The dumb loop
POLITICAL journalism does not seem what it used to be.
At the recent Word for Word Non-fiction festival in Geelong it was interesting to hear the thoughts of a seasoned political journalist Laura Tingle about the impact of staff cuts on what news was reported and on the way it was reported.
Ms Tingle commented that she had experienced a cutback in her Canberra staff contingent from 12 to three journalists, but then up to five in what amounted to a small win. Apparently she and her colleagues are expected to prepare their columns from around 8am. With such time pressures, Ms Tingle suggested there was little time for journalists to think about the questions they would ask, and little time for their respondents to think of how they would answer.
Often the journalists’ day starts with a briefing where they consider the seeming most important news issue of the day, such as energy policy. Ms Tingle said that the main thing journalists then felt most equipped to comment on was how that main issue might play out in the fortunes of government as opposed to opposition parties.
In the limited time available, there was far less scope for individual journalists to develop a more specialised understanding, presumably in such areas as health or education policy.
That seems particularly sad to me. What a waste! Here are some of the potentially best and brightest minds seeking information on our behalf being restricted to something far below their potential. They are somewhat hamstrung in their efforts to provide us with a more extensive and nuanced understanding of how we might best respond to the most important and complex issues that affect our everyday lives.
This state of affairs would also only reinforce the blatantly adversarial nature of contemporary politics in Australia. People often comment that it seems strange to see some of our political leaders after they have lost office seeming so erudite and thoughtful when commenting on current issues. Many people openly wonder why they could not be more like that when in power.
Perhaps this is part of the answer: even the most capable politicians would be all too aware of the need to carefully manage their sound bites on ever briefer news segments to convey their views, or more likely their agreed position, on an issue. They will understand that the audience is being groomed to consider what they say through the prism of whether it will most advance the cause of the government or the opposition. If they attempt to explain a complex issue in anything other than a simplistic way, it could easily get confusing, or misinterpreted.
So it seems politics and journalism have been dumbed down together.
I wonder how much this might have contributed to the recent pattern of Australian prime ministers being toppled by those within their own party. No doubt internal party tensions reported by the media usually represent genuine conflict, including current tensions in the federal Liberal Party. However, how much of that conflict is reinforced by journalists focusing so heavily on the perceived weaknesses of the leader and speculating who else might take over?
Whatever we most focus on will tend to become reinforced. That is why the field of positive psychology urges therapists to focus heavily on clients’ strengths rather than to overfocus on their pathology, which could then unwittingly be exacerbated.
I think we could really do with a more “positive journalism”. Surely we could have a much higher proportion of articles that are edifying. No doubt it’s so much easier to look for signs of conflict between ambitious politicians than it is to explore their attempts to come up with creative and pragmatic alternatives for health, education or climate policy. It might take more time, but we’d likely get much better policy and less instability.
The most dumbed down reporting includes results of opinion polls on preferred leader or favoured policy. How are we punters meant to make an informed decision to respond to such a poll? Presumably from the quality of information we have received from journalists. Oh — we seem to be back in some kind of unfortunate loop. Chris Mackey is principal psychologist at Chris Mackey and Associates, Geelong, and a Fellow of The Australian Psychological
Society.