THE PUBLIC EDITOR READERS WANT MORE NEWS OF OUTSIDE WORLD
By Michael Arrietta-walden
of The Oregonian staff
Source: THE OREGONIAN
Sunday,May 15, 2005
Edition: SUNRISE, Section: COMMENTARY FORUM, Page F01
THE PUBLIC EDITOR READERS WANT MORE NEWS OF OUTSIDE WORLD
Barry E. Wright of Portland used mock headlines to make his point
about national and international news in The Oregonian:
"Headline: 'Rose Festival Parade'
Small story: 'World War III Begins' "
Wright's example might be extreme, but his passion for news
outside of the Portland area isn't.
More than 630 readers responded to an informal survey asking
their views of national and international news in The Oregonian.
Overwhelmingly, they want to see more of the world in their
newspaper.
The survey is far from scientific. Yet the responses are
noteworthy because they run counter to much of the thinking and
trends at the newspaper. Local news is the newspaper's franchise.
Space devoted to nonlocal news, other than the Iraq war, has declined
in recent years.
But readers argued passionately for more, even at the expense of
local news.
"I know you've only got so much space," Wright says. Yet he
pleads, like so many others, "More national and international news
please!!"
Of those who responded to the survey, more than two-thirds said
the newspaper carries too little national and international news, and
only a handful said there was too much. More than three-quarters said
they would rather have more and better national and international
news as compared with less than one-quarter asking for more local
news.
"The Oregonian is the state's primary newspaper, yet it seems
provincial," writes reader Susan de la Vergne of Lake Oswego. "The
world is shrinking."
Peter Bhatia, the newspaper's executive editor, says he also
would like to devote more space to national and international news.
"But our priority is and will be local news. We have to make choices
about how we use the space in the paper, and local news is far and
away what readers tell us they want and what our formal research
shows."
Bhatia notes that the paper's definition of "local" includes any
news that people here care about, thus the paper's sending of three
reporter-photographer teams to Iraq in the past 10 months to cover
Oregon National Guardsmen. And he cited the work of reporter Richard
Read, who often travels to Asia.
Almost two-thirds of those responding to the informal survey said
they don't rely on The Oregonian as their primary source for national
and international news, but many said they wish they could do so.
Instead, the majority rely on television and radio for headlines.
Less than one-fifth said they rely on the Internet as their
primary source of news, although those who do wrote disparagingly
about the newspaper. "I frequently skip over section A because the
national and international stories are dated," writes Jim Gladson. "I
read it the previous evening on the Web."
Yet a huge majority didn't want the newspaper to make significant
adjustments to cater to the Internet. They would rather the newspaper
devote space to an overview of major news rather than guiding readers
to key Web sites. "After all day at a computer at work, it's the last
place I want to go in the evening. Yuk!" writes Ann Plummer of
Portland.
Readers also don't necessarily look for an Oregon connection to
news from far away. More than half said it is rarely or never
important that world and national stories have an Oregon tie.
Instead, many cited their own personal ties: They moved to Oregon
from elsewhere. They traveled in Taiwan. They lived in Sweden. Their
work routinely took them around the world.
Thomas Curtin and many other readers offered another reason for
nurturing a broader world view. Now more than ever, Americans need to
understand the world. And it's the role of journalists to give them
understanding.
"I remember feeling encouraged after 9/11 when some of the major
news outlets commented that it might be time to devote more energy to
reporting more world news. That maybe we as a nation had become too
insulated from the rest of the world . . ." Curtin writes.
"Unfortunately, that paradigm shift did not occur."
Michael Arrieta-Walden: 503-221-8221;
publiceditor@news.oregonian.com 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland OR
97201.