Opinion - News Analysis   

Listening to readers — and convincing them

K. Narayanan

Falling circulations and increasing disconnect with readers have newspapers in the United States worrying and looking for ways to improve coverage. Since 2001, the Associated Press Managing Editors/APME has organised round tables of journalists, readers and experts to identify mistakes and suggest solutions. One of the documents to emerge from this series was "Connecting with readers: How and why." The aim is to make newspapers listen to their readers more.

Two points from this appear to me of immediate relevance when I handle mail from readers and responses to them. One is that journalists think readers are "a pain," according to newsroom management coach Edward Miller. The second point is that the public is less likely to support the press if people know little about how journalists work, are suspicious about their goals, and feel rebuffed by news organisations.

The trends that the press in the U.S. sees may not be matters of immediate concern in India when circulation and readership are on an upward curve. But these threats, dormant now, can assume larger forms as the use of the Internet becomes more widespread, and newspapers do not shake off smugness and complacency.

Spurring such thoughts were recent communications from two readers about two reports and the response I received to the points raised by them.

One referred to a Chennai report about a girl drowning in an amusement park. Mr. Raghavachari of Annanagar, Chennai, pointed out that for petty thefts, the location and even photographs were published. The drowning in an amusement park was major news for parents who take children to such spots and they would be extra careful and be prepared during visits. Without the name of the amusement park, the report served no purpose. He wondered whether there was any hidden agenda behind its non-publication.

The second, from Mr. G. Radhakrishnan, a very perceptive reader from Thiruvananthapuram (all his communications raise important points which warrant attention), was about the report on a financial firm. It said: the report did not mention the name of the firm that was raided and against which police had registered a case. Why was The Hindu fighting shy of publishing the name? The report was very useful to the public, as it gave details of the modus operandi of the firm — it was running a money circulation scheme, which is banned under the law — but suppressing the name defeats the very purpose. This, in his view, was a dereliction of journalistic duty.

The Chennai reader's queries were forwarded to those in charge and the response I got was in effect this. There was no police case registered and mention of the amusement park would have led to legal action. Such frivolous and baseless allegations, questioning the integrity of the paper or the reporter, do not need a response.

The Thiruvananthapuram complaint surprised me because I had come across a news item on the raid, which named the firm and mentioned the cases being registered against the persons involved. (It came to my notice because one of those named wanted a clarification published.) The reply I got was that this report had appeared only in the Kochi city edition.

My learning process was continuing, as I mentioned in an earlier column. New aspects of law and journalistic practices were being revealed to me.

I was not aware of the fact a police case had to be registered to report a death and the place where it occurred. In this case, the girl's and her parents' identity was known; it was confirmed that she had drowned in an amusement park. What was the legal bar on reporting these bare facts, as long as no blame was laid on the park? This was the time of year — the summer vacation — when amusement parks attracted droves of children. The accident presented an opportunity to highlight the precautions visitors had to take, and the safety steps put in place by the managements. That would have been a public service and educative, without being a blame game.

One relevant point arises here: there was once a practice of not reporting arrests on cheating complaints. These being cognisable offences, arrests were made on such complaints, but often the charges had no basis or the case was not pursued. The arrests are reported and damage done to the person's reputation. How is this rectified when the charge is dropped? It rarely gets noticed. On similar grounds, reports of income tax raids omit details of the "discoveries" allegedly made and do not disclose the identity of the raided party despite the relevant authorities generally being free with such particulars.

As for answering the reader's "frivolous" charges, I have to revert to what I said earlier — remove suspicions in readers' minds. If you don't, the suspicions will only fester, affecting your credibility. A newspaper has to be right in what it does and convince the readers that it is. I quote from the APME paper: "Make basic newsroom processes courteous and efficient — answering the phone, responding to e-mail, answering questions, addressing complaints."

The answer regarding the Thiruvananthapuram complaint was revealing. News coverage has become so localised and compartmentalised that action against a high-profile company, with links to a large number of investors, was reported only in the city where it took place — when the rest of the media was going to town with it. Was the editorial team in Thiruvananthapuram not aware of the Kochi report and why did it keep the name out? This only reinforces my view that an overall perspective in presentation and production is what present day journalism most needs.

readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

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