n

I don\u2019t read newspapers anymore, but I find some excellent pieces on online publications. Generally, (media is) under-resourced, underfunded and a lot of (the) time lacks specialised writers. \u2026The specialised photographer was made redundant years ago\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another spoke of the tensions between media investors who want commercial success, and journalistic ethics:<\/p>\n

\n

The level of under investment, resultant juniorisation and low quality outputs do a disservice not just to investors and those who practice (journalism), but to democracy at large. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Juniorisation refers to the practice of newsrooms hiring inexperienced journalists who have not, usually, gone through traditional training in a cadet school.<\/p>\n

I was very struck by this response. Democracy demands that we have access to information, freedom of information, freedom of expression, factual and reliable information. Instead, the current transition to digital media is throwing up a lot of unreliable information that must be waded through before we get to the facts; misinformation and propaganda; hate speech, and bigotry.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a messy, sometimes bloody transition \u2013 and beat journalism is among the victims.<\/p>\n

What does this all mean for audiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a decline in in-depth news coverage of any particular field and a corresponding rise in superficial array of news on a variety of topics. Infotainment gets passed off as \u201cnews\u201d. Celeb gossip and sexy pictures sometimes fill pages. Media companies hire young generalists or all-rounders who can do 24\/7 reporting, uploading of video, blogging, tweeting and brand or celebrity journalism \u2013 where the reporter is part of the story.<\/p>\n

It appears that journalism is chasing technology and social media appears to lead journalism. That\u2019s especially dangerous in this era where \u201cfake news\u201d \u2013which includes misinformation and disinformation \u2013 has become a common complaint \u2013 and, as research shows, travels fast. Readers are often left asking whether they can trust what they\u2019ve read, or if they\u2019ve been fed misinformation or propaganda.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the solution?<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The best case scenario or ideal situation for journalism to serve democracy is to restore journalist beats. It\u2019s crucial for newsrooms to start going back to basics. For instance, training programmes need to be re-instituted; most newsrooms have scrapped these, as my colleagues and I have outlined in several \u201cState of the Newsroom\u201d reports conducted in South Africa in recent years. <\/p>\n

Another approach is to cut executives\u2019 and managers\u2019 salaries, and to pay senior journalists to mentor younger reporters on specialised beats. In this way, good journalism can be saved.<\/p>\n

*The full results of the international New Beats survey, including those from South Africa, are due out in 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Dr Glenda Daniels is an associate professor in Media Studies, Wits University. She has received funds from the National Research Foundation (NRF). She is affiliated with Sanef, where she heads the Ethics and Diversity sub committee and is a member of the organisation's Council. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Why the demise of specialist reporters is a loss for any democracy: Journalists, especially those with specialised knowledge, can shed light on important issues. Davide Bonaldo\/Shutterstock The newspaper industry in many countries is in the doldrums. Retrenchments have become the norm with experienced journalists who specialise in a particular reporting area \u2013 known as \u201cbeat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[8890,6732,4666,4726,15159,5179],"class_list":{"0":"post-126817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-conversation","8":"tag-demise","9":"tag-democracy","10":"tag-loss","11":"tag-reporters","12":"tag-specialist","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}