More news but less depth in US media: study

Tuesday March 14th 2006, 10:25 am
Filed under: Newspapers

A study of US news media concludes that consumers have more places than ever to get their news but fewer stories are being covered and with less depth. The Project for Excellence in Journalism made the observations in its annual State of the News Media report, which analyses coverage in US papers, television broadcasts and websites. The study was released Sunday. The report notes as an example that Google News offered users a menu of 14,000 stories on one day that was analysed - but the stories covered only 24 subjects. ‘It?s an illusion of more information but it?s actually a lot of repetition,’ said Tom Rosenstiel, who is the project’s director. The project is supported by the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Pew Charitable Trusts, an organisation concerned with issues of public interest. Its latest report says declining readership has forced news operations to cut back on journalists, noting that the number of reporters in some cities is only half of what it was 25 years earlier. (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,March 14, 2006)

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