The Missing News digs deeper to find out why some stories get play while others fail to make the grade. It examines the links between big business and news giants, the pressure to appease advertisers while attracting readers, listeners and viewers, the dominance of right-wing viewpoints and other features of today's media. The authors admit many findings are tentative, given the Herculean task of sifting through each day's avalanche of stories media outlets publish and broadcast. By necessity, the work of NewsWatch's legion of researchers focused on newspapers searchable on CD-Rom. Some researchers had to judge whether a story took a positive or negative view of an issue based solely on the headline and lead.
Some findings are simplistic.
A section comparing coverage of white-collar and corporate crime to stories about sex crimes, for instance, ignores an overhaul of the criminal law during the period studied that widens the definition of sexual assault, prompting a dramatic rise in prosecutions. Like beauty, omissions are in the eye of the beholder. But one would be hard pressed to argue that the stable of environmental, human rights and social policy stories flagged by NewsWatch Canada do not deserve top billing. All are pressing issues that demand the attention of Canadians. The authors exhort individual reporters to dig deeper and seek out a wider range of viewpoints before they write.