This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 17, 2011 - St. Louis native Amy S. Mitchell has not been a casual observer of the tumultuous changes taking place in the journalism industry.
As deputy director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., she studies these changes and works to find answers for the tough questions asked by both producers and consumers of news during this "information revolution."
Mitchell primarily focuses on the project's in-depth research reports, including the annual State of the News Media report and more specific studies on the coverage of individual events.
"We look very closely at how a story came to be and, if there were points of false information that came out, how and where those points emerged. One of the things we see today is how hard it is to pull back information once it's out there and is being passed along through quoted blurbs," Mitchell said.
Since its inception in 1997, the project for excellence has served as an educational resource for both news writers and consumers. For example, some in the news industry have wondered how the flow of information from producer to consumer would function if a town were left without a major daily newspaper. To find some answers, the project set up a study to look at the "ecosystem of news" by tracking all of the news being produced by various outlets in one city over the course of two weeks.
"We captured all of their content, identified the biggest stories and went through outlet by outlet to track how news within each of these stories originated. What we found was that more than 90 percent of the information originated from a traditional, local outlet," said Mitchell.
"This question about the flow of information is one a lot of people are trying to answer, but there was no data yet to help them, so that's where we come in with our research. PEJ attempts to identify a way we can provide some hard evidence and data that can help us answer this question."
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How can news sources recapture an audience that makes news for itself? Do we need to retrain our readers or retrain ourselves as news organizations?
Mitchell: It's a little bit of both. What has not changed in the role of news organizations are the elements of good reporting and the solid journalism tools needed to provide accurate information. It is important as ever to be trained in those skills and to pass them on. Once these tools are understood, they can be adapted to fit the changes in platform, style and voice. The fundamentals of reporting and the principles of journalism will remain steadfast and are more important than ever since so much information is out there in the public.
I can offer a couple of suggestions for overwhelmed news consumers. One is to take the time to learn about the organization or individual you're getting your information from. In a lot of online searches, people don't even click on the link; they'll just read the first two or so sentences that show up and then move on. Take the time to dig into that website because if you do it just one time, you'll have the answers for how valuable that website's content is.
With journalism's role changing so rapidly, how is it possible to research and evaluate the industry? What is the benefit of studying the performance of the press?
Mitchell: Well, I'd say that overall, we're all affected by the changes in the news media and how information is processed. We are going through a period of great change -- with growing access to information and a growing number of outlets both specialized and general. At the same time, we are often facing a more difficult task in finding the information that we're looking for from a source we know is reliable. By doing this research, we're hopefully providing people with a grain of understanding in order to provide better information.
What major trends have emerged in your years of research? Which new trends and ideas will stick around for the next couple of years?
Mitchell: The biggest change is really the relationship of news to a consumer, and then among consumers themselves. There used to be sort of a "lean back" experience of consumers sitting back and allowing media to tell them what's important to know. That relationship has changed and is evolving; the consumer is now "leaning in" and choosing what they want to know about and searching for that information. The consumer is very much a part of deciding the news agenda for themselves -- and then offers feedback and comments on that news and chooses what to share. Publishing that first piece of information about a story is only the start of the evolution of that story. So much happens once (that piece) comes out. The path of a news story has completely changed.
The role of the press is now more complicated. It is not enough now to provide information and be the gatekeeper. Journalism has become more of a service than a product, in that it is moving from needing to help aggregate information to helping verify other sources that people are turning to. Part of that service is putting a stamp of approval on other information, helping consumers know how to report information themselves, being watchdogs and passing along the values of journalism. There are many more elements to the role of journalism and media now through these technological changes.
How are topics chosen for the empirical studies? How do these studies then serve journalists?
Mitchell: First is a weekly analysis of the agenda of the media, both mainstream media and new media, including social media, blogs and Twitter. The project has a team of researchers that produces reports each week. We have another tier of research focusing on our big report on the state of the media, which is published every March. This report is an in-depth look at the emerging trends, from economics to ownership to audience trends. Then, we have our studies that we decide on over the course of the year. We have all of our staff come up with ideas based on research they're doing that would be worth examining closely. Another area is the economics of news. This is an area that has gone through tumultuous change with the old economic structure crumbling, and the search still on as to what can sustain journalism in the future.
How does PEJ serve as an educational resource for journalists? What sort of feedback does the PEJ receive from journalists?
Mitchell: The research is for journalists as well as consumers and those studying the practice. Much of our original research was given directly to journalists to function as a sort of mirror to show how they were doing and we've been well-received by journalists and the press in that regard. We did a study in the early days of the Clinton-Lewinsky saga that looked at the anonymous sources in the first days of the reporting. The study found vast percentages of information had been attributed to anonymous sources. PEJ held a press conference with journalists to share information from the study and later a follow-up study on the issue revealed that the level of anonymous reporting had dropped considerably.
Erika Miller, a student at St. Louis University, is an intern with the Beacon.