How Are We Doing?

Submitted by ub on

Journalism is increasingly accused these days of being a source of distraction rather than a tool of attentiveness for valuable information content.

Perhaps it's because of a growing obsession with political scandals and celebrity gossip. Some citizens' fear of crime reflects disproportionate crime coverage and rank-ordering of threats to life and limb overstates dangers that journalists consider newsworthy and understates deadlier, but less newsworthy, conditions. News consumers grasp of serious scientific issues and dangerous threats to the environment, along with the risk of genetic engineering becomes somewhat muddied by coverage framed as disputes over who calls the shots and who really cares?

Our sense of responsibility for global suffering is eroded by compassion fatigue from heart-wrenching depictions and too few explanations of what might be done about it. One of the biggest failures of the free press was not alerting the world to the Holocaust's atrocities. This is the moral dimension of salience in journalism. Substance without salience is pontificating. Salience without substance is pandering. Consistent and realistic coverage of the most significant threats to well-being and methods to improve it is the primary purpose of the newsgathering process. That's what makes journalism a worthy and a moral calling.

Do #CityImages and #DONews take responsibility for how the content is pursued and how it is digitally delivered and received? Can we provide a better sample of what constitutes substantive news coverage?

Do #DONews and #CityImages help individuals and communities, including political leaders, identify and respond to the most significant threats to well-being?

How are we doing? We really want to know. Please respond below, or reply to admin@cimages.me