After Deadline
Readers seek answers, provide some of own
By John Simonds
Advertiser Reader Representative
Readers want to know how things work, whether in their communities, the functions of government or the performance of their newspaper in covering issues and events.
This is evident in national surveys and in phone calls and e-mails received here. To inform and educate are part of The Advertiser's mission, and those roles include explaining how things happen, what they mean, what to look for next.
Past research and shrinking attention spans have suggested the public is weary of government news, "process" stories, reports of councils and committees, state audits, court rulings, and actions of school and neighborhood boards.
Yet, a recent study by the Readership Institute at Northwestern University (37,000 readers each were asked 450 questions) showed that news of politics, government and international issues ranked third among nine areas of reader interest and growth potential. (News of the community and its people was first, followed by a category combining health, home, food, fashion and travel news.)
Hawai'i readers call often, seeking the kind of dot-connecting details that newspapers can provide when they explain complex plans, translate slippery terms and technical phrases, clarify apparent contradictions, review background, identify problems, list options, and chart or illustrate situations to enhance understanding.
Recent callers, for example, have expressed interest in knowing more about the Hawai'i census undercount, the voting procedure in the Board of Education's unanimous decision against teaching the creation theory in public schools and how some small-business bidders manage to win such big contracts.
Health insurance, its benefits, relations with doctors and hospitals, and finances are a challenge to readers and newspapers as well. Advertiser articles about a federal investigation of HMSA and other aspects of Hawai'i's health-insurance giant have shown how much money is involved in providing nonprofit care.
Few issues offer more to examine than health care, a probing encouraged by the Hawai'i Coalition for Health, a group of doctors and consumers seeking further accountability from HMSA and more news media attention to it.
The Advertiser has explained how language committing the state to two years of incentive bonuses for eligible schoolteachers remained in their contract, though the state says the deal was for one year. How bargaining fatigue resulted in the language being left in remains a curiosity, but reporters have delivered the details of the state's dysfunction for readers.
The Advertiser also has pursued a range of prison stories, including reports on Oklahoma conditions for Hawai'i inmates, leveling national and rising Hawai'i prison populations, and details of O'ahu prison shakedowns. One business-savvy e-mailer challenged the reported comparative values of contraband drugs. His point led to a correction. The illegal drug was indeed worth more inside prison than on the street.
The Felix consent decree has Hawai'i officials debating who is eligible for the program to help children with special education needs and mental health problems; how much it costs and who controls spending for it. Readers raise many of the same issues. As in other coverage, journalists have shouldered the task of describing operations of a program that state officials are grappling to manage.
CBS anchorman Dan Rather's surprising Aug. 9 comment urged viewers to read "one of the better newspapers tomorrow" to find out more about stem-cell research and President Bush's decision on it. "It's the kind of subject that, frankly, radio and television have some difficulty with," Rather said, "because it requires such depth into the complexities of it."
The compliment from a national TV competitor also serves as a challenge for newspapers to pursue their print advantages and live up to the expectations of readers.
Admission Day, which commemorates Hawai'i's becoming the nation's 50th state in 1959, merited more attention than it received in Friday's morning edition of The Advertiser, several callers said. The PM edition marked the occasion with a same-day front-page photo featuring Hawai'i's state flag being waved at Kapi'olani and Kalakaua by John Rogers, who usually waves the American flag there.
Reach Reader Representative John Simonds at 525-8033.
