A brush with journalism

Last week, I interviewed for a staff writer position at the Greenville (Ohio) Daily Advocate, a small community paper located in west-central Ohio. Unfortunately, I did not get the job because my availability did not match what they needed right now, but the whole experience has me thinking about journalism.

After interviewing for the position, I had the opportunity to do some thinking about the kind of journalist I could envision myself being, and one of the conclusions that I reached was that the only kind of journalism I could do as a career is that of an independent journalist. In fact, I came to realize that independence is, perhaps, the defining trait for what I consider to be great journalism, and it is a clear lack of independence on the part of most journalists that makes me so down on the journalistic profession.

This idea of independence is something to ponder. I wonder what modern journalism would look like if there was more of it.

Media malfeasance

The Weekly Standard Weblog details the ongoing attempts by the media to smear John McCain’s vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin by publishing outright lies and unproved innuendo.

I long ago abandoned any notion that modern media represents fair, objective reporting of the truth, but the events of this election cycle prove beyond a reasonable doubt that much of the media has largely taken one political point of view and will do or say anything to support that view. From my point of view, the media has joined the socialist left without apology or regret.

In joining the left, the media has committed itself to a campaign of smearing anyone who voices anything looking like disagreement with their agenda. This campaign goes so far as to justify the printing of lies and innuendo as fact in an attempt to sway political points of view.

At the same time, many journalists maintain a public façade of the unassailable purity of journalism, going so far as to claim that anyone who is not trained in journalism cannot be trusted to tell the truth. Perhaps there are a few journalists who still adhere to the journalistic ideal, but a large majority of them has abandoned the truth of objectivity for the lie of political power.

So, if journalists are the fourth estate of government, then how can they justify publishing lies and half-truths? The last time I checked, we punish politicians and civil servants for lying. What should the penalty for journalistic lying be?

Unfortunately, we cannot easily thwart the power of modern media over the flow of news. We can however, abandon modern media in favor of new media. Independent publications, television, radio, and internet sites represent the small but growing rebellion against the excesses of modern media gone bad. The more people who turn to these alternative outlets, the less power the modern media has and the more chance there is for reform.

Of course, searching out and using such alternatives requires a conscious decision on every individual’s part. Further, it requires each individual to test those sources for their reliability.

Perhaps, those actions are the real answer to the problem of modern media gone bad. When citizens take responsibility for their news and their politics, there is little need for estates of any kind. The people are the final estate of libertarian democracy, and we should use that power accordingly.

-=DLH=-

Cross-posted on Dennis L Hitzeman’s Worldview Weblog

The demise of the American fish wrap

Recent news reveals the rapid decline of the American newspaper. Some even claim that the American newspaper is dead. Many people put forth many reasons why, but I believe the answer is simple.

Somewhere along the line, American newspapers stopped providing Americans the resources they wanted.

Since the advent of television news, American newspapers felt they had to compete with other forms of media to remain the source of breaking news and to remain the source of record. Along the way, however, Americans realized that they can get different kinds of news from different kinds of sources, but many newspapers failed to adapt to the new niches new ways of delivering the news created.

One niche that newspapers have ignored is local news. I am not talking about reporting on how many murders or fires happened, but what is going on in the place that the paper claims to serve. I am not talking about a glorified community calendar, but in depth coverage of what is going right, what is going wrong, and how the paper’s readers can be involved.

Newspapers have also missed the niche of impact. Local newspapers are in a better position than any other kind of news organization to deliver in-depth coverage of local, state, national, and international news in a way that makes such news relevant to local readers.

How can papers fill these niches? Simply by focusing themselves locally. Bigger papers need to create multiple, hyper-local editions. Smaller papers need to focus on what is going on outside their own front doors. Papers need to employ people who write for the benefit of other people, even if those writers are not “trained journalists”. Papers need to focus not just on events, not just on problems, but on trends, ideas, and solutions as well.

The newspapers that will survive the current changing marketplace will be the ones who see these niches and exploit them. The ones that fail will be the ones that continue to try to be something their readers to not want or need them to be.

Maybe I should go start a paper. I bet I could buy the Dayton Daily Fishwrap (News) in a couple of years because I understand what would sell papers.

-=DLH=-

Cross-posted on Dennis L Hitzeman’s Worldview Weblog

Cross-posted at A Host of Contributing Factors

Journalistic pursuits?

I have long been hard on journalism and journalists, which is why it may come as a surprise to some that I am writing a weblog about those subjects. In fact, some may think that this weblog is another attempt on my part to, in their view, attack journalism and journalists.

Quite to the contrary, I started taking journalism classes in the fall of 2007 as part of my ongoing education as a writer, and I believe that some essence of the ideas of journalism cannot help but become part of my writing. While I may disagree with some of the deeply held tenets of journalism, it is still writing, and as a result, it has something to teach.

I am actually in journalism classes at all because of the proxy advice of a friend. He was once a journalism student and a journalist himself, and he advised that his experience as a journalist was formative to his later writing. I believe that all writing experience can only help the writer, so I followed his advice and decided to take some classes.

What I have discovered so far is that I am still a detractor of journalism because I find its ideals unattainable and its fundamentals misguided; however, I have also discovered that journalistic writing has much to offer writers in general, especially when it comes to writing succinctly and in gathering information upon which writing will be based.

So, in a way, my writing is becoming journalistic, but not in the traditional sense. This weblog is dedicated to my pursuit to discover what parts of journalism I can fold into my own writing and what parts I cannot. It is my belief that, whatever conclusions I reach, the end result will be me as a more developed writer, which was my goal from the beginning.