22/03/2009

It's necessary to take care of older readers

CARLOS EDUARDO LINS DA SILVA
ombudsman@uol.com.br

The newspaper can't be content with sporadic efforts dealing with topics of interest to the elderly; it must be updated daily

Nobody likes to get old. But with the other option worse, we all continue to observe birthdays as if getting another year older is something to celebrate.

One of the basic problems of print journalism around the world has been the progressive aging of its audience.

Phyllis McGinley, the American author of children's books, popular in the 1940s, wrote a poem called "The Seven Ages of the Newspaper Subscriber," about that decade, which describes the typical relationship of the reader with his newspaper through life in those good times.

The problem is that the readers of McGinley's day who looked first at cartoons, sports and other topics of interest to children and youth have decreased. And the number who look at nothing other than the obituaries has increased.

On Feb. 1, this column tried to show that Folha has done much less than it should do to attract and retain the youthful public.

On Sunday, with the special supplement "Aging," it showed itself to be concerned with the elderly. That was good. Let's hope that it continues.

This demographic layer is increasing in this country; their collective problems are relatively new for Brazilian society, little explored journalistically and relevant.

Most readers who commented about the section approved it, as did I. Nearly everything was well done: from the art to diagrams, from stories to photos, from reporting to editing, with even a bigger typeface than usual.

Clearly, there were problems. Edelmar Ulrich, of the Association of Family and Friends of the Elderly, pointed out one: "Where are the numbers of old people put in rest homes, geriatric clinics or simply living isolated in apartments hidden away in backyards? Where were interviews with the bedridden and those confined to chairs for various weaknesses? Where are those with strokes? Parkinson's Disease? Schizophrenics? Deficiencies and dementia in general?" he asked.

The survey seems to have ignored this considerable portion of the population age 60 and up and concentrated on those who are happy, active and conscious. The newspaper must return to the topic to show this aspect better.

José Ricardo Oliva Hernandes complained that the section showed little and in his opinion handled the topic of retirement poorly: "(Folha) between the lines of the special 'aging' section, compared public pensions with occasional social programs such as the family food program. They do not know that to have the right to a pension and that workers pay a lot, for years running. Folha does not seek to find out why pension resources are used illegally, for example, in the construction of public works."

Most important is that the newspaper can't be content with sporadic efforts even if they are well done, because this does not deal with topics of interest to its oldest readers. It needs to update them daily.

The average age for Folha readers, according to directors, is 45 years. But if it does not take seriously the task of pleasing those who are over 60 and under 20, its difficulties in the future will be enormous.

Economic contradictions

Reader Vagner Bessa wrote to say that he does not understand "Folha's criteria to put news about the economic crisis on the front page." Nor do I.

As he argued, sometimes the newspaper highlights the month-to-month variation of economic activity statistics (for example, reporting the unemployment rate in January) and sometimes the annual (industrial production data).

In both cases, coincidence or not, the rate chosen was the one with the most negative conclusions.

Journalism has no commandment that says bad news is more important than the good. The biggest news is what is least expected, unprecedented, closest to readers, what affects them more directly or causes the most empathy. It is not necessarily the worst.

Another curious case of disparity in these criteria occurred this Friday, when results from the Datafolha survey showed the first decline in public opinion about the federal government in two years. It was attributed to the reasonable hypothesis that the decline is the result of the crisis.

Announcing the drop in the GDP in the fourth quarter, the newspaper judged that the most important aspect was that it had been the biggest among 37 countries.

The comparative parameter with other nations of that group was not utilized in dealing with the loss of support for the government by the population.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know how citizens in those societies react to their heads of state after the adverse consequences of the economic crisis? Was the decrease in popularity of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also the biggest in this group? It is not a fundamental question, but it would be interesting.

Folha rejected this confrontation. It limited itself to showing the current rate of approval of President Obama in the United States, and that did not make much sense because he just took office and there is no comparison for him.

Who are letters to the editor?
Letters:
44 from readers
11 from people in the news

Centimeters:
350 from readers
140 from people in the news
*from March 14 to 20, 2009

To read

"Memory and Society," by Eclea Bosi, Companhia das Letras Publishing, 1995 (starting at 52.07 reals, or US $ 23.07) - already classical study about the memories of several elderly people

To see

"On Golden Pond," by Mark Rydell, with Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn, 1982 (starting at 19.90 reals) - story about a university professor in his 80s (brilliant performance by Fonda) who confronts the imminence of death and learns how to deal with help from a youth

What Folha did right...

Down syndrome
Report in the health section about increased expectations and quality of life for carriers of the illness handled the topic with sensitivity and competence

Two Paraguays
Good story on Tuesday revealed serious errors in textbooks in the public education system and led to their recall

... And where it did badly

Spokesperson's mistakes
On Sunday and Friday, the corrections section attributed errors in the newspaper to mistakes by press spokespersons; Folha's obligation is to check if what it publishes is correct; blaming others does not remove responsibility

Drowning in numbers

The newspaper again forgot, in most stories, to give readers comparisons to help understand the scope of enormous numbers

Worth remembering
Cases that need to be looked at again

In November 2008, the newspaper emphasized accusations of racism by a Brazilian artist against a U.S. airline. What was the result of this?

Topics most commented during the week

1. Record TV network
2. Sports topics
3. Economic crisis

-Translation by John Wright