Time Out
A week ago, in Time Europe, there was an article about the problems in the Italian press. The (assumedly) American reporter for Time wrote about low readership (10 °/o) versus much higher newspaper readerships in the US and Japan. And indeed that is true, I have been surprised at how few people buy a newspaper here.
A few other things have surprised me about the Italian press, which I would like to mention. first of all, there is a far smaller percentage of the newspaper devoted to advertising, and I have yet to find a newspaper that includes cartoons other than editorial cartoons. Most of the articles are written by reporters who work for the newspapers, and few are attributed to UPI, AP, or the New York Times News Service.
When I go to a Newspaper shop, I have my choice of about 10 national newspapers. This would be like going to an average newsstand in New York City, let us say, and having a choice between the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the New Orleans Times Picayune, The San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the Sacramento Bee, the Christian Science Monitor, and a few others. And this may be possible in a few places in New York City. Now take it down to a city the size of, let us say, Batavia, NY. I am not sure if you could find one newsstand with such a choice.
Also, when I go to a newspaper shop and I want to know what the right has to say about a certain issue, I can buy one of a few quality right wing journals. The same if I want to know what the left has to say. They all cover the same news, but they all have an editorial slant on things. If I want to read a well thought out essay on current events, I can go to any of the papers.
If I want to know that the US has said that they were not at fault in the killing of Italian secret service agent Lipari in Iraq a few years ago, I can go to virtually any Italian or US newspaper (that even reported the story in the US) and find that out. If I want to find out that US soldiers have been indicted for murder in Italy for the same incident, I can only go to any of the Italian papers.
Yes, the Italian press has readership problems. However, I do not think that dumbing down the news, presenting only one side throughout the US, managing the news, printing pages of cartoons and advertisements, is necessarily the way to improve the press.
The Italian population gets a lot of basic news from television (and radio), and seems to use the newspapers to engage in wide ranging discussions of national and international issues, and thereby the press seems to have found a niche within the country.
This probably should have been sent to Time for publication, however because I live in a 'remote' area, it would not have been considered timely by time. so I stuck you with this rant.
A few other things have surprised me about the Italian press, which I would like to mention. first of all, there is a far smaller percentage of the newspaper devoted to advertising, and I have yet to find a newspaper that includes cartoons other than editorial cartoons. Most of the articles are written by reporters who work for the newspapers, and few are attributed to UPI, AP, or the New York Times News Service.
When I go to a Newspaper shop, I have my choice of about 10 national newspapers. This would be like going to an average newsstand in New York City, let us say, and having a choice between the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the New Orleans Times Picayune, The San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the Sacramento Bee, the Christian Science Monitor, and a few others. And this may be possible in a few places in New York City. Now take it down to a city the size of, let us say, Batavia, NY. I am not sure if you could find one newsstand with such a choice.
Also, when I go to a newspaper shop and I want to know what the right has to say about a certain issue, I can buy one of a few quality right wing journals. The same if I want to know what the left has to say. They all cover the same news, but they all have an editorial slant on things. If I want to read a well thought out essay on current events, I can go to any of the papers.
If I want to know that the US has said that they were not at fault in the killing of Italian secret service agent Lipari in Iraq a few years ago, I can go to virtually any Italian or US newspaper (that even reported the story in the US) and find that out. If I want to find out that US soldiers have been indicted for murder in Italy for the same incident, I can only go to any of the Italian papers.
Yes, the Italian press has readership problems. However, I do not think that dumbing down the news, presenting only one side throughout the US, managing the news, printing pages of cartoons and advertisements, is necessarily the way to improve the press.
The Italian population gets a lot of basic news from television (and radio), and seems to use the newspapers to engage in wide ranging discussions of national and international issues, and thereby the press seems to have found a niche within the country.
This probably should have been sent to Time for publication, however because I live in a 'remote' area, it would not have been considered timely by time. so I stuck you with this rant.
posted by Steve at 7:57 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home