{"id":3442,"date":"2008-10-10T06:29:25","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T11:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3442"},"modified":"2008-10-20T17:46:20","modified_gmt":"2008-10-20T22:46:20","slug":"calling-bs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3442","title":{"rendered":"Calling BS"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I have one strength\u00a0in life, it’s that I’ve done my best to keep myself\u00a0mobile as far as career options go.\u00a0 I’m on my third career (fourth if you count my time\u00a0as a\u00a0nightclub DJ, and I certainly don’t), and I’ve done my best, so far, to\u00a0try to make and keep myself as marketable as possible, and to try to rely on me<\/em>, rather\u00a0than a job or union or company, to ensure my viability.<\/p>\n

In hard times, there are no guarantees; even being\u00a0adaptible and\u00a0light on your feet aren’t going to pay the mortgage if things come to a crashing halt.\u00a0 But every little bit helps, as they say.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course,\u00a0the news media – especially traditional\u00a0“journalism” – have been depressing rapidly for quite some time, now.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Jeff Jarvis, himself a J-School faculty member,\u00a0judges the journalism biz, finds them wanting, and they’ve brought it on themselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fall of journalism is, indeed, journalists\u2019 fault.<\/p>\n

It is our fault that we did not see the change coming soon enough and ready our craft for the transition. It is our fault that we did not see and exploit \u2014 hell, we resisted \u2014 all the opportunities new media and new relationships with the public presented. It is our fault that we did not give adequate stewardship to journalism and left the business to the business people. It is our fault that we lost readers and squandered trust. It is our fault that we sat back and expected to be supported in the manner to which we had become accustomed by some unknown princely patron. Responsibility and blame are indeed ours.<\/p>\n

[The WaPo’s Paul] Farhi\u2019s rationalization<\/a> on behalf of his fellow journalists makes many bad assumptions and blind turns and Greenslade only follows him down those alleys, piping in with (my emphases follow) an \u201cunhesitating<\/em> answer\u201d of no to accusations of journalistic guilt. \u201cThere cannot<\/em> be any doubt <\/em>that journalists themselves \u2026 cannot<\/em> be held responsible for either the financial woes of the industry nor for the public turning its back on the \u2018products\u2019 that contain their work.\u201d He piles on: \u201cThey are blameless<\/em>.\u201d They have \u201cno reason<\/em> to feel guilty\u2026. It isn\u2019t our fault<\/em>\u2026. The truth<\/em> is that we are being assailed<\/em> by revolutionary technological forces completely outside of our control<\/em>\u2026. We journalists are not<\/em> [his emphasis] paying the price for our own (alleged<\/em>) failures\u2026. you are not the cause<\/em> of the current calamity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hack doth protest too much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The old model – journalists as high priests of knowledge, passing information down the hierarchy to the unwashed masses – has been dying for a decade.\u00a0 Drudge put the bullet in the gun; Powerline pulled the trigger four years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yet the people in the newsrooms still cling to that old model:<\/p>\n

The internet does not just present a few glittery toys. It presents the circumstances to change our relationship with the public, to work collaboratively<\/font><\/a> in networks<\/font><\/a>, to find new efficiencies<\/font><\/a> thanks to the link<\/font><\/a>, to rethink how we cover and present news<\/font><\/a>. No, the essence of the problem is that we thought the internet represented just a new gadget and not a fundamental change in society, the economy, and thus journalism.<\/p>\n

By maintaining the newspaper and its newsroom as essentially static entities, Farhi also makes the common and dangerous assumption that their budgets are also fixed: They are what they are because they always have been and so that\u2019s what they need to be. So it\u2019s not their fault that they need to be supported at that level. But newsrooms are terribly inefficient and too many of their expenses were fueled by ego<\/font><\/a>. We bear business responsibility. That is why I am teaching business<\/font><\/a> in a journalism school, so we can be better stewards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like most of what Jarvis writes, it’s worth a read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I have one strength\u00a0in life, it’s that I’ve done my best to keep myself\u00a0mobile as far as career options go.\u00a0 I’m on my third career (fourth if you count my time\u00a0as a\u00a0nightclub DJ, and I certainly don’t), and I’ve done my best, so far, to\u00a0try to make and keep myself as marketable as possible, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-and-the-market","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}