Probing whether the media is observer or creator
A question those of us involved in communication often debate is whether the media reports news, or creates it. It’s one of those circular discussions, as we all have countless examples we can table that support our point of view.
I was intrigued therefore when a report from Media Monitors* crossed my desk which sought to answer the question “what role the media played in creating or reinforcing” views around the global financial crisis.
While the report drew no clear cut conclusion, what it did demonstrate was that media in different countries throughout the Asia/Pacific media put a different emphasis on the crisis during the critical months of April to August 2009.
For example:
• In New Zealand, 25% of our coverage focused on ‘excessive greed’ in proportioning blame for the crisis, compared to 5 percent for the Asia/Pacific region.
• The Region saw the blame lying squarely at the feet of ‘weak regulations’ (close to 30 percent) whereas we rated it in second place, with 18%.
• When focusing on the main indicator showing that the economic downturn was continuing, our measure was GDP (26%). The Region focused on exports (30%).
• When looking for signs of recovery, our coverage focused on retail sales (18%), the Region on economic growth (22%).
• Our media was the only one to that saw rebalancing the global economy as the main future challenge, whereas across the Region the main future challenge was seen as unemployment.
My conclusion was that the report clearly shows that nationally the media collectively forms a view, and that its coverage then focuses on aspects that it believes are the most relevant.
It would have been interesting if a parallel piece of research had run at the same time to measure whether the public bought into the media’s views, or held different opinions.
Armed with that we would have been able to get closer to answering the question as to whether the media reports, or creates news.
*The Global Financial Crisis Report, Media Monitors, v5, January 2010
Tags: Asia-Pacific, Communication, Global economy, media, Media Monitors, New Zealand, news, Newsroom