It was probably two years ago. An employee of one of the press clubs that organize press conferences called me.<\/p>\n
– We want to invite you to a press conference.<\/p>\n
– On what topic? I ask.<\/p>\n
– Journalism ethics.<\/p>\n
– Is there cause for the occasion?<\/p>\n
– Well, no\u2026<\/p>\n
– But what sort of press conference topic is ethics?<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t receive an answer.<\/p>\n
It was clear: people have to do their jobs; well, the room isn\u2019t going to remain empty, is it? And so they make up a topic convenient for them. Naturally, the press conference didn\u2019t happen and couldn\u2019t have happened.<\/p>\n
However, not everyone acts like this. The press clubs invite them; they run. So what if there\u2019s no cause for occasion? What\u2019s important is appearing, expressing \u201csmart\u201d ideas. Even when there is an occasion, many (particularly politicians and commentators who make political conclusions that go past Putin\u2019s smile) make standard, scripted remarks (in parentheses let me say that during training seminars, together with Avetik Ishkhanyan, we would parody such press conferences; naturally, with standard and well-worn sentences), often without any facts.<\/p>\n
But what should journalists do without facts?<\/p>\n
The day of writing this piece, on July 21, I counted 11\u201312 press conferences. There were two press conferences on the topic of tourism; three on Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan\u2019s interview and the Karabakh elections; one on Vardavar (as to what new thing they would say I don\u2019t know); one on resisting the heat (last month\u2019s top story); and one each on some business projects and sports topics, and so on\u2026<\/p>\n
Yes, politicians, political analysts, and also people of certain professions aspire to be seen. But what issue do media outlets that send their journalists to these largely meaningless press conferences have to resolve?<\/p>\n
What is the factual nugget that has to become grounds for journalism or news? Only that X gave a press conference at Y press club?<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, in the \u201creports\u201d published by most news outlets, that\u2019s exactly how it is \u2014 plus a few thoughts from the \u201csayings\u201d of the person giving the press conference. Often the press conference is so long-winded that journalists don\u2019t even ask questions \u2014 there\u2019s nothing to check.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the press conference had to have at least a cause for the occasion.<\/p>\n
Second, the press conference must be for the media outlet just a source of information (in the broad sense of the word: understanding that this can include facts, opinion, judgment, comments, and so on), and only the most interesting of what the journalist heard there could turn into one or two small news stories. <\/p>\n
Moreover, it would be good if those stories prior to being published are checked, are compared with other views and information extracted from other sources, with comparisons, and so on.<\/p>\n
But no. Journalists and heads of news outlets don\u2019t have time for that; they have to fill numbers and places, they have to not fall behind. Suddenly a competing news outlet will write sooner that \u201cin some club or another, some person or another said something or another\u201d\u2026 What he said is not even important. What\u2019s important is not being left behind. <\/p>\n
On one hand, I want to seek a justification for news outlets, thinking: \u201cWell, what are they supposed to do, when in fact nothing is happening in the country (not counting accidents, fires, and robberies)?\u201d What should they cover if not press conferences?<\/p>\n
On the other hand, I want to tell our news outlets: if you at least sometimes boycott the meaningless press conferences, the press clubs perhaps will think about whom they\u2019re inviting and when.<\/p>\n
And so, you suddenly see your talented student, who inspired hopes of becoming a good journalist, stuck in this constant race, has become a recording\/transcribing\/uploading-a-story-online machine\u2026<\/p>\n
If only she manages to\u2026<\/p>\n
Mesrop Harutyunyan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was probably two years ago. An employee of one of the press clubs that organize press conferences called me. – We want to invite you to a press conference. – On what topic? I ask. – Journalism ethics. – Is there cause for the occasion? – Well, no\u2026 – But what sort of press Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critique","author_posts-mesrop-harutyunyan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}