hopelessly devoted to deconstructing popular culture and conventional wisdom, one blog at a time

Missing out on "urban journalism"

Published Wednesday, August 16, 2006 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

Saw a story today that linked to this site that supposedly tracks "urban journalism" and rewards/punishes certain metro papers for their local coverage. I say supposedly because, well, if you're going to claim to hand out Urban Journalism Awards, you might want to include some actual city papers. Yes, I have an inherent bias here, but the issue is larger than that.

Just look at the list of papers they're reading. Put aside the Boston situation (where the Herald certainly covers the city far more aggressively than the Globe, all other things considered). Look at the other metro markets.

The New York Times, but no Post or Daily News?
The Chicago Tribune, but no Sun-Times?
The Philly Inqurier, but no Daily News?

The surveyers acknowledge they read the Rocky Mountain News in addition to the Denver Post, so perhaps it's a bias against tabloid-format dailies? In their explanation for denying the Pulitzer-winning Rocky, the surveyers say this: "We don't count them in the Urban Journalism Awards because, while sometimes admirable in their coverage, they don't cover the region as comprehensively as the ones we count and we want the Urban Journalism Awards to be among comparable regional newspapers."

Ay, there's the rub. A survey of "urban journalism" that focuses on "regional newspapers." Why didn't you just say so in the first place so I could go back to ignoring you and your little irrelevant survey?