At a recent Media Studies Center forum in New York called ''Y2K: The Press and Preventing Panic,'' two of Washington's leading Y2K trouble-shooters urged reporters to be generous with reassuring news and helpful advice on do's and don't's.
''The issue to deal with is panic. The issue is overreaction ... that's where the risks are,'' John Koskinen, head of President Clinton's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, said ...
''We are drowning in a sea of conflicting information,'' Jeff Gralnick, executive vice president of CNN Financial News and one of the panelists, said. ''It's an incredibly difficult story to cover. And everything is in conflict.'' ...
One of the big problems inherent in Y2K coverage is trying to hit a moving target. As everyone races to beat the clock and ensure their computer systems will work properly, preparedness information is often out of date by the time it hits print ...
Kelley [Federal Reserve Bank] suggested a number of prescriptions that news stories could offer from giving advice to small businesses to urging contingency planning and offering how-to pointers ...
He urged reporters to hold opinion leaders and providers of public services accountable for accurate information and said they should carefully weigh information and check out assertions o ''so-called experts'' before reporting them.
That advice went against the grain of some reporters. ''We have to remember what our responsibility is, and it's to report, not to recommend,'' said CNN's Gralnick ...
Joan Konner, publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review and a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, said that while journalists have an obligation to pursue the truth they must also consider its impact.
''What are you first? Are you a journalist or are you a citizen or are you a human being? Sometimes those roles come into conflict in our profession,'' she told Reuters.
infoseek.go.com |
