« Deer in the headlights... | Main | State of the Union preview... »
February 1, 2005
Soar like eagles or plummet like turkeys...
Jennifer Dorroh surveys the (lack of) use of ombudsmen in American newspapers for the American Journalism Review. There are about 40 ombudsmen and about 1,500 daily newspapers in America. Why no more than that?
San Diego Union-Tribune Readers Representative Gina Lubrano, ONO's [Organization of News Ombudsmen] executive secretary, says financial constraints often prevent news organizations from creating the position.
A survey taken in 1999 showed salaries for ombudsmen between $75,000 and $100,000.
Geez...where do I sign up? That's pretty good scratch. Too good, perhaps.
I'm full of suggestions lately (of dubious value to be sure). Here's another for those other 1,460 dailies: Hire journalism professors to do the job for a modest fee.
Why this is a good idea: Academics have three jobs: 1) Research, 2) Teaching, and 3) Service. The service component can include (and often this is stressed depending upon the discipline) service to the profession outside of academia. In other words, getting yourself an egghead is a win-win situation. A newspaper gets a cheap, enthusiastic ombudsman and the egghead gets a nice fat line for the ol' CV (that's academicspeak for resume) and lots of professional satisfaction.
Why bother? Well, because Americans' confidence in journalism continues to plummet. What's going to stop that? I have many answers to that question, and one of them certainly is this: Better 2-way communication. The public learns more about journalism and journalists learn that they are not smarter than the public.
In the old days when reporters used typewriters and something called "paper" (made from trees, I hear tell), they would type -30- at the bottom of an article to indicate the end. Let me suggest that we revive the practice and use -40- instead. That way it will remind journalists that this figure ought to rise if they care to stop the public's crisis of confidence in journalism.
Posted by acline at February 1, 2005 8:51 AM | | Spotlight