Uncompetitive salaries, constant pressure to be first with the story and the lack of training for new journalists were all identified as key challenges faced by ever-shrinking newsrooms.
In a debate organised by SOS Malta and hosted by John Mallia, MaltaToday online editor Kurt Sansone explained how it takes time to build up a new journalist’s confidence, even when it comes to the basics like asking questions during a press conference.
Sansone said understaffed newsrooms do not have the luxury of spending hours on training new journalists on these basics.
He said attracting journalists to the job is not an easy task, with uncompetitive salaries and unsociable hours making that task all the more difficult.
Sansone said the large turnover of journalists further complicates matters.
General news websites and papers like MaltaToday and Times of Malta have a need to constantly generate new content, as people “switch off” if they see the same content on a website for a whole day, he said.
Continuing on this theme, Times of Malta online editor Bertrand Borg explained the challenges of needing to fill a fixed amount of space daily in the newspaper, as well as the need for constant fresh content online.
This, he said, can end up impacting the quality of that content.
On commercial pressures exerted by big business, Borg said Times of Malta maintains a Chinese wall between its commercial and editorial arms.
Lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia said people expect to consume their news for free, but this comes at a cost to newsrooms.
On the lack of impact of investigative stories published by newsrooms, Comodini Cachia said the media’s job is to publish such articles. It is then up to the authorities to follow them up with the relevant investigations, she said.
Ex-PBS news editor and MCAST journalism lecturer Natalino Fenech urged politicians to stop undermining the credibility of journalists.
He said MCAST tries to instil a sense of journalism being a vocation, rather than just a normal job.
Rather than striving for balance, journalists need to be biased in favour of what is right.
The event, held at Europe House in Valletta, takes place as part of the Global Week of Action for the Social Development Goals.