http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/2009/04/02/thoughts-on-nprs-navel-gazing-about-reporting-on-its-audience-growth/ Useful Resources for Some, Useless Rants for Others Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:18:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/2009/04/02/thoughts-on-nprs-navel-gazing-about-reporting-on-its-audience-growth/comment-page-1/#comment-2818 John Zhu Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:31:45 +0000 http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/?p=763#comment-2818 Hi Dwight. Thanks for the comment. You hit on a lot of good reasons why the audience growth was news and should be reported. It's been my experience that journalists are a lot more at ease with reporting on themselves or their organizations if it involves bad news but much more reluctant to report the good. It comes from the desire to show that they're impartial, even toward themselves. But I think that often reaches levels of over-compensating, as this case illustrates. Hi Dwight. Thanks for the comment. You hit on a lot of good reasons why the audience growth was news and should be reported. It's been my experience that journalists are a lot more at ease with reporting on themselves or their organizations if it involves bad news but much more reluctant to report the good. It comes from the desire to show that they're impartial, even toward themselves. But I think that often reaches levels of over-compensating, as this case illustrates.

]]> http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/2009/04/02/thoughts-on-nprs-navel-gazing-about-reporting-on-its-audience-growth/comment-page-1/#comment-2810 Dwight Bobson Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:13:39 +0000 http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/?p=763#comment-2810 NPR's audience is news, especially when its growth has been so dramatic at the same time that commercial radio audience is not growing. It's news when their is great audience growth given the content of NPR stories, including their depth, context, perspective and the fact that they are labeled by partisans as representative of only one side of the great cultural division that supposedly exists in this country. It is news because it employs 18 foreign bureaus for its news operations at a time when commercial media have eliminated theirs altogether. It is news because it indicates that many more Americans find the need for analytical news that speaks to intelligent discussion of serious issues as commercial media becomes even more entertainment-dominant, and in its crudest form, derisive, hateful and divisive under the guise of news and information. And it is news when, given the above, NPR is financially threatened by the same lack of resources for its operations that its listenersdonors are experiencing in their own lives during these difficult financial times. Its audience needs to know that, and hopefully respond accordingly. NPR's audience is news, especially when its growth has been so dramatic at the same time that commercial radio audience is not growing. It's news when their is great audience growth given the content of NPR stories, including their depth, context, perspective and the fact that they are labeled by partisans as representative of only one side of the great cultural division that supposedly exists in this country. It is news because it employs 18 foreign bureaus for its news operations at a time when commercial media have eliminated theirs altogether. It is news because it indicates that many more Americans find the need for analytical news that speaks to intelligent discussion of serious issues as commercial media becomes even more entertainment-dominant, and in its crudest form, derisive, hateful and divisive under the guise of news and information. And it is news when, given the above, NPR is financially threatened by the same lack of resources for its operations that its listenersdonors are experiencing in their own lives during these difficult financial times. Its audience needs to know that, and hopefully respond accordingly.

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