Journalism – Pike & Hurricane

Vantage Point Europe: A Revolution of Priorities

Merle Emrich — Thu, 16 May 2019 11:14:25 +0000

On Monday, 15th April 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris burned. While the incident is undoubtedly deplorable, calling it a ‘tragedy for the whole world’ is not only incredibly West-centric but reactions like these shine a spotlight on the hypocrisy of our society.

In a time span of not even four days, large corporations and several wealthy individuals donated a total of €850 million without hesitation. However, what we need is not a symbolic gesture of the 1% or shedding tears for a damaged church certain to be rebuilt, as it should be, no matter how magnificent. What we need is a revolution of priorities, a revolution of compassion and solidarity, which sparks awareness and leads to action.

Let’s start at home

While a handful of people possesses the wealth to be able to liberally pledge up to €200 million each, almost 9 million people in France have less than €1026 each month and thus 14% of the population live in poverty, mostly single parent families, unemployed and young people but also farmers and artisans. Many in France have at least heard of people who have to sleep in their cars because they cannot afford rent despite a job. And often the Gilets jaunes, who are taking to the street every week since November 17, 2018, name being out of money by the middle of the month due to the wage-living cost difference as one of the reasons why change is necessary. While, according to an EU statistic cited by Le Figaro, France has one of the lowest poverty (risk) rates in the EU (with the poverty line at 60% of the median income), beating Sweden by 0.9 percent points in 2015, Germany by 3.1 and Spain by 8.5, the statistics do not necessarily represent lived every day experiences.

“The real violence is: 9 million poor, 80 billion tax evasion, Google isn’t paying taxes, the loss of our schools and hospitals, the BAC [brigade anti-criminalité]. Not the three broken shop windows.”

In France’s neighbouring country to the north, the UK, policies have been implemented to reduce poverty of the elderly. And while this is undoubtedly an important step, another age group has been neglected: children. Due to stagnating incomes and benefit cuts relative child poverty might rise to 37% in 2023/24 exceeding the last high of the early 1990s. The Resolution Foundation states that a wage growth of only 1% could improve the situation, but it is up to the government to take such measures, or if they fail to do so it is up to the people to demand change.

Even further north, in Sweden, overall living standards have risen. However, this mostly applies to the wealthiest 10% while relative poverty is increasing fast. Sweden once had a considerably higher standard of social justice than other industrialised countries but in the last decade the income gap in Sweden was the fastest growing one of 34 OECD countries. It does not mean that the situation is now worse in Sweden than in other industrialised countries but it indicates that Sweden is moving from a poster child of social justice closer towards the rest of the industrialised world. And this trend is further supported by recent tax cuts for the wealthy which have left experts warning that, with many Swedes being increasingly unhappy with public services such as policing and schools, tax cuts might fuel xenophobia and populism.

Democracy and Journalism

Populism is not the only current threat to democracy. In April, Reporters Without Borders published the 2019 World Press Freedom Index. In their report, the organisation states that the situation for journalists has generally worsened, also in Europe – despite it still being the safest continent – due to journalists increasingly having to work in a ‘climate of fear’ and the rising number of attacks on journalists. It is not only politicians who seek to discredit the media, in France several journalists report to have been specifically targeted by police officers during the Gilets jaunes protests.

During Act 23 of the Gilets jaunes in Paris on April 20, journalist Gaspard Glanz was arrested and taken into custody for 48 hours. After having been hit by splinters of a tear gas grenade also containing 25g explosives which according to Glanz landed in the proximity of a group solely composed of journalists, he demanded to speak to the commissioner in order to receive an explanation for the incident. One of the police officers thus pushed the journalist back to which he reacted with a rude gesture. It followed the arrest and a, now revoked, ban on being in Paris on the first of May as well as on every Saturday until the trial in October. In an interview with Le Média, Glanz commented that it was not normal that journalists represented 10% of the injured (according to journalist David Dufresne’s count on his twitter account 10.2% by March 30, having increased to 12.9% by May 14) while making up only 1 or 2% of all people present and, in most cases, not having their protective gear confiscated by the police.

But the issue is not contained to France alone. It is a general European, and global, trend that shows itself through incidents such as the killing of Jamal Khashoggi as well as those of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta and Ján Kuciak and his fiancée in Slovakia, and the excessive and arbitrary imprisonment of journalists in countries such as Turkey. It is also visible in more low-key developments such as the increased verbal abuse and discrediting of the media. It is a trend that, for instance, saw the UK fall on place 40 out of 180, behind Uruguay, Chile and Samoa in Reporter Without Borders’ ranking.

Across the Sea

Increasing social inequalities and worsening conditions for journalist stand in a contrast to the European Union’s (EU) values such as equality, human dignity, freedom and democracy. But even more so does its policy concerning refugees. Article 2(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights states: “Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally […]” following article 1 that declares the EU’s commitment to respect human rights which according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights also includes the “right to life, liberty and security of person” (article 3) “without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” (article 2).

And yet, the EU has abandoned its efforts to save drowning refugees in the Mediterranean and has even gone so far as to criminalise NGOs and civil society groups rescuing refugees and to deny their vessels access to European ports. Iverna McGowan (Amnesty International) commented this development by saying that “EU leaders have chosen to pander to xenophobic governments who are hellbent on keeping Europe closed, and to push even more responsibility onto countries outside the EU.” Meanwhile, French interior minister Castaner is siding with Italian right-wing Deputy PM Matteo Salvini as he accused NGOs of being accomplices of human smugglers. It is an accusation that is not based on facts so much as on La République en Marche’s fight against immigration, counters the director of Médecins sans Frontières, Michaël Neuman.

It becomes blindingly obvious, that it is not eras of carefreeness that show our true nation. On the contrary, it is times marked by challenges, inconveniences and crises that reveal the true value we place on human life, dignity, compassion and kindness – and to whom we apply that value and to whom we don’t.

A New Hope

To a certain extent it is understandable that Notre Dame evokes stronger emotions than international – if not global – problems, be it poverty and social injustice, infringements of democratic principles that we so want to belief in, or the death of strangers due to wars that we, by means of arms exports, profit from. It is closer to home, more relatable, easier to process and easier to fix. However, the hypocrisy of painting the accidental burning of a church as a global catastrophe while closing one’s eyes from the real catastrophes calls for a revolution of priorities, a kindling of compassion and solidarity.

There is one thing each of us needs to reflect on – student, politician, bartender, banker, arms producer, accountant, police officer: what can the Notre-Dame incident symbolise? To me the fire of something so old and seemingly eternal, in a world that too often appears to be meant the way it is, shows that a structure thought to last for all infinity can be broken up. There lies chaos and confusion in this destructive force. And yet, it is a creative power because who knows what will happen after. Who knows how we can shift and remodel the debris. Who knows if we cannot construct something even more magnificent. And we have it in our power to do so.

The strongest example of this power at the moment are perhaps environmental movements such as Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion. They speak – with urgency but also with hope – of an awakening to challenges superseding the individual in the here and now but applying to all of global society, present and future. At the same time the people of Algeria and Sudan are fighting for their democratic rights, Europe-wide protests against the EU’s refugee policy take place and the Gilets jaunes movement unites concerns for social justice with demands for more inclusion of the people in democratic processes and for more environmental justice. And even the arrest of Gaspard Glanz had positive effects since it resulted in a wave of solidarity expressed by various media channels and journalists and raised awareness on the often precarious situation of independent and young reporters who might not even have a press card.

At times the injustices and horrors of our society might seem overwhelming, and thus mentioned in this article are only a few and very much focused on Europe. Simultaneously, Venezuela is shaken by conflict, the war in Yemen is still ongoing, the suffering of the Rohingya has not ceased, … But amidst all this, it is more important than ever to not walk through this world with an averted view but to meet all tragedy and challenges with compassion and kindness, with courage and solidarity, and to take hope from every positive development, however small, and from the knowledge that we are not alone as we decide to walk this path.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

The post Vantage Point Europe: A Revolution of Priorities appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

Hitting the (Pay)wall

Maya Diekmann — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 16:00:22 +0000

Everyone loves Spotify. And how could you not? The concept of listening to whatever music you feel like, whenever you feel like it and however much you want to for a fixed monthly fee has become so popular that the number of worldwide subscribers has skyrocketed over the past few years – from 15 million paying subscribers in the beginning of 2015 to almost 83 million subscribers as of June 2018. Spotify is just one of many popular content players that show the willingness of consumers to pay for quality content – something that many newspapers have been struggling with over the last few years in their attempts of making digital profitable.

Building a Wall

With a decrease in advertising revenues, newspapers are forced to reform their digital framework. Offering online articles for free is no longer an option, yet the alternative of charging monthly or annual fees doesn’t seem too appealing to the readers. And how can you blame them? Ever since the first newspapers started publishing online, almost all articles could be accessed free of charge. Absurdly enough, people have no problem paying to buy a printed newspaper but paywalls usually cause dissent if not anger among readers. The alteration from freely accessible to paywall protected articles does not necessarily make it easier for newspapers to consolidate their position in the digital business.

Paragon New York Times

One of the forerunners regarding profitable transition from print to digital and the implementation of paywalls online is the New York Times (NYT). Out of their 3.8 million subscribers, 2.9 are digital only. The newspaper’s digital success can be traced back, among other factors, to a high level of engagement with their audience. Using customer data, the NYT strives for a better understanding of potential subscribers and their behavior towards the newspaper. With what frequency do readers visit the website? What articles do they read and what measures can be taken to make them more engaged to ultimately become paying subscribers?

A series of studies conducted by the Media Inside Project reveals readers’ motives for becoming subscribers. Among the findings is the relevance for certain preconditions that will eventually lead to subscription, such as a degree of interest in news and even more so the accuracy of news that social media often fail to provide. The final ‘hop’ over the paywall is prompted by so-called ‘trigger factors’ which can be a certain incident – a famous example is the ‘Trump-bump’ – but more commonly a promotion or a free trial.

Measuring audience engagement is at its core simple and effective, especially on the highly competitive news market. Newspapers can no longer rely on the readers coming to them but they have to meet them—three quarters of the way. Overall, focusing on subscribers certainly is a more sustainable approach to making digital profitable than trying to maximize clicks—a concept with the inherent risk of the proliferation of headline sensationalization. However, a marketing concept based on circulation revenue also entails risk, especially with regards to newspaper content.

Creating Content

Said risk comes with applying analytics to create popular content. If customer data shows a high popularity of sport articles, a strategy to increasingly cover sports is not far-fetched. Yet, such a direct response can be tricky. According to a 2017 article of the Guardian, the newspaper’s most popular article since 2010 with nearly 4,000,000 clicks deals with Edward Snowden’s activities as an NSA whistleblower. In 2017, the Economist’s third most popular article revolved around the world’s most dangerous cities and the New Yorker’s most popular piece was on the sexual assault accusations against Harvey Weinstein.

This should not in any way imply that coverage of these topics is unimportant. However, a general trend of the popularity of articles related to politics, crime, and celebrities and a following ‘over-coverage’ can be observed. Rather than letting customer data dictate topic coverage, analytics should be used by newspapers to allocate resources to content which is not as popular to make it attractive to more readers.

Quid Pro Quotability

Readers traditionally hold a key position when it comes to the success of newspapers. This makes sense: as a journalist you can invest an immense amount of time and money into researching and writing an article but in the end, if no one is buying the finished product, you will not survive in your profession.

Perhaps the most important aspect to consider in the newspapers’ ongoing struggle for digital profitability is not to grant too much power to the reader. There is no doubt that subscribers play a vital role in the fight for survival, but rather than making the audience a content tyrant, newspaper-reader relations should be a symbiosis where in return for keeping the industry alive, newspapers provide authentic content with an added value that is worth paying for. The added value to be received are the factors of professionality and truth – something of great importance in a world of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’.

Busting the Paywall

Content-wise Spotify and online newspapers are two entirely different worlds, yet their marketing concept is pretty much identical. However, while the music streaming service seems to be perceived as the invention of the century, which listeners are more than happy to invest their money into, newspapers are struggling to gain a foothold in the world of subscriptions. For now, paywalls act more than anything as a deterrent. But the human being is a creature of habit, and time will tell whether subscription based news is a sustainable concept for digital newspapers. In the end it all comes down to people’s willingness to award the same value to authentic news as they do to good music.

By Maya Diekmann

Photo Credits

Paywall, Sofiya Ballin

new york times, samchills, CC BY 2.0

Newspaper readers, Dmitry Dzhus, CC BY 2.0

Related articles:

Information Overload

Online Advertisement – an Outdated Business Model?

The post Hitting the (Pay)wall appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.