Been in this biz 45 years. The combination of unavailable data and limited availability of outlets in databases only allows correlation analyses for subsets of the 38 outlets in this study, and most outlets in these subsets have above average income, education, and age indices (12 outlets for correlations with income indices, 10 with indices above 100; 11 outlets for correlations with education indices, 8 with indices above 100; 9 outlets for correlations with age indices, all with indices above 100). They noted this was a valuable first step which they planned to follow up on. There's a simple but powerful idea behind the Philadelphia Inquirer's recent decision not to use the word "audit" when referring to an effort by the state GOP to investigate the 2020 . The Inquirer newsroom lost 48 writers and other newsroom employees last year, including about 20 veteran writers and others who took a buyout. Unlimited digital access to Inquirer.com & The Inquirer App. include emergencies and public safety among their critical information needs, the authors note the negative impacts of reportage on crime, which can generate fear of crime and minorities in local communities, and they emphasize a communitys interest in fair and accurate representation (p. 11). We then developed open and closed search strings to calculate precision and recall rates. After graduating in 1965, she worked for two years as a public relations supervisor for the Southern Bell Telephone Company in Atlanta. This article was published more than1 year ago. Dear Abby | Son wants to meet someone but doesnt know where to look. Sourcing and editing practices that catered to an imaginary print reader were at least partially to blame. Indeed, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, news-starved residents turned to Facebook alerts for their news needs, which fueled the rapid spread of fear, exaggerations, and falsehoods (Zadrozny, 2021). Ratios of COVID to Crime Items in Databases, published between May 11, 2021, and August 18, 2021. When it comes to fulfilling communities critical information needsa fundamental prerequisite for pluralistic democratic participationour findings show that less wealthy and younger audiences are underserved compared to wealthier residents. In our conclusion, we discuss policy implications. RQ3: How do the socioeconomic statuses and age demographics of different communities correlate with news coverage meeting the critical information needs of these communities? Household Income: $90,594 Average Age: 51 50% Female / 50% Male. Our searches show that as of August 18, when we began this portion of the data collection, the oldest content included in Factiva for these outlets was published on May 11. as part of an investigation into Mr. Cianfrani. October 19, 2021 11:06am. The economic interests generated by different forms of media ownership, such as stock market-traded, private, nonprofit, and public ownership, can produce significant variations in commitments to producing public service-oriented news (Benson et al., 2018; Picard & van Weezel, 2008). Most nonprofits give proportionally low attention to crime, though the Inquirer, which has a hybrid ownership structure as a public-benefit corporation owned by a nonprofit, is near the weighted system average (ratio of 2.8) and its Daily News edition is below the average (2.4). In the absence of quality local news, communities often turn to social media and less-reputable sources for critical local information, enabling misinformation and spectacle to proliferate. ThePhiladelphia Apologies were issued, a change in newsroom leadership was announced, earnest These more affluent, educated, and older demographics are found among outlets that have the largest audience size in terms of web traffic (unique monthly visitors and page views) and the largest contingents of journalists. However, when assessed at the outlet level, we find pronounced inequity in the provision of such coverage along socioeconomic markers. Mr. Roberts soon asked the managing editor, Gene Foreman no relation to Laura to prepare a comprehensive ethics code, something few newspapers had in that era. This is $31,000 (rounded) above Philadelphias median HHI of $47,474, creating an income index of 131, as we divide all income data points by 1,000 to assist readability. As explained by Stryker et al. Excluding their ratios, Philadelphias media system has a weighted average ratio of 4.8 (3.9 excluding Jewish Exponent and Philadelphia Magazine, as well). Ms. Foreman, who at one point supervised a staff of about 20 people at Time-Life, also freelanced for Discovery Publishing, which produced illustrated books to accompany television specials, and for other publishers. She went to The Times in January 1977, arriving in Washington with the new Carter administration. RQ4: How do different forms of media ownership affect the provision of news coverage that meets communities critical information needs? Finally, building an antiracist work culture requires management to hold employees accountable and to incentivize antiracist newsroom practices. For most outlets, these subsamples indicate that our search strings achieve the high levels of precision indicated by search string testing, meaning that relevant items comprise roughly 86% of COVID items and 91% of crime items.3 Since the pandemic has had very wide-ranging impacts on a communitys lifesuch as social distancing at church events, concert cancellations, vaccination clinics, and travel disruptionsour search string terms for COVID items produce similarly wide-ranging results with a high degree of relevance. harder to find in online searches. The Philadelphia Inquirer is your front-row seat to the Greater Philadelphia region through the eyes, We use this time period because several major Philadelphia outlets are archived in Factiva on a rolling, approximately 90-day window. And a number of them worked in the Twin Towers. Now you can read The Philadelphia Inquirer Digital Edition anytime, anywhere. While Friedland et al. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Communication Association. (2012) identify eight categories of such critical information needs: Emergencies and public safety; health; education; transportation; environment and planning; economic development; civic life; political life. They produced a 17,000-word article, published on Oct. 16, 1977, that exposed internal rivalries at the paper and found that editors had looked the other way to protect a favored reporter, Ms. Foreman. For our content analysis generating ratios of COVID-19 coverage to crime coverage, we follow the rigorous method outlined by Stryker et al. Mr. Roberts later became the editor of The Inquirer, where he hired Ms. Foreman as a features reporter in 1973. Fox Settlement Is a Victory for Dominion. Andrea Wenzel is an assistant professor at Temple University, fellow with Columbia Universitys Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and co-founder of the Germantown Info Hub., All Rights Reserved Poynter Institute 2023, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest continually operating daily newspaper in the United States. Instead of hiring the most qualified people for the job they will lower those standards for having a better mix of skin color in the newsroom. So these journalists refuse to call GOP election meddling an audit., Exonerated man, freed after 28 years, reunites with pen pal who wrote him weekly, I wanted to face my deepest fear, so I suited up and flew to the Arctic. Thats what the Inquirer has decided to do in this case. The Inquirer for Alls work also put it face-to-face with another 800-pound gorilla, namely journalism norms and traditions that have historically bolstered whiteness, including the dominant interpretation of objectivity as the view from nowhere. There was resistance from those who saw antiracism as activism that was antithetical to the rules of journalism. The Voice committee decided that if the Inquirer was to be an antiracist newsroom, it needed to outline what values guided their work as an antiracist newsroom, including acknowledging the role journalists play in their communities, and recognizing how journalists are informed by their own life experiences. 10/week for 3 months. Media Kit; Contact Robert L. Mooney/The Philadelphia Inquirer By Katharine Q. Seelye Published July 23, 2021 Updated July 26, 2021 Laura Foreman, a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer in the 1970s, was. The Philadelphia Inquirer - The Philadelphia Inquirer Digital Edition The Philadelphia Inquirer online The Philadelphia Inquirer Now you can read The Philadelphia Inquireranytime, anywhere. email: Search for other works by this author on: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Walnut Str, Philadelphia, PA 19104, How media inform democracy: A comparative approach, Political journalism in comparative perspective, Media supply, audience demand, and the geography of news consumption in the United States, Rebuilding the news: Metropolitan journalism in the digital age, The news medias influence on criminal justice police: How market-driven news promotes punitiveness. What is clear is that in order for the field of journalism in the U.S. to move in the direction of antiracism and to build more equitable relationships between journalists and communities, more organizations must attempt this messy work of reshaping the day-to-day processes of journalism within their newsrooms. That it was published at a moment of national reckoning over social justice prompted by the vicious For Roxborough Review, we exclude one irrelevant item surfaced by the crime story search string. As Taijuan Walker struggles, Phillies lose big to Dodgers, 13-4, Met Gala: Rihanna, Jared Leto as Choupette, Kim K. in pearls, Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot has died at 84. This is a cause for concern and further research regardless of any assessment of how different news topics represent critical information needs. These are not he said/she said stories there is clear, objective truth here., More plain truths from the Inquirer: In the story carrying this explainer box, the paper uses the term forensic investigation which is what the GOP wants to call it in quotation marks. He was careful to say that the language is narrowly tailored for these recent developments: Were not making general statements about the Pennsylvania Republican Party.. By the time the affair was disclosed and The Inquirer learned that the politician had given her more than $20,000 worth of gifts, including jewelry, furniture and a fur coat, and helped her buy a 1964 Morgan sports car she was working in the Washington bureau of The New York Times. Matter, Too.. Though it may lack the pandemics magnitude, crime news is popular with audiences (Delli Carpini et al., 2018). And it led the paper to adopt one of the first ethics policies in what was still a largely freewheeling, unprescribed profession. According to a note to employees from Publisher Lisa Hughes, 26 . But her promising start at The Times exploded eight months later. The Inquirer reported in August 1977 that Ms. Foreman had been questioned by the F.B.I. Most of the Inquirers community-engagement efforts remain in the planning stage. to spot and avoid cultural bias. Studying the media system in the 1980s and 1990s, Kaniss (1991, 1995) found the citys news outlets chasing after affluent residents retreating to suburban areas. Shared circulation and web traffic reported for University City Review and Philly Free Press. She was a very talented political reporter, one of the best I have ever known, Mr. Roberts, who became managing editor of The Times after he left The Inquirer, said by email. News Voices; Media 2070; Save The Internet; Voices for Internet Freedom . Staying in the Washington area, Ms. Foreman re-established herself at Time-Life Books. the newsroom staff, met weekly in working groups in an effort to make the Inquirer an anti-racist news organization, Hughes adds. When these roles are fulfilled, media can inform different publics that their interests are at stake in political processes and help mobilize them to assert and defend those interests (Baker, 2002). In Table2, we aggregate circulation, web traffic, and staffing figures by high-/low-income indices, as well as by digital-only sites. Eric Mitchell Obituary (2021) - Media, PA - The Philadelphia Inquirer Mitchell Eric Ehrman Of Chester County, PA, age 66, passed away peacefully on October 3, 2021. Policy interventions such as public funding and subsidies can enhance the capacity for Philadelphia news organizations to meet the critical information needs of marginalized communities. Since email exchanges with the Inquirer indicate all its journalists are included under the same Inquirer brand regardless of which outlet their content appears, we count Inquirer and Daily News (both under the same ownership) editorial staff together as Inquirer staffers. False claims about election fraud remain a problem, spreading in various places online, voting and media experts said. Media ownership and public service news: How strong are institutional logics? In advance of a visit by President Jimmy Carter to Yazoo City, Miss., she wrote that the city straddles a subtle cultural fault line between the older, harder folkways of the hardscrabble hills and the lustier civilization that flourished closer to the Mississippi. Her literary debt to Edith Wharton, one of her favorite authors, was evident in a light feature article she wrote from a soggy social event in Virginia: Rain pooled in the brim of Tom Ryders black derby, pouring in a miniature waterfall on to his nose, where it dispersed in steady driblets on to his stopwatch.. Six months ago, our team from Temple Universitys Klein College of Media and Communication released a diversity and inclusion audit of the Inquirer which shared a series of recommendations around sourcing, editing, community engagement and workplace culture. But the Misinformation War Continues. Laura Foreman, Reporter Whose Romance Became a Scandal, Dies at 76, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/business/media/laura-foreman-dead.html. Inequities in news provision in Philadelphias media system have been noted by prior researchers. To assess the level of critical information needs coverage by outlet, this content analysis operationalizes Friedland et al.s concept of critical information needs by privileging coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic as potentially fulfilling more critical information needs than coverage of individual-level, breaking-news crime and related legal processes. This study builds a multi-dimensional framework for assessing local media systems to identify potential gaps in news provision, especially among socioeconomically marginalized communities. The International Journal of Press/Politics, Foundation-funded journalism: Reasons to be wary of charitable support, Normative theories of the media: Journalism in democratic societies, The journalism of outrageousness: Tabloid television news vs. investigative news, Journalism and Mass Communication Monographs, The communication crisis in America, and how to fix it, Segments of the public most critical of newspapers credibility: A psychographic analysis, The structure of foreign news: The presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus crises in four Norwegian newspapers, What is news? The Times confirmed her death through public records and with friends. The Philadelphia Inquirer Is Working to Transform Its Newsroom. Subscribe to your choice of industry specific newsletters, save $100 on conferences, search member directories, comment on stories and more. We received five responses (13% response rate), four of which provided information that either validated our existing data, corrected that information, or added new information to our analysis. Additionally, the small staffing levels at digital-only outlets with lower income and education indices represent an additional inequality in Philadelphias media system (Table2). Its too soon to glean lessons from their implementation, but, as strategies on the horizon, they offer both points of promise and areas to be monitored. This byline is mine, but I want my name removed. Examples of crime coverage in our analysis typically have a spectacular dimension and are less clearly critical for the daily functioning of a community, as in the case of stories with headlines such as West Philadelphia double shooting under investigation (Philadelphia Patch); Woman accused of using GoFundMe money raised for husbands cremation, funeral to pay living expenses (WTXF/Fox29); Cobbs Creek man cleared of 1984 murder by evidence that came from police file (Philadelphia Daily News). JESSICA GRIFFIN / Philadelphia Inquirer HARRISBURG Two Philadelphia addiction treatment providers face criminal charges for allegedly bribing recovery homes for referrals and forcing patients into substandard care, prompting renewed calls from state lawmakers to strengthen oversight. If a journalist calls something a lie, thats a deliberate choice. The Inquirer reported progress on meeting goals they set for hiring: Since the start of the year, 61% of all new newsroom positions were filled by individuals from BIPOC communities and 44% identified as women. We interpret the strength of correlations with caution due to small samples and p-values that do not achieve statistical significance at p < .05. Established a formal process that will allow certain types of stories to be rendered Nonetheless, the article noted, editors had examined her past work and had found it to be fair and accurate. Other reporters and photographers were sent to the field in Shanksville, PA where United Flight 93 went down. She was the first woman to be named political writer at the paper. Gaps in news provision can manifest as absent or inadequate news about issues vital to a communitys interests, which Friedland et al. The way mainstream journalists, under pressure to appear patriotic in the aftermath of the attacks, too often adopted the language of politicians and failed to muster enough skepticism in the reporting that led up to the American invasion of Iraq. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in federal prison and was out on parole after 27 months. These include steps that are being tried by newsrooms around the U.S.: establishing a system to track the diversity of sources, launching a prepublication Content Consult Slack channel (which drew inspiration from a similar effort at The Seattle Times), and auditing their stylebook to encourage antiracism. We also thank our reviewers for their insightful comments and criticisms, which were invaluable in revisions to this article. The system on average also produces news for older audiences, with an age index of 109. By: Andrea Wenzel August 27, 2021 It's been more than a year since The Philadelphia Inquirer launched its "Inquirer for All" project with the ambitious aim of transforming a newsroom that. Anyone can read what you share. Search strings were developed through a rigorous testing process (for details of methodology, see appendix), but these subsamples enable us to conduct additional assessments of the relevance of items returned by our search results. But adoption was far from universal, and the committee that designed the guide had plans to work with different teams to seek broader implementation. The disclosure of her relationship with a source while at The Philadelphia Inquirer ended her journalism career and prompted the paper to develop an ethics code. These elected officials, WITF reminded its audience, either knowingly spread disinformation or flat-out lied in an effort to keep Trump in office. Income and education correlations do not achieve statistical significance at p < .05, which should be taken into account when extrapolating findings beyond included outlets. In addition to stoking normative concerns, a systemic lack of quality information can undermine a communitys ability to address concrete, everyday issues vital to its ability to thrive. Philadelphia Tribune income index based on average income of $50K+ in 2019 media kit. many big-city dailies, theInquirerhas overemphasized crime and been racially insensitive in its coverage, Hughes said. Education indices above 100 indicate a higher than average number of people with bachelors degrees or higher (31% citywide average; adding or subtracting 1 for each percentage point over or under the average). The Inquirer often covers crime against the backdrop of concerns over high homicide rates in Philadelphia. Desks including Investigations and Print still did not have any editors of color. Staff expressed concerns about retention of BIPOC staff (just under half of those who left in the six months following the audit identified as BIPOC journalists). The Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News e-Editions, including archives. The Philadelphia Inquirer is a public-benefit corporation that publishes a news website (Inquirer.com) and two daily newspapers (The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News) that serve the Philadelphia metropolitan area of the United States. Her father, Wilmer L. Foreman, who was known as Bill, was a journalist. However, even if such a counterweight exists, it raises questions about divides related to the different ways that television, print, and digital media cover the news, and future research should assess the degree to which local TV stations provide in-depth public affairs coverage and analysis compared to an outlet such as the Inquirer with an editorial staff of more than 200 people. The analysis was prompted by a headline published last June 2: Buildings and the people who work for it, Hughes writes of the offending June 2 headline. Public media organization WHYY has a television audience education index (102) close to the Philadelphia average, based on a media kit citing 20132014 figures (WHYY, n.d.). Its been more than a year since The Philadelphia Inquirer launched its Inquirer for All project with the ambitious aim of transforming a newsroom that published the infamous Buildings Matter, Too headline into an inclusive and antiracist newsroom. Primarily based on (a) data indicating prominence in terms of circulation, viewership, or web traffic, or (b) frequent mention in published articles as important outlets for news in Philadelphia, our final selection includes 38 outlets in the greater Philadelphia area,2 representing a mix of ownership types serving mass audiences and niche audiences. 2006). If the Inquirer is to avoid these pitfalls, it must grapple with some of journalisms existential questions along the way namely who is its journalism for, how to pay for it, and what values guide it. First, we determine the geographic coverage area of an outlet, as identified by the outlet in their published materials or emails to us, or as determined by print subscription availability. Roughly 80 team members, more than one-third of But a lot can be learned from the substantial volume of work they have already done, as well as the challenges they have encountered. 2021. Our final, closed search string for COVID-19 stories achieved 86% precision and 80% recall. Harcup and ONeill (2017) also have noted that the rise of social media has made shareability a news value, as in news likely to provoke a response on Facebook or Twitter. He divorced his estranged wife in 1979 and on July 14, 1980, Mr. Cianfrani, 57, and Ms. Foreman, 37, were married in Falls Church, Va., where she lived. In terms of unambiguity, the level of information required to clearly understand COVID-19 may be higher, especially as official advice for staying well and reducing viral transmission develops and changes. While covering the South, she crossed paths with Eugene L. Roberts Jr., then the chief Southern and civil rights correspondent for The Times. Indeed, a large corpus of research has noted the sensational aspects of crime coverage (Adams, 1978; Ehrlich, 1996; Knight, 1989; Wang, 2012), primarily intending to capture audience attention rather than to assess the impact on a given community. To adjust for less than perfect precision and recall, we follow Stryker et al.s method of using recall and precision rates to produce a coefficient to apply to the number of COVID-19 (multiplied by coefficient of 1.07) and crime stories (multiplied by coefficient of 1.05) surfaced by our searches to produce an estimated total number of stories in each category of coverage for each outlet during our search period. During the last few years of her life, Ms. Foreman developed a romantic relationship with a retired lawyer in Nashville, according to a mutual friend who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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