Another notable finding is that 70 percent of education reporters list press releases/events/PR person as a source for stories — the most frequent response for reporters asked about the source of story ideas in the last month.
“Public relations efforts are an important part of education coverage,” notes the report introduction language.” News releases, news conferences, or public relations professionals are the top sources of story ideas for education journalists who took the survey.”
While press releases are tremendously useful, over-reliance on them could be troubling, given how infrequently stakeholders (government agencies, advocacy groups, nonprofits) voluntarily share unflattering information and the public’s reliance on journalism for an independent view.
On Monday night, one of the Boston Globe journalists featured in Spotlight encouraged reporters to focus on the news that stakeholders don’t send/want covered. And yet under 50 percent of those who responded to the survey report that their story ideas commonly come from actual students, parents, or teachers.
Some observers focused on the demographic makeup of education reporters, who are (like most classroom teachers) predominantly white and female. The EWA report compares education journalism to a 2014 study of the journalism industry as a whole, finding that edreporters are more likely to be female and minority than journalism over all.