article on Y2K and the media

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Please check out my article, Y2K and the Failure (So Far) of the Press.

Thanks,
Scott Johnson
Editor, y2ktoday
http://www.y2ktoday.com/

-- Scott Johnson (scojo@yahoo.com), April 05, 1999

Answers

Thanks Scott.

The newsmedia is not only failing the public, but themselves as well.

Likely we'll all pay the price for shallow thinking and surface investigation.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), April 06, 1999.


Scott,

I enjoyed the read, and agree with many of your points. However, one of the problems I see with covering Y2k is access, particularly among small journalism organizations.

Questions about remediation status are probably directed to the public/media relations office of any given company/organization.

The public/media relations officer will first query the reporter to determine whether they are predisposed to writing a negative or positive story. (If the organization's been slammed in the past, the reporter probably won't have his/her phone calls returned.)

Someone on this forum mentioned Woodward and Bernstein and what they went through developing the Watergate story.

I can't help but think there would have to be at least 500 reporters in the U.S. alone with that type of skill/determination to get a truly clear picture. Given the way things work, I just don't think it will happen.

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), April 06, 1999.


FM- agree with your points, but you point out the biggest failing of today's media (not just with regards to Y2K, but in general): expecting to get the truth from press releases or public affairs officials. Real investigative journalism is in desperately short supply, especially when it comes to genuinely important issues. Afraid I have to agree with your pessimistic outlook, though...

-s-

-- Scott Johnson (scojo@yahoo.com), April 07, 1999.


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