Journalism Job Cuts Causing Lower Quality Reporting?

A recent reaction to an article on the Commercial Appeal website has sparked some discussion both online and among graduate students within the University of Memphis Department of Journalism. A young man, who my little sister is friends with, was tragically killed early Monday morning while skateboarding in midtown Memphis. According to the story, he was hit by an Allied Waste Management truck while riding his skateboard.

The story gave no name of the victim or the friend who was skating with him. Nor was there much information regarding what had actually happened. The story was 82 words long. Not much of a story, at least, according to one person who commented on the article.

Of the 60 comments posted by readers on the CA website, the following comment caught my attention:

August 23, 2010, 9:50 a.m. [user name deleted by me] writes:

“This is terrible, both the death and the reporting…CA any more information, why was the kid/adult out at 2am, male/female…I know you say the police did not identify but come on you have sources.”

This comment caught my eye for one reason in particular. The reader is apparently upset at the Commercial Appeal for the lack of information regarding the accident.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, my little sister is friends with this young man and his brother. She called me last night to tell me about the accident. What she did not know prior to calling is that I had tweeted this story earlier that morning. However, I posted the article on WMC TV Action New 5’swebsite. This article, although not revealing the victim’s name, at least had a little bit more information regarding witness accounts and a statement from Allied Waste Management’s spokesperson. Driving to work this morning, I began thinking about the CA’s article, the lack of information, and the comparison to the Action News 5 story.

image from Action News 5 website

In recent months, I have been working on a research project on journalism and social media. One thing that is mentioned often by journalists and news organizations is that newspaper organizations are being forced to cut jobs, thereby forcing journalists to produce an increased amount of stories with a limited number of writers and copy editors. This begs the question…are journalists sacrificing quality news articles to meet excessive demands from management? If so, why is it that Action News 5’s article had more information? Is it a lack of effort or a difference between print and broadcasting.

Keep in mind, I am a public relations girl…not a journalist per say. However, it seems that example of news coverage is something that must be going on in a number of cities around the world. As of this afternoon, there has been no follow-up report on the incident. However, there is chatter in the social media networks regarding the incident. I found myself gathering more information from “citizen journalists” than from professional journalists.

Is this trend affecting journalism more than one might have previously imagined?