Friday, February 20, 2009

Washington Watchdogs: An Endangered Species?

While the government has doubled in size since 2001, Washington’s watchdog journalists have become a dying breed, according to Wendell Cochran, moderator of Tuesday night’s American Forum.

Four seasoned journalism professionals held a panel discussion from the campus of American University. “Washington Watchdogs: An Endangered Species?” was the latest installment of the School of Communication and WAMU radio’s American Forum. The discussion addressed many media issues, primarily focusing on the reasons for and consequences of the dissolving Washington press corps.

The forum comes one week after the Project for Excellence in Journalism released a special report on “The New Washington Press Corps.” Tyler Marshall, the author of the study and American Forum panelist, found that the staff levels of the mainstream media were declining sharply. However, the decline in mainstream press has been matched by the growing special interest and niche media. “The Washington press corps was not so much shrinking as it was transforming itself and changing its shape,” Marshall said. He also added that he was surprised to find a sharp increase in the number of foreign correspondents.

Broadcast live on C-SPAN and WAMU 88.5 FM, the event began at the stroke of 7 p.m. American University students and faculty filed into Mary Graydon Center, many ready with pressing questions on the state of Washington’s news media.

The nation’s capital city had lost half of its newspaper bureaus since 1985 and saw a sharp decrease in the amount of broadcast journalists, Cochran said. The panel discussed the effects that the cutbacks have had on the political process and American democracy. “You can’t let those people run around Washington without a chaperon,” Cochran said, quoting a friend concerned with the lack of coverage.

Also discussed at length was the concept of byline migration. Journalists used to begin their career in the niche market, hoping to one day make it to the mainstream media. This trend has reversed and many mainstream media reporters are now working at specialized niche publications, Marshall said. This troubled the panel because they feel that experienced and talented journalists are surpassing the mainstream media.

“I think you go where the paycheck is first,” Whitaker said. He gestures to Suzanne Struglinski, the senior editor of Provider health care magazine. “Many of those reporters have found very rewarding work.”

Panelists agreed that the recession has made a bad situation worse. Suzanne Struglinski experienced the firsthand effects of the cutbacks. Struglinski was the lone Washington correspondent for Deseret News in Salt Lake City when the newspaper closed its Washington bureau last summer. She is also the former president of the Regional Reporters Association. Struglinski said she is worried that without a regional voice, individual cities and towns “are not going to get the detailed information on their delegation.” The panel discussed the importance of regional Washington reporters as there are so many legislators and politicians to hold accountable.

Panelists expressed concerns with reporters attempting to cover Washington politics from a distance. “You can’t tell whether a representative is the same person in Washington as they are back home,” said Melinda Wittstock, founder and CEO of Capitol News Connection. Wittstock also stressed the importance of finding an efficient economic model to cover Washington politics “on the ground.”

“Mainstream media, as it’s traditionally defined, is under increasing financial pressure,” said Washington Bureau Chief Mark Whitaker. Also the Senior Vice President for NBC News, Whitaker added that broadcast ratings were very strong despite the economic crisis. “I think it’s very bad in newspapers and newsmagazines, which is my former stomping ground,” Whitaker said.

“We’re in kind of uncharted territory in terms of how the economy is going to play out,” Wittstock said. Despite an uncertain future, Struglinski was confident that although the business model had changed, journalism is here to stay.

Sitting in the audience were many young, aspiring journalists looking for wisdom and advice from professionals. “What’s the hope here for our students?” Cochran asked. “Why should they get into this business?”

“Right now it beats Wall Street,” said Whitaker as the panel and audience chuckled.

“If you want to avoid boredom,” Wittstock added, “this is the best job in the world because every day is different."

No comments:

Post a Comment