The New News Ombudsmen’s Role in Today’s Society

Lyle Muller is the former editor of The Cedar Rapids Gazette, where he worked for 25 years. He is now the most recent addition to IowaWatch.org in Iowa City.

With increased skepticism from citizens of Cedar Rapids due to the increase in crime, the several recent shootings, and rumors about corrupt city officials, The Gazette of Cedar Rapids is at the heart of it all. In general, the public has lost a sense of trust with the media, believing them to all be liars with an agenda, and the people of Cedar Rapids are no exception.With this distrust in the media and the rise of digital media, mistakes are also an issue. It has become harder for editors to catch every mistake, but when anyone from the public has a complaint against The Gazette about these mistakes, or general issues regarding content, Judi Whetstine is the person to contact.

As a retired attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office in Cedar Rapids, Whetstine is now the part-time independent public editor, also known as an Ombudsman for The Gazette and KCRG.

For her position, Whetstine reads the newspaper and watches the broadcasts online to look for any causes for concern. If there are, she’ll address the appropriate people to handle the situation. However, if anyone from the public has an issue with the content, they can also bring it up to her.

“If there are complaints about the content for any of those products someone can send an email to me directly although I encourage them to talk to the responsible reporter or editor first,” she said during a phone interview. “If it isn’t resolved they usually get back to me.”

The basic definition of an Ombudsman comes from Sweden and means “a public official assigned to investigate complaints.” The job has been around in the United States since 1967, but with several changes in digital media and technology, as well as the strained economy in newsrooms across the country, the role of the Ombudsman has changed overtime, especially in the past decade.

Dealing with a New Era of Digital Media

The majority of work done by Ombudsmen today is being done online or using different types of digital and social media. While some Ombudsmen across the country write a weekly column about different issues for print, the majority of their work is being done online, who works for The Gazette from her at home office.

“Obviously, technology is a great research tool,” said Whetstine, who is also a member of the Organization of News Ombudsmen.

“All of their work is via the internet,” she said.

Whetstine also said that the internet makes it easier for her to check facts online or to identify other staff from different newspapers.

While the rise in digital news and technology advances, problems have also come about due to the vast amount of information made available to the public.

Arthur Brisbane is the current Ombudsman at The New York Times and will be ending his two year term in September. In his term as Ombudsman, he said that the biggest change he noticed was the rise in social media.

“The only change of significance in that time has been the rise of social media, which as altered journalists’ work some and created a louder buzzing news around stories that get the most attention,” he said through email.

The former editor of The Gazette, Lyle Muller, has also seen this change in immediate responses from the public. People are very quick to respond rather than letting a story ruminate.

“They are also quick to respond because they can find a whole bunch of information that they want to know fast and they can find their point of view very fast,” said Muller, who was with The Gazette for 25 years. “If you can find your point of view very fast and you disagree with something in the newspaper, because of that information you’re armed with information quickly, you make your argument and then it’s up to the Ombudsperson to try to sort through it all.”

While many Ombudsmen are starting to adapt to the many changes their position faces, there is still a lack in changing quick enough to keep up with the ever-changing technology world.

“I think everybody in general is struggling with how they handle the digital side,” said Whetstine. “I would say much of the very large news organizations like NPR, they’re Ombudspeople are fulltime and wound with complaints.”

In an article by Mediaactive by Dan Gillmor, he stated that News Ombudsmen needed to change for the 21^st century, which included taking full advantage of social media to bring attention to their position, rather than being the go-between for the newsroom.

“They have a great role to play, in fact. But they should use the ample resources of the blogosphere, coverage by other news orgs, and social media to bring attention to the paper or whatever kind of organization they are,” wrote Gillmor.

One other key issue facing Ombudsmen is the role Google has played in their position. That is the concern of archived articles and the issue around deleting them. This problem was addressed in an article by Mercedes Bunz of The Guardian from Feb. 2010.

“’Thanks to Googling, what is now written and published is present all the time. That changes a lot,’” said Huub Evers in an interview with The Guardian.

The issue of what to do with mistakes in news articles is facing many Ombudsmen, due to the permanence the internet creates. The decision of correcting the mistake or completely deleting the archive is among the many issues today’s Ombudsmen are facing.

“’We are already discussing the need to see ourselves more as cyber ombudsmen, and focus more on the new problems,’” Yavuz Baydar said in an interview with the Guardian. “’Digital archives are a challenge for news organizations, and should be discussed more.’”

The Relationship with the Newsroom

Because one main role of the Ombudsman is to act as a watchdog over the newspaper and correct any mistakes or handle any issues that arise for the newspaper, that can strain the relationship between the Ombudsman and the rest of the newsroom.

“Some ombudsmen are seen as the enemy, rather than a meaningful connection between the paper and its readership,’” Bob Steele of Poynter Institute said in an interview with the Organization of News Ombudsmen.

“The staff seem to accept the presence of the public editor and almost uniformly have shown a willingness to cooperate with my inquiries,” said Brisbane. “However, when I write something they often strenuously disagree. In that sense, this is like a courtroom situation—an acceptance of form and procedure and vociferous argument about many things.”

While this tension seems to occur for those public editors who work fulltime with the rest of the newsroom, Muller didn’t notice tension at The Gazette when he was editor, mainly because she works part-time away from the rest of the staff.

“In Cedar Rapids, there are a lot of people that are upset with a lot of things, city government, downtown businesses, the general state of things, and also The Gazette because we aren’t reporting on these kinds of things that they say we ought to be doing,” Muller said.

“I think there would be a lot of tension if she were continually responding to those same complaints and going to reporters all the time. She responds to those complaints, but I’m not sure how she manages it. However, she does it in a manner that does not cause tension in the newsroom,” he said.

A News Ombudsmen through the Strained Economy

There have been many cutbacks in newsrooms across the country due to the downturn of the economy. Many positions including photographers, designers, and copyeditors have been let go and the remaining staff have had to learn to take over their roles. This has caused increased stress for newsrooms, having to do too much work without enough resources to keep the news going.

“The mere fact of the cuts, some would argue and I would not disagree, can result in a change in the actual content of the news that’s being generated and that it’s not unusual for that to require some comments or questioning by an ombudsperson,” said Whetstine.

Muller agrees that the cuts in staffing have resulted in a content change for The Gazette.

“I would much rather have copy editors and editors and reporters,” said Muller. “The complaints would go down if you had more thorough reporting, more thorough editing, more thorough attention to what’s going into a news report,” he continued. “If you had more thorough attention to what’s going on into a news report and few complaints, there’s less need for an Ombudsperson.

Bridging the Trust for Readers and Reporters

With the shaky relationship between the media and the public due to a lack of trust in the media, the Ombudsman role helped bridge that trust.

“I think it’s real helpful for readers to feel that they can go to someone independently who they can trust if they feel like working with the news organization just isn’t going anywhere,” said Muller.

Muller also stated that having the Ombudsperson act as an independent party is helpful for The Gazette because they can look at the newspaper from a distance at how well it’s doing.

“An Ombudsperson can be trusted far better than someone who’s in the middle of it because as hard as I would try as the editor to understand the point of view of everyone who would talk to me about what we were doing with the paper, people bring their own attitudes, beliefs, and values to the discussion and if one of those beliefs is that I have an invested interest in protecting The Gazette at all costs, it doesn’t matter how dispassionate I try to be, they’re not going to believe me,” he said.

The New York Times has also had problems getting their readers to trust them as a media outlet.

“The Times implemented the public editor position in response to journalistic breakdowns that embarrassed the company. I think it has been worthwhile, at least up until now, for the company to retain the position,” said Brisbane.

“I think the primary effect of the public editor is to demonstrate to the public that the Times is willing to subject itself to this form of accountability. Perhaps there is additional impact on staff because they recognize there is a watchdog on fairness in the house,” he continued.

The Ombudsman position is still valuable for the public and the newspapers that kept the position. It helps bridge the relationship between the public and the newsroom, and keeps the newspaper accountable to their mistakes.

“I feel strongly that news media is critical to our democracy,” said Whetstine. “I feel strongly that news media must figure out how to provide a trusted educational venue for our citizens so their actually informed.”

Google and The Ombudsman

The Guardian published an article titled “How Google changed the role of news ombudsmen” in their Digital Content Blog in February of 2010. In the article, Mercedes Bunz talked about the problem Google caused for newspapers and ombudsmen, mainly around the issue of the vast amount of archived articles that Google created. Now, people are able to search for anything using Google, so if any article has a mistake or is no longer current (say someone was charged with a crime but the charges were dropped) those articles are still online for the world to see if they type in the correct search words. This creates many problems for everyone. That person’s life could be ruined, and the newspaper is faced with the decision of what to do. Should they make the corrections where they see fit? Should they remove the articles completely?

This article brings up the great point about what technological advances have done to the role of the ombudsmen in newsrooms, which is directly connected to my story. While the common opinion for technology advances is a positive one, this shows the downfalls to the vast majority of information available to the public at any given time, and what happens when that information is wrong, but nearly impossible to eliminate forever. It is definitely true that once something’s posted online, it never goes away.

The New 21st Century Public Editor

On January 12 MediaActive published an article titled “What a 21st Century News Ombudsman Should Do: Aggregate, Curate, Debate.”  In the article they explained that with the current technological advances, the role of the ombudsperson needs to change to accommodate for the increase in online complaints. This increase is due to the large amount of content available to people just with the click of a mouse to search for it. They also state that the ombudsmen need to keep everyone involved apart of the debate and conversation. Not just the public should be making complaints, but the editors and reporters should also chime in with their rationale to increase the communication and bridge the gap between the two.

This article is exactly what my article is about. It explains the role of the ombudsman in todays digital world and the importance for ombudsmen to become “cyber ombudsmen.” It also helps explain the evolution of the position as public editor and how, not only it has changed since the beginning, but also how it still needs to change in order to keep up with the time. The role of the ombudsman is no longer to just make corrections in articles, but they also need to create an open forum about a news organization’s work in general.

The Role of the Ombudsmen in Newsrooms

In an article by Kim Campbell from The Organization of News Ombudsmen, “This is a job for… Ombudsman, writer of wrongs!” published in 2000, she wrote about the rise in this position in newspapers across the nation. It explained the role of the Ombudsmen and their relationships with both the newsroom and the public. This position has been around for close to 40 years, yet this article explains the ups and downs for different newspapers and why they can or can’t keep this position around. Many reasons include money and editorial decisions. However, those papers that do have experience with an ombudsman have seen the benefits to have an independent spokesperson for the public.

This article is great for my story because it gives great insight to the overall background of the position. While the article is dated, being over ten years old, it still provides basic information about the role of the ombudsman and allows me to see the changes from then and now.

News Ombudsmen Twitter Sources

Here’s the link to the list I created for my twitter sources: Ombudsmen Story List

I followed Society of Professional Journalists @spj_tweets, Arthur Brisbane from The New York Times @thepubliceditor, Patrick Pexton from the Washington Post @WaPoOmbudsman, one of my interview sources Lyle Muller of IowaWatch.org @LyleMuller, and the Organization of News Ombudsmen @NewsOmbuds

An Interview with New Old Age Blog’s Paula Span

Paula Span, author of When the Time Comes, also writes for The New York Times’ New Old Age Blog about the difficulties facing families today who are dealing with the growing elderly population suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia. The blog launched in 2008 by New York Times reporter, Jane Gross and was then taken over by Span in 2009 and many freelance bloggers also contribute to the blog. In an interview with Span, she explains how the media is doing with their coverage of this incurable disease that affects so many people.

How did the blog come about?

The blog arose from the realization that millions of baby boomers were or soon would be confronting the need to provide care for aging and ailing parents, that they were ill-prepared for this often confusing and demanding role, and that it would be useful to give them a sources for information, new research, pragmatic advice and sometimes just general conversation about eldercare. The editors also reasoned that the territory had changed due to increased life spans and an aging population, hence the title. The blog is part support group, part guidebook.

How do you think the media is doing covering Alzheimer’s Disease?

The media are paying far more attention to the disease, its various forms, the burden to caregivers. They’re also doing more reporting on the basic science: the causes and symptoms and possible treatments. We’re starting to see dementia in popular culture, too, in movies like “Away from Her” and last year’s “The Iron Lady.”

There’s greater media recognition of the growing numbers of people with dementia and how that number will increase with an aging population. But I also see some coverage that’s looking for reassuring news and thus overemphasizes research developments that are very preliminary or modest. Headlines seem to promise hopeful new developments, eventual cures. And we are very far away from that. I see a lot of clutching at straws: herbal remedies, brain games and crossword puzzles. The truth is that no intervention has been shown to prevent or significantly delay dementia, except regular physical exercise.

Who’s the best in the business for covering Alzheimer’s Disease and why?

There are whole medical journals devoted to dementia and Alzheimer’s, so they’re probably the best at presenting hard science, though they are often impenetrable to a lay person. Then there are lots of blogs, and a great website by the Alzheimer’s Association. But among mainstream media outlets, I think The New York Times does more and better coverage of all kinds of health and science news, including about dementia. So many other newspapers have been gutted, as our industry lost ground and the recession kicked in, that they lack the staff to keep following these stories.

What’s difficult about covering Alzheimer’s Disease?

There are many kinds, though Alzheimer’s is the most common, and they don’t all involve the same symptoms or trajectories. People will commonly think dementia and Alzheimer’s are the same thing and will use the terms interchangeably, but that’s incorrect. Then there are the various levels of severity, from the relatively new phase called mild cognitive impairment to full-blown Alzheimer’s.

Moreover, describing the science behind the diagnosis is difficult: amyloid plaque, tangles. Yet, media do keep at it, and that’s a plus.

The Old Ombudsmen

Alfred JaCoby, who spent nearly 50 years in journalism and spent most of that time working for The San Diego Union, wrote an article for the Organization of News Ombudsmen titled “The Newspaper Ombudsman: A Personal Memoir of the Early Days.” In this article he goes through the progression of the Ombudsmen role in journalism since it started in the United States in 1967.

This article gives a good look into what the original position was intended for and where the position is now. Originally, the position centered around being a watchdog for corrections in the news. It was embarrassing for reporters to get something wrong, and teh public felt they would hide those mistakes by putting the corrections in the back or by not making corrections at all. This is where the Ombudsmen came in. They took the phone calls from the public about what facts were wrong and made the reporters accountable for their mistakes.

While that is still true today, the role has also grown to be more than just a fact-checker. Not only are they a watchdog for correct facts, but they also emerged as watchdogs for ethical concerns in the news as well. JaCoby stated how many Ombudsmen also started ethics conferences and taught college journalism classes to share their experiences.

This article showed the true purpose of Ombudsmen and how their role has changed over the last 40 years for American journalism.

Ombudsmen on Columnist Opinions

On March 5, Yavuz Baydar posted a question for other Ombudsmen about a dilemna he was facing about making comments made by columnists. A major value journalists have is that journalism should allow a range of opinions. However, what if an opinion goes too far by a columnist? This situation is definately sensitive since it deals with sensitive issues such as someone’s handicap, and many other Ombudsmen respond with examples of other sensitive topics that need to be handled delicately, such as issues of race.

This website provides the people with this interesting and unique position in the news industry a place for discussion about many intense situations they may find themeselves in. The point for Ombudsmen is to be the bridge between the newsroom and the public, to help explain anything from why journalists publish the stories and photos that they do to why the ink of newspapers rubs off on your hands. However, this article also shows why this position is so important to the industry. Not only is it a bridge between the newsroom and the public, but it also provides a checks and balances on journalists when they go too far.

How the Media Covers Alzheimer’s Disease

Convicted killer, Joaquin Cruz sees his own brother in the water of his toilet in his jail cell. He fails to put his boots on the right feet, and doesn’t seem to understand the concept of a bathroom, pulling his pants down when and wherever the urge arrives.

Lee Gorewitz, well-dressed with her earrings to match, holding in her hands a birthday card, she’s unable to remember who the card was for. Another time, as she’s sitting at the edge of her bed playing with stuffed animals she says, “You’re looking at me like I live here and I don’t.”

While they both live in California, this prisoner, 60, and grandmother, 78, have more in common than one would think. Straight from articles out of The New York Times, “Life, with Dementia,” and “Dementia, From the Inside Out,” they, along with over five million other Americans, live with a degenerative disease called Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s affects the brain, resulting in memory loss later in life. Many can no longer function on their own, making everyday tasks like showering and eating more difficult. Many people affected with Alzheimer’s forget who they are and who they’re closest family members are.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, they expect the number of people living with Alzheimer’s to double by the year 2040, making this disease ever more important to cover in the media and watch how they cover it.

Scientific Coverage: Research and Development

One key aspect to coverage about Alzheimer’s is the coverage of recent scientific research and developments in finding a cure. The Alzheimer’s Association is one example of up to date coverage of what is current in Alzheimer’s research. Every week they publish a newsletter citing the most current developments in Alzheimer’s research and what that means for people living with the disease.

Another great source for recent developments in Alzheimer’s research is The New York Times. In the majority of their stories they report the current news for Alzheimer’s, keeping in mind their audience and keeping the language understandable to everyone, not just professionals in the field.

Their article, “Exercising an Aging Brain,” by Denise Grady, shows their skill in reporting news on the research side of Alzheimer’s. Grady used several professional sources to explain the advantages to keeping your mind sharp by continuing education after retirement and intertwined the professional opinions with concrete examples that made the story easier to read.

WebMD’s website also provides articles about current research in Alzheimer’s, however, their articles are definitely lacking compared to the others. Their articles aim to just report straight facts about the current news in Alzheimer’s advancements, without digging deeper into the story.

In their article, “1 in 7 people with Alzheimer’s lives alone,” they got the point across about the main topic of the article, but they only used two sources in the short article, and they missed the opportunity to ask more questions this story brings up. Instead of just relaying the information provided by the Alzheimer’s Association, WebMD could have done more original reporting about why so many sick people are living alone and what is or should be done about it.

Social Coverage: Real People affected by Alzheimer’s

An important aspect of coverage for Alzheimer’s disease that WebMD and Alzheimer’s Association lacks is that of reporting on the affects this devastating disease has on real people in America.

In the past few months, The New York Times has had several stories relating to the social ills that come with living with Alzheimer’s. One of their most successful articles was “Life, with Dementia” by Pam Belluck.

This article went in depth about a problem most people don’t know about, which is that a large number of the prison population serves their sentences with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia and the total number of those prisoners is unknown.

The article was successful in the
reporting by using many credible sources including people who have researched dementia in prisons as well as people working with the prisons to help solve the problem, as well as talking with actual prisoners who work with fellow prisoners with Alzheimer’s.

Belluck also does a great job painting a great irony into the story, comparing the juxtaposition between the great thing prisoners are doing now helping fellow inmates, compared to the vicious crimes they committed that landed them there in the first place.

In the past few months both WebMD and the Alzheimer’s Association lacked in terms of the social aspect of Alzheimer’s. In all of the stories I read, the main part they lacked in their reporting was adding a human interest element that would make their stories relatable to their readers.

While it’s good report the facts of what is going on in the Alzheimer’s community, it’s hard to attract readers without anything that they can relate to to make them feel invested in the story, which would help keep readers interested in the long term.

Policy Coverage: Fighting Alzheimer’s Politically

Another important aspect of coverage about Alzheimer’s is the advancements being made politically to gain funding and work to end Alzheimer’s.

The main source of this coverage came from the Alzheimer’s Association. On their website, they are very clear about their goals and mission for the organization which is to create a word free of Alzheimer’s.

While they are very transparent about their mission for the organization, there are still problems with the reporting due to their biases to find a cure.

In their article, “Alzheimer’s advisory council discusses initial draft of National Alzheimer’s Plan” they reported about progress made towards the country’s first National Alzheimer’s Plan.

However, there is an obvious conflict of interest in this story due to the reporting is done by the same people that want this plan to go through. This is seen through the one-sided reporting done, only about the positive aspects of the story.

Also, the article only sites two sources, both of which are from the Alzheimer’s Association. This completely goes against fair and accurate reporting, and the article misses opportunities to report on other issues that arise such as where the money would come from for this plan and who would miss out because of that spending?

There are successes and failures in the reporting coverage of Alzheimer’s disease in the United States by The New York Times, WebMD, and the Alzheimer’s Association, but Scott Kirschenbaum, from “Dementia, From the Inside Out,” said it best in his interview about Mrs. Gorewitz:

“There is no such thing as enough when you are that sociable, confused and lonely.”

New Film Finds the Witt of Alzheimer’s

In the most recent newsletter from the Alzheimer’s Association one of the articles was one from the The New York Times titled, “Dementia, From the Inside Out,” published in the blog section titled, The New Old Age and written by Jane Gross. The article is about a filmmaker who chose to create a documentary based around a woman living in an assisted living facility, where she is the main subject of the movie. In previous films, the main subject has been someone caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s, but Scott Kirschenbaum decided to follow the sporatic mind and life of someone with Alzheimer’s.

The article does a great job setting the scene of the movie and giving the reader a feel for the tone of the film. Gross cleverly takes the reader through the experience Kirschenbaum experienced trying to follow the frame of thought of someone with Alzheirmer’s and how confusing and, at times, frustrating that can be.

Gross is also brilliant at descriptively showing the reader what is going on in the scene, either seen in the movie, or explained to her by interview of Kirschenbaum. She naturaly bounces from logical thoughts and quotes of Kirschenbaum to the random thoughts and phrases blurted out by Mrs. Gorewitz.

In the end, this article is exceptionally heartworming and relatable to any reader with an elderly, and potentially senile, grandmother, while also playing with the lightheartedness of the film with the lovable antics of that of a beloved elderly woman.