The annual conference of the Organisation of News Ombudsmen and Standards Editors highlighted the common concerns of media practitioners across the world in this age of digital disruption. The four-day deliberation, which took place last week in Amsterdam, focussed on the theme of rebuilding public trust in the news media.
Kyle Pope, editor-in-chief and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review , shared a powerful print and digital campaign that underscored the importance of fact-based journalism. The campaign that ran in various mainstream news platforms, pro bono, was an eye-opener. “These ads are designed to make people think about where their news comes from, and to appreciate the difference between real news and everything else,” said Mr. Pope. The campaign featured a series of black-and-white images of people reading what appeared to be a traditional daily newspaper, but upon closer inspection of the lead headline, were in fact stories from a host of unsubstantiated, but easily accessible, sources. The headlines were: Some Guy’s Blog, Retweets from Strangers, and Dad’s Facebook Posts. Mr. Pope is convinced that only by talking about the strengths of journalism, its news-gathering methods, and the process of verification and gate-keeping can we counter the opinions that masquerade as information in cyberspace.
The purpose of journalism
Some argue that the present erosion of trust is the result of the growth of social media and the avariciousness of Silicon Valley conglomerates. Others say that the decline in trust started at least a decade before the advent of social media, and that was because a section of the mainstream media strayed from the path of journalism. In their brilliant book The Elements of Journalism , Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel have argued that “the purpose of journalism is not defined by technology, nor by journalists or the techniques they employ. The principles and purpose of journalism are defined by... the function news plays in the lives of people.” Hence, credible news media organisations have their code of editorial values, glossaries for contentious terms, and policy guidelines to cover certain disturbing developments.
Reporting on suicides
One of these guidelines is for reporting on suicides. The Hindu , which has been following these guidelines, failed to do so recently in its report “Parties condemn NEET, condole aspirant’s death” (June 6). A Twitter user asked: “Where are the contact details of lifelines or potentially life-saving support centres in these reports of the death of Pradeepa?” Internal inquiry revealed that the details — “Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050” — were there in the report filed but were deleted by the desk, probably for lack of space. The desk, which is mandated to add these details in case reporters forget to do so, failed in its duty. The details were appended to the Web edition after the Twitter alert. While course correction is a positive development, it is disturbing that these slip-ups happen because the best practices have not been internalised by the desk.
The guideline for reporting on suicides is not about political correctness; it is about minimising harm, which is one of the core values of journalism. Kelly McBride, vice president of the Poynter Institute, was sceptical, like many journalists, about the arguments of suicide prevention advocates in their effort to get newsrooms to change their standards, till she came across a study published in The Lancet . The lead researcher of the study, Madelyn Gould of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, had observed: “It just seems so frightening, but a lot of behaviours are modelled.” Ms. McBride has culled out some of the study’s key findings: “Stories about an individual with the word suicide in the headline, stories on the front page of a newspaper, photos of the dead person, detailed descriptions of the act of suicide and portrayals of the suicide victim as noble, angelic or heroic are associated with more suicides in the same community. It’s not a causal relationship, but rather they are related.”
Suicides that happen after examination results fall into the cluster category. It is essential to report them with care. Empathy here lies not in glorifying the death but preventing more deaths.
readerseditor@thehindu.co.in
