Framing Research Movie #3

Will newspapers still exist as print media in five years?
We asked random Danes in the streets of Copenhagen this question – and they seem to realise that the printed media are in crisis, but that the key to survival lies in specialised content, targeted towards selective readers.

Science Journalists: An endangered species?
The March edition of Nature featured what might be alarming news for science journalists all over the world. In an article entitled Supplanting the old media, a survey of 493 science journalists showed that jobs are being lost and the workloads of those who remain are on the rise.

At the same time, researcher-run blogs and websites are growing apace in both number and readership. The trend, which for the time being is more apparent in the US, is seen to be a direct result of the traditional newspapers' crisis. The results of the survey are available as an Excel-file from Nature's website .

The death of critical journalism
The effects of the newspapers' crisis are apparent in traditional, critical journalism. In a recent book (Menneskelig kommunikation – fra telegrafisternes til journalisternes tidsalder, University Press of Southern Denmark, 2009), associate professor Peter Bro from the University of Southern Denmark states that the critical journalists' traditional role as »society's watchdog« is being undermined.

In an article, published in »Ny Viden« , University of Southern Denmark's newsletter this month, he notices that Communications departments and PR-people in both private companies and research institutions are becoming more efficient and professional, and the organisations are able to create their own media platforms.

In the general public, these commercial media platforms are, along with blogs, increasingly perceived as »true« journalism, and attract more readers than traditional media. As advertiser money follow the readers the traditional newspapers' crisis deepens.

Victims of framing?
As critical journalism disappears, there will be no one left to unveil the connections. Peter Bro exemplifies:If a pharmaceutical company wishes to launch a new product, the company's press department will provide journalists with all relevant sources e.g. a patient, an expert on the disease in general, and a politician expressing joy, that a cure is on its way. The general public will never know that the three sources and the story were planted by the company.

Framing research
At the conference on June 11th, we will address the influence of new media, as well as the crisis of science journalism and framing itself.

More movies @ YouTube …
Don't miss Framing Research Movie #2 , in which we investigate whether "Intelligent Design"-propaganda has gained foothold in Denmark (it hasn't) and Framing Research Movie #1 , in which we ask people which research story they've seen in the media recently (they don't remember).