The Center for American Progress rolled out a new report today that asks an important question: when we hear about economic issues on the news, why don't we ever hear the opinions of regular working people?
The answer, they found, is simple: the media simply aren't asking them as frequently as they are asking representatives from big business:
- Overall, representatives of business were quoted or cited nearly two-and-a-half times as frequently as were workers or their union representatives.
- In coverage of both the minimum wage and trade, the views of businesses were sourced more than one-and-a-half times as frequently as those of workers.
- In coverage about employment, businesses were quoted or cited over six times as frequently as were workers.
- On only one issue that we examined, credit card debt, was coverage more balanced, presenting the perspectives of ordinary citizens in the same proportion as those of business...
In economic coverage of the news by the mainstream press there is a decided preference for elite sources, especially business representatives.
The result of this skewed sourcing? A kind of economic bias, with the opinions of the well-off being overrepresented -- and the opinions of the rest of us staying "below the radar", as it were. (Does your paper have a Business section? Of course. Does it have a section dedicated to workers' issues? Probably not.)
It's food for thought, especially in an age when newspapers are panicking as their circulations enter free-fall. Maybe if they spoke more directly to the issues the average person faces, the average person would be more likely to subscribe to the paper...
Comments (3)
Comments posted to CtW Connect are the sole property of the individual posting them, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Change to Win, its affiliated unions, or its leadership.
This is something that we have discussed at Union Review quite a lot over the last few years online. It is just amazing, at least to me, that when you see a worker getting interviewed, the worker is asked "So, how does this make you feel?" The journalist will then go to the a company representative on the same issue and ask, "So what do you THINK about this situation?"
I have long said that mainstream journalists haven't the slightest idea that working people actually think.
Websites, like this one, UnionReview.com and many others in the Blogroll allows space for a worker to tell us what he or she thinks ... and feels.
Posted by Richard Negri on June 20, 2008 at 2:58 PM
Posted on June 20, 2008 at 2:58 PM
Unless our story is particularly compelling and extremely topical, a beautiful young actress's free fall through life will knock workers off the 6 o'clock news lead in every time. What is it they say---"If it bleeds, it leads"? Our working lives are not the stuff that dreams are made of; there is nothing glamorous or gory enough to make people notice.
Besides, American workers are always busily reacting to conditions---lay-offs, strikes, outsourcing, cutbacks and other economic tragedies.That's why they ask how we feel about these things; at the moment they are newsworthy we haven't had a chance to consider the consequences.We're used to being back on our heels, taking the blows.
We don't have a lot of opportunities to be pro-active on the job these days as organizing campaigns take enormous amounts of time and resources. When we workers express the need to improve our lot, the corporate jets fill with union avoidance lawyers who are handsomely paid to find a way to quell our collective desire.Oh, sure, there are laws to protect our rights---but meanwhile, after the main organizer is illegally fired and the remaining employees are intimidated into dropping the effort, where are the remedies?Where are our protections?
When we pass the Employee Free Choice Act, when we elect a President who has a vision for America that includes workers and their families and is ready to rescue the middle class from extinction, our point of view might get a little more respect.
Posted by Cathi Schafer on June 24, 2008 at 9:58 PM
Posted on June 24, 2008 at 9:58 PM
Cathi,
You are so dead-on in your comment. Thank you for taking the time to write this out and share this, not only for me, but the other readers making it to this page.
-Richard
Posted by Richard Negri on June 25, 2008 at 6:40 AM
Posted on June 25, 2008 at 6:40 AM