I’m Not Going to Be a Journalist, and You Can’t Make Me. (Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That)
As we in Alaska watch the sad shrinking of the Anchorage Daily News, we wonder with more than a little trepedation what will happen to print journalism as we all settle into the digital age.
I was talking to a friend recently about the fact that the ADN will be drastically cut back, and what might happen if it became an online only publication. She was traumatized. “But….it’s my PAPER!” she lamented. I asked what her morning routine was, and she described making the pot of coffee, letting the dog out, and sitting with her paper in her bathrobe, taking in the news before getting ready for work. Then I told her about my morning routine. Stumble out of bed, into shower, let the dog out, get to work early, make pot of coffee, sit at my computer and peruse the ADN website, and the blogs before work.
She needs paper. I don’t. But that said, I empathize. Because, frankly, if there were no more books, and we all had to get that Amazon Kindle thing, I would be in despair. With books, I want a cover. I want paper. I want to turn pages. I want to write in the margins. I do not want a “wireless reading device.” But newspapers? They hang around the house in stacks, and have to get recycled, and turn your fingers black. And I never was able to perfect the delicate art of folding that gigantic thing over into a readable size without looking like a bumbling idiot. For me, the web version is sleek and clean, and saves me time and effort. It is all about our routine, our comfort, our habit. And nobody likes theirs messed with, no matter what it is.
In addition to cutting back on the paper paper, ADN has also had to cut back on staff. This is not a good thing. If I were a media monarch, I’d double the staff, but I’m not. I remember once, long ago, talking with my elderly Grandmother, born in the 19th century, who remembered the conversation of the day, “What will happen to the lamplighters?” when her city started getting electric street lights. I don’t know what happened to the lamplighters, or the cobblers, or the blacksmiths. I don’t know what will happen to newspapers, or print journalists, or to the dynamic of public conversation. But a shift is underway, that much is certain.
Print journalists in Alaska are nervous. It feels like a barn full of horses that have sensed a storm coming. They’re a little testy, and jittery, and they’re breathing a little heavy, like nervous horses do. And this is a phenomenon that is happening across the country, not just here in Alaska. It’s understandable.
And as happens with nervous horses, sometimes they can trample stuff that’s nearby. There was an article in this week’s Anchorage Press which talks about the troubles at the ADN and other newspapers, and then goes on to say:
This is the point in the conversation where someone usually pipes up about blogs and the democratization of media and the Long Tail, and so forth. True, the web has spawned some decent journalism—check out the Alaska Dispatch, a group blog run by former Pressers. But for every solid blog like the Dispatch there are a dozen other bloggers who’d rather pick a fight than pick up a phone and do some actual reporting.
I wholeheartedly agree, that the Alaska Dispatch is great. I found them on their first or second day, I think, and stuck them right in the blogroll.
But there’s a larger point here that could use some further discussion. Anyone who has ever perused the blogosphere, even in a cursory way, realizes that blogs run the gamut from rediculous, to horrifying, to funny, to invaluable sources of information. It’s like the internet itself. One amorphous collection of the very best and the very worst of human nature, all available at the click of a mouse. And the blogosphere is the same. Now any person with internet access, be they psychopath, philosopher, or anything in between can say something “aloud”, and with a click of the “Publish” button, anyone else in the world with internet access can read it.
So, it is misleading to think that all “bloggers” are the same. Conservative pundits are fond of saying that bloggers are all pimple-faced teenage kids in their parents’ basement, eating Cheetos and stirring up trouble. I’m sure there are some out there who are exactly that. And in the interest of full disclosure, I’ll confess to you that drafting this post late at night, I am in my pajamas, but am not in my parents basement, and I am eating cashews. So make of that what you will.
It’s also mistaken, I think, to suggest that there are “a dozen other bloggers who’d rather pick a fight than pick up a phone and do some actual reporting” is looking at this the wrong way. Are bloggers, and should they be, considered journalists? Again, some bloggers ARE journalists. Most are not. If they were, journalists might be in worse trouble than they are now because that would mean there were a lot of people doing their job for free.
I can only speak for myself, but here goes. I am not a jouralist. I don’t want to be one, and I’m glad I’m not.
This is not to say there’s anything wrong with being a journalist. Au contraire. I admire journalists, and know that I could never do their job. And with the help of an online dictionary, I’ll tell you why.
Journalism:
The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.
I don’t know what kind of willpower it would take for me to be a good journalist, but it would have to be superhuman. To “present facts or occurences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation” is a very very valuable thing. It is a skill which I do not possess.
“Journalism” for me would be like someone telling me I could go to a party, as long as I promised not to have any fun. I leave that to those diligent, objective, determined souls for whom this is a calling.
So, we’ve established I’m not a journalist. Then what am I? Before you worry that I’m about to have some kind of existential crisis right here for all to see, rest assured, I have an answer. Back to the dictionary.
Polemicist: A person skilled or involved in polemics.
Polemics:
The art or practice of argumentation or controversy.Argumentation:
The presentation and elaboration of an argument or arguments.Argument:
A discussion in which disagreement is expressed; a debate.
Now we’re talking. It took a quadruple dictionary look-up, but there you have it. I am a polemecist, and I feel much better.
I have a feeling that there are many other bloggers who can identify with this self-diagnosis. And like the voices of the past that wrote in diaries, or stood on soapboxes on street corners, posted writs in the public square, or who wrote letters to the editor (and continue to do so today), polemecists have a place. The crown jewel of a free democracy is the ability to raise one’s voice, say what one wants to say, and throw those ideas and opinions out into the wide world to encourage discussion and debate. And thanks to the internet, the world gets wider every day. Ain’t it grand.
All that said, I shall, with joy, leave journalism to the journalists, and I shall continue to inhabit my little polemical world, giving all those in the aforementioned profession complete permission to ignore me at will, and go about their important business, or to join the conversation.
Bully for you (and all the rest of us who don’t want to be journalists but relish all the rest of it…)!
Phew I’m glad you cleared that up
You may be more of a journalist than you realize. What you are really describing when you talk about those who write objective fact stories in newspapers is “reporters”, not true journalists, those who “journalize” or opine on the controversies of their day.
All this nonsense about objective presentation of “facts” is really a 20th century construct. Think of the great journalists Pope, Swift, Twain. If you chose this label, you would be in good company and legitimately so.
At least you’re not a “pundint”.
I have enough trouble with the Queen’s English.
The ADN need look no further than its own offices if it wants to worry about people who claim to be reporters but won’t pick up a phone and do some actual reporting.
@duct idaho palin (14:20:44) :
Hear, hear!
Your post reminds me of a fascinating book I read recently entitled “The Starfish and the Spider”, about the changing face of business.
I, too, read my news online. Unlike SP, I can’t afford to have every newspaper delivered to my door, also.
A polemicist you are, and a great one at that. Thanks.
I am not a hippie. In fact, I remember a time when hippies did not exist. It was called the Beat era with it’s heart in North Beach in San Francisco in the late 50′s before “Beatnik” became a common noun.
Polemics:
The art or practice of argumentation or controversy.
Polemics was the foundation of this generation and it changed our society in ways more than anyone imagined. Some ways for the worse, but mainly for the better.
It is what the hippies forgot when they picked up our lead and followed our trail, unfortunately, more often than not, with only a change in clothing and slang.
Now is the time that Polemics are needed more than ever, as evidenced by the emotional extreme right, reacting to their feelings of inferiority with fear rather than logic or reason.
While journalism must be objective–too often used as an excuse to not make subjective statements when something is obvious, i.e. Palin’s obvious incompetence, dishonesty, delusion etc–polemics can and should address such issues.
We have created a society of “victims”– you are a victim and not responsible, if you are overweigh ( blame McDonalds), you are a victim if you smoke, if you are an alcoholic, if you do drugs,if you are uneducated, if you are poor, if you are gay, if you are female, and on and on. No wonder the undereducated, unshophisticated, unworldly, unconscious radical extreme right gather in extreme fundamentalist churches to find solace for their being “victims” of the elitist, educated, intelligent, motivated, aware who DO have what it takes to be leaders, thinkers, artists, businessmen and who can, and should be, just as “moral” as this extreme right claims itself to be, to the exclusion, discrimination, and bigotry shown to others not of their own ilk. We are not all created equal and we are not all able to achieve as much as others are able. That should not make us feel like “victims”, but should motivate us as a society to raise the bar for everyone.
When we call others “victims” we place ourselves above them and all that engenders is resentment, anger, frustration and hate.
Polemics in “media”, I think, can be a great step toward getting those who feel they are “Victims” to realize there is a difference between being victimized and in being a “victim.” We are all victimized in one way or another, that does not mean we have to “be victims.”
Critical thinking and introspection are the first step to good Polemics.
It’s about time our “Media” indulged in critical thought out polemics.
Wow, AKM you never cease to amaze me. I was just emailing a friend who’d sent me his latest novel on PDF, and telling him I wishing I had a Kindle, or something like it, because my laptop is so uncomfortable to fall asleep on/with. I’m one of those that has over 600 books stacked here, there and everywhere all over my house and am always looking for ways to pass them forward. My hubby is the paper reader and we have even more stacks of paper, in boxes and boxes in our many out buildings (old sheds and unused barns), to be burned when we run out of wood. When the price is right I do make him take them to the recycling center, but there for awhile it cost more to cart them down there than we got for them.
I’ve come to the time in my life that I want to down size and I just don’t need anymore paper anything. I love having all the choices afforded me online. I’m ready to save the trees and completely go to online print media. So, journalist get online if you want me to read you. Don’t be surprised however if I spend more time with like minded polemics, though. I can just take so much of the other guys. You go AKM. You simply rock!
Well, said Liz P. “It’s about time!”
I’m surprised that The Press, which has presented itself as an alternative paper since its inception, is not more supportive of the blogosphere. When The Press initially came out it seemed to me to be primarily unobjective pieces, definately liberal. That’s not to say its pieces were not researched or factual, but they were (are) slanted to the left, to put it mildly.
Too bad that they chose to generalize — perhaps they were misquoted or paraphrased by the ADN.
Very well written, very well said…It was Brian Williams the other day though that said what will happen if all the newspapers die.. who will keep track of the city council meetings, who will report on them, who will report on the school board meetings. Blogs are great, but someone has to go to the meetings and report on them.
So, while I can agree to a certain extent with everything going on line, we also have to have some reporters out in the field to do the job. So, I will still buy my paper…even if it is a pain in the neck sometimes. lol I do both…I read the local in paper and I read the out side papers online.
“I can only speak for myself, but here goes. I am not a jouralist. I don’t want to be one, and I’m glad I’m not.”
Me not either –
I know you didn’t mean to, but you made me giggle.
As I have been reading posts, comments, blogs, articles far and wide, I have come to some conclusions and confirmation of previous conclusions. The product of what sometimes gets in ‘print’ presently seems to not be easily identifiable as the tail wagging the dog or the dog wagging the tail. People aren’t assumed not to be educated enough, generally, to digest serious news, therefore, we have less quality and serious news. However, part of the reason people are not educated enough to process well done quality news stories is because the news outlets don’t help educate them.
The benefit of good quality news outlets is that there are editors and people who will, hopefully, expect accuracy of content and hold reporters accountable. Through the internet, a nice looking website that is well designed and presentable, can contain totally erroneous and misleading information. A good journalist will report facts and let the public reflect on what that information means to them. As a friend of mine used to say, if you have something you want said in the story, search out a source that will put forth the alternative perspectives or explain conclusions that can be drawn from facts presented in the story. If you are the journalist, don’t do it yourself. That doesn’t mean you can’t take the time to interview people and get their story out.
It is extremely important that the public learn how to determine the quality of information. I took an online class this summer that taught how to verify the source of information on a website – who sponsored it and other things that could help determine the validity of information. There are clues in the address, for example, to let the reader know about the source of an article. One example was articles that may be found on edu sites – the article may be published by the educational institution or may just be written by a student and is hosted on the site. Hopefully our kids will be information literate to understand who to employ critical thinking and know and understand how to evaluate information sources. It will be more and more important as the internet makes it possible for both and benevolent and the malicious to hide behind the curtain.
Got distracted there at the end – hope you all can make sense of that… correction –
Hopefully our kids will be sufficiently information-literate to understand HOW to employ critical thinking to evaluate information sources. It will be more and more important as the internet makes it possible for both and benevolent and the malicious to hide behind the curtain.
I give up…
I want to make sure I say this correctly…Polemicist..could someone phonetically spell that for me PLEASE
“The ADN need look no further than its own offices if it wants to worry about people who claim to be reporters but won’t pick up a phone and do some actual reporting.”
This probably could be said of all the papers that are now in the process of becoming “gone.”
Reporters used to go get news. Now they have it come to them in press releases, propaganda, communications directors, aids, and all those wonderful “anonymous sources. — (no need to investigate to see if it’s true).
Cut, paste, print.
It’s a shame. I liked the paper when people actually practiced “journalism.”
Now that they practice “stenography”. Now, I’m an internet reader looking for some investigative reporting, and some original thinking, like most folks.
But don’t mess with my books. That truly would be after the fight.
I believe it would be puh-LEM-i-sist or poh-LEM-i-sist… the first syllable is kind of a blurred “o.”
Gold star to duct idaho — blurred “o” describes it perfectly. Too bad dictionaries havn’t figured out how to describe sounds that everyone can understand that easily…
I still prefer a book that is a book, with the cover, pages to turn, as you said, and definitely with margins where I can make notes. I’m not ready to give that up.
However, we already only take the weekend editions of the Seattle Times/PI. We sometimes get the free local paper that is delivered two of three times a week – I’m never sure, as we don’t always get one. That is the one with the articles on the school board, the city council, the local events, and the editorials that I actually do care to read (I don’t usually bother with the ones in the Seattle Times/PI. I guess I could read that on-line, but frankly, haven’t tried. Hubby reads his news on-line every day when he first gets to work early, but I watch the noon news or the national news on TV (probably not the best choice), or listen to whatever is on NPR when I am in the car.
The problem that I see with all of it, is that most journalists/reporters have lost the definition of their own profession. I remember taking one journalism class in high school, which I enjoyed from the standpoint that I learned to edit as I write and sort out fact from opinion. However, it was never something I wanted as a job. But most of what is out there, whether in print or on the TV or radio is really factual only anymore. It’s all slanted to one side or the other. So I think somewhere in the process we have lost any honest attempt at journalism. And that, in itself, is very sad.
Pat
problem child…. I am having the crummiest day and your gold star lit me up! thanks a bunch.
AKM -yes, I have been a long time lurker. You are a wonderful writer. But you still do some journalistic investigations. Don’t change.
I have learned much from this whole Mudflats dialogue. I am an arthritic senior, but, I still like a cuppa with my paper (in Central KY it’s not much) and my feet up.
Yes, I read NYT on the computer, but I do not read everything. I would probably read more if I had it in paper form (and could have feet up).
OK, this does not have to do with the above, but I haven’t figured it all out. I would be glad to test drive recipes for the cook book. Just no desserts.
Lots jobs have gone by the wayside over the years. The menfolk in my family were watchmakers and now people buy watches and toss them out when they break.
But, when it comes to cobblers, I just so happen to have seen a news segment today talking about how tailors and cobblers have done well during this economic disaster. People are going in to have their shoes repaired now and some people are totally new customers who weren’t even familiar w/ the profession of cobbler.
This isn’t what I saw today, but it covers similar information.
http://www.abc40tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9589013
Liz P. (14:52:45) :
Great post.
Ditto eerything you said.
I’ve been reading newspapers online since. . . a while. (Don’t ask me to do backwards math. . . )
But my usual routine is walk the dogs in the early AM before the sun rises, make a pot of coffee, turn on computer. . .pour cup of coffee. . . sit down and read NYTimes, WaPo, The Guardian, The McClatchy Washington Bureau, and the online edition of my local newsrag. . .feed the dogs/cats. . . read about 4-5 blogs. . .respond to a few. . . check email and respond as required. . . shower, get changed and be at work no later than 8AM. I don’t print newspapers anymore. But I love books – I can toss out most anything, but don’t even think of touching my books unless you want to lose a hand or even the entire arm! I like to underline, to argue in the margins, to speculate, to “talk” with or back to the author or characters, I like the smell of a new book, the crispness of the page as you turn it, the snap of the binding when you first open a new book. . . Kindle can’t offer that – so for me Kindle Kan’t.
We are in a tizzy at my house because we just got a notice that the Omaha World-Herald will discontinue daily paper delivery to our area of the state. Now, realize that we are approx. 300 mi by road from Omaha, but it is still the only daily paper we have access to – and it’s going away.
I do read news and blogs online, but my wife and I also love to sit and read the paper. We can’t browse the internet together while eating breakfast, and we can’t work the crossword puzzle together at the computer. It just isn’t the same.
I also like to have my hands on a real book, but I wouldn’t mind reading many books electronically (if they ever come up with a good, cheap reader) but I really don’t want to give up my daily newspaper.
We will actually still be able to get the paper delivered via postal mail (at a higher price), but it won’t be day-of-print delivery. We wouldn’t get the Sunday paper by mail until Wednesday.
“…the times they are a changin’ “
I too read both paper & online news. But I love my daily crossword puzzles, and hate online crossword puzzles .
I’ve been a newspaper lifer working in the industry until just last year. There is a lot of truth to what you’ve stated. The news is simply a statement of events reported publicly. At some point we’ve demanded credibility to our news and so we will with blogs.
The demise of the newspaper industry is that it’s trying to be two things at once: print and news. Print is dying, content providers are thriving. McClatchy, and many other organizations, are focusing their business saving efforts on keeping print, tv, radio revenue while cutting their staff to provide content. Each media type seems to be limited to their respective bandwidth limitations and can not look beyond. It’s foolish to be so short-sighted.
I could go on and on. These companies have let all the smart people go and are shells of their former selves. At this point, the only benefit of the local newspaper is consistency in covering meetings and presenting the “important” news in collected form. Huffington Post and good citizen “reporters” are showing it can be done without all the “overhead” of the newspaper.
I have started over two or three times to explain about journalism. I give up. If you get it, you love it and it owns you body and soul.
Digging up those facts and just laying them out there can be a bigger kick than it sounds.
During the election, I tried to take on the mantle of one of the self-canonized pundits called political bloggers. It was a big change. As I blasted out my missives, something inside me was still saying – “can you say that?”. There is a lot to be said to examining more than one side in a calm, objective way.
However, I prattle on. Sad thing is when you talk about news layoffs you are not talking about people with bloated 401K’s, golden parachutes and resources. For the most part, they are making maybe what a teacher pulls in, but with less benefits. I was interviewing a firefighter about salary negotiations and the base figure was one with which he was not happy.
“How can anyone live on that?” he asked.
I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, “I don’t know, but I’d sure like to try.”
Also, one thing that goes incredibly overlooked amidst the hue and cry against the “Mainstream Media” (what illiterate started MSM?). Very few bloggers, and even very few pundits, are working with raw information. They put their spin on it. They put their take on it. However, they would have nothing if the journalists weren’t out there slogging in the slush to report on the move to locally grown produce by high-end eateries and greasy spoons and other career-making stories everyday.
Cheers!
I can’t say that I am a big fan of ADN, and what they post online is good enough. Think of all the trees you will save!
This year, after getting “the paper” for about 20 years, I decided to stop. It made no sense to subscribe to my local paper. They had invested much effort into their advertising. For instance, in order to read the headline, I had to remove a sticker that was an advertisement. Can you imagine covering up a headline with an ad?!?! Then, I had to unfold the paper like unfolding an origami crane just to put things in order to read it. It shouldn’t be a PIA to read a paper! Once this was done, and all advertising inserts were put aside, I found that the majority of the newsprint was devoted to car ads. The rest to county board and school board “news” where the “reporter” went to a meeting. There was no journalism or news there. Republishing AP stories or reporting on the results of a meeting are not journalism or news to me. There is so much going on in the world; local, national and international, to investigate and report on. But they aren’t doing it. So, my money is no longer going to my “paper”. They aren’t doing the job.
I’ll say it again. What I love about your writing is that its absolutely clear when you’re writing about facts, or your analysis of those facts, or your personal reaction to those facts.
Its a kind of honesty that is rare and refreshing.
Many bloggers are tempted to bend or distort or ignore the facts to suit their conclusions. Their arguments are rationalizations to justify their positions and persuade others with ginned up and dubious arguments.
One gets the feeling that we have found in you, someone who is forthrightly and honestly ‘reporting’ on your own state of mind; that you’ve chosen to share your perspective and observations, and that you lead us through your thought process, as if in a diary, but one with clarity honesty and organization, suitable for public disclosure. And bang there it is, in public.
I was curious about what this AKM person was writing about.
I came to mudflats to get an “insider’s” perspective of Palin and Alaskan politics. – A progressive who is paying attention, and feels compelled to write it out. Yep, that rings true. Thats what I got.
But I also got a reliable familiar friend in AK, someone I could reliably turn to and get an honest opinion, and sometimes, a mathematically precise razor sharp argument. I also got humor and good will.
All the criticism of AK pols is expressing disappointment in them falling short of what you believe in, and from time to time you laud those you admire, and praise and support causes you believe in. Its not just griping.
Your writing is not pretending to be the real objective truth. It is what it is, yet in that I find more truth and honesty in that than journalists that never make it clear how much spin they’ve put on a story. And you certainly have made it clear you’re not selecting stories that sell sell sell!
Great job.
As long as you’re willing to write every day. I’m happy to read it every day.
Happy 2009.
Can’t improve on the words of Dr Chill. Thanks AKM.
@ Lance the Boil aka Crust ScrambleNo Gravatar (14:43:22) :
Your post reminds me of a fascinating book I read recently entitled “The Starfish and the Spider”, about the changing face of business.
Love this book. This makes concepts of decentralized self-organization clear and interesting. Not a new way of thinking, but one whose time has come.
AKM – You hit the nail on the head – and you are the best at doing it that I have come across. I thank you for giving me something to look forward to every day. Don’t ever change. Or if you do change, I’m sure I will like that too. I just hope you keep on keepin’ on. Thanks.
My local paper has never been very good, and even as it is ‘withering on the vine’, I’ll have it delivered until it goes out of business. In fact, I seem to appreciate it more than ever.
Some people won’t drink before noon. I would hate to start the day, sitting in front of the computer.
AKM…
You continue to exceed yourself!!!
I look forward to and enjoy your eloquence more every day!!
Thanks and as we all believe there’s lots & lots ahead down the road!
I have a friend who used to work at the Sac Bee, part of the McClatchy group from the beginning, I think. She said she loved being a journalist because she was paid to be nosy! She’s also a smart aleck, and I love her–she bailed me out of a rental that caught on fire by letting me live with her. Now, she works for the state. I think there is a use to papers, but if the content is crap, no one is going to buy. Then they need the overload of ads, then the quality goes down, and now you have a death spiral of an industry.
Someone needs to be holding people’s feet to the fire, I just hope that they can think critically when they do. Once a boss asked me for my feedback and said “keep doing that critical thinking”. I said, “What critical thinking, I was just thinking! Why are we wasting resources on copying a competitor’s product if we don’t even know if it’s any good?!?!?!” It’s probably because someone’s year-end bonus depended on it….the company introduced it, and it didn’t even sell 5 of the product. What a waste of money and resources.
The problem is if we outsource all the decent paying jobs, whether journalists, high-tech, actuarial/accounting, etc., there will be no one who can afford the high-priced stuff we make and try to sell. No buyers, no revenue, no money, no fun.
Wow, Forty WattNo Gravatar (17:38:13) : , can’t believe I’ve met someone who’s read this book. I’ve been suggesting it to family, friends and acquaintances. Nice to meet you.
akm
You can tell that you love alaska and the people that live there, because of you a lot of us now know alaska and care about the people there.. I sit here in oregon and think that it was 23 degrees for a couple of weeks and then I think of what a -20 or -30 would be like. Last week ( in your local paper) I read about some of the rural communities not being able to sign their fuel contracts on time and now they have to pay higher costs to have fuel flown in. ms palin is out doing photo ops, she should have had a plan for this..she could have promised payment …some thing to have helped out..any way sorry got carried away…but bottom line is with out you doing what you do….none of us would have know, what was and is going on in Alaska…Thank you
Great post, AKM. While I cancelled my local paper, I loved it and miss true journalism (it was a delivery problem related to my disabilities – whole other story). However, they are now going to only publishing three days a week – this is the major city paper in Detroit! The times are indeed changing. I don’t mind terribly the change in delivery systems, but I still want true journalism along with the polemicists (sometimes called columnists in the print world). With regard to books, I’m with most of the other Mudpuppies: I want covers and pages I can turn and write on. I have a Sony reader and the darn thing runs out of power so often, it’s collecting dust. My book friends don’t need batteries or charging and I love them!
A very interesting topic, and I think one deserving of a LOT of discussion. The points you raise are all valid. We hate to have the papers stack up; while a renewable/recyclable resource, it does impact the environment.
But I too like paper. I read both papers and internet. I don’t like reading a computer screen all that much, it hurts my eyes. I cannot envision sitting in the tub with a kindle..
Maybe print media is doomed, maybe not.
My concern is journalism and ethics. Who will report the local news? Who will go to Iraq or Darfur or those places and GET THE STORY??? There are blogs, true. But we know that a lot of CRAP and mis information circulates the internet.. who monitors what every Tom, Dick or Mary writes????
I would pay more for the newspaper or magazine. I want REAL journalists doing the research, checking and re checking the sources, following the leads.. I want to KNOW that the information is credible. Will that happen if there are no newspapers? I do not know.
A free press is vital for a democracy/ IF newspapers go completely online- or mostly online, as the Christian Science Monitor recently did, how will the paper make enough money to pay the editors and writers? Will they still survive?
If there are no newspapers and journalists, how will bloggers get paid? How will they be able to get the story?
I do not have the answers, but I do have a lot of concerns.
@NoCalGalNo Gravatar (20:14:43)
I think your concerns are valid and well-reasoned.
A free press is vital for a democracy/ IF newspapers go completely online- or mostly online, as the Christian Science Monitor recently did, how will the paper make enough money to pay the editors and writers? Will they still survive?
Remember, from Fox News to Huffington Post, journalism is a business, like it or not.
Thanks for a great P-word: polemicist. Polemics unfortunately cuts both ways. The right has their windbags; we have ours. Except OURS make sense.
Someone at DailyKos (clammyc?) wrote a few days ago that he held a dying paper in his arms, referring to the newly scrawny LA Times. My local paper too is a shadow of its former mediocre self, but we have no decent blogger covering the local news so I still subscribe…
Newspapers are like other media such as the movies, TV, and music. Their business model has failed. The get-well programs that are experimented with also fail since they are more of the same. I have hundreds of channels on my TV but 99% is schlock. I remember when A&E and Bravo and even BBC America had interesting shows. It gets worse every year. Movies are in a vicious cycle. The movie houses have priced themselves out of the market and the industry has a shorter and shorter period to DVD. Some movies go straight to DVD like some books go straight to paperback.
Newspapers are no different. Apparently TV news is the same. I guess we will wind down to a few papers and the wire services before someone comes up with a better way to make a business.
Advertising as the backbone of information is as nuts as employment being the backbone of medical care.
I posted earlier on my love of reading a daily paper. However, on the other side of the argument, how much of what is in a daily paper is really important, time-critical news? In all honesty, I think I actually get more useable information from reading a weekly news magazine (Newsweek, etc). Because of the lack of a daily deadline, they have the time to distill the week’s events and present the important news along with thoughtful analysis.
So much of what passes for daily ‘news’ (on TV and in print) amounts to liquor store holdups, murders, car wrecks, etc. that I really have no interest in. The “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality holds no attraction for me.
As some others here have suggested, I think one thing we really lose in the distributed model of reporting (blogs, etc) is the editorial control that demands objectivity and factual truth. As witnessed by Fox News and their ilk, people are tending to gravitate to outlets that simply reinforce their preconceptions and biases. In doing so, we lose the opportunity to hear a reasonable explanation of both sides of the issues. We become increasingly insular in our opinions, more strident in our opposition to those who disagree with us and I think the quality of public discourse suffers.
I’m very tired of the polarization in America. My perception of Obama’s bipartisanship and even-handedness was one reason I was so strongly in support of his candidacy. We need that in our news and information sources, but I think we are in danger of losing it
…seems to me that a polemicist should be published in a newspaper. There might, then, be more of a readership… especially if it were AKM, the Polemicist Extraordinaire!
infotainment is not news… people magazine is not the NYTimes… or the Washington Post.
I would pay more to keep those institutions alive. I think they are vital…
I loved my daily paper too — but after years of having the dang thing thrown every which way but at my front door (and these were adults in cars delivering), decided I had had enough. I’m too old to go searching through the bushes for my daily paper — the internet is where I go from the comfort of my computer — now if I can keep the cable up and running at all times, I’m in business…..
Having worked for the ADN and seen it from the inside, I’m of the opinion it’s always been slanted and never was about really offering the cold hard facts of real journalism, so less of it will not bother me. I read everything…online and on paper. I love my books and I love my computer and I love my eBookman (I’ll kill for the Sony reader, not the Kindle, tho). I’m not happy that ADN has outsourced so many of their departments outside the USA and if it were up to me, we wouldn’t be getting it daily, but it makes the DH happy, so I shut up and look at it now and then when he’s done with it. Actually, the advertising is really the only useful part of it anymore.
Ok, I just looked into why my eyelid was twitching, and the first thing that came up on Google said stress, too much caffiene, and reading on the computer. In my case, it looks like the reading on the computer is it, because I am a decaf drinker! The stress level is going DOWN because we are almost rid of Shrub! I’m going to take a break from reading this, PalinDeception.com and HuffPo on line, but will be back to the ‘flats tomorrow! Let me know if something big turns up on PalinDeception.com–I’m going to read the local and LATimes paper verisions now. ‘Night!
LOL, nswfm CA, thanks for the information on eyelid twitching. Mine have been doing that a lot. It could be caffeine for me, because I drink a lot of tea all day. But I have been on the computer a lot more lately, so that makes sense. Nice to know, though – I was beginning to think that something else might be really wrong with my eyes.
Excellent essay, Muckraker. I like the word polemicist, too, if I could spell it, haha.
People (journalists, spoil-sports) like to slam bloggers for being “biased” or having a “slanted” point of view. I prefer to think that we have an uncensored voice. Writing for free gives us freedom.
The words I would use are commentator, essayist, gadfly, or Devil’s Advocate.
From Wikipedia: “Gadfly” is a term for people who upset the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or just being an irritant.
That’s what I do on my blog, and I know I irritate people and shake things up, sometimes by design. And I am lucky enough to have several friendly regulars with brilliant minds who are brave enough to drop by to give their own two cents worth, and to me that is the real gold of blogging.
@AKM,
I bet Polemicists make better tips than Journalists, am I right?
(grins)
Us reading the newspaper online does nothing for a newspaper’s revenue. And for them, that’s a huge problem.
I’ve also noticed that my online newspaper stories do not contain as many facts as do the print versions. That’s a problem for those of us who like to read all the details. Will we be happy being only half informed and in reading only half the news that’s fit to print?
McClatchey is a fine newspaper company. That cannot be said about them all. There’s one similar company on the East Coast, but this one is closing down. Over 100 newspapers owned by that company are due to shut down. And with them, some very fine journalists. (No, not Sarah Palin-type “journalists.”)
The revolution was not televised.
Just as the printing press was a major catalyst for the Reformation – it broke the Catholics monopoly on printing the Bible with scribes – the Internet ‘tubes’ (thanks Ted) have redefined the nature of research and disseminating information.
The 24/7 news cycle of cable television was the first blow to print media. But now with the Internet an individual can instantaneously verify or discredit information that the television delivers.
My first winter in Montana (1979-80) I lived in a wood heated cold water shack where my only sources of outside information was the daily paper and AM radio. Needless to say I would be a little perturbed if that paper delivery was late.
Now I live in more comfortable circumstances but still a bit off the beaten path – no cell phone service – but like you I’m up with my coffee and perusing the blogs and news sites before first light.
And it’s not just the blogs, but sites like the HuffPost and the Daily Beast and Craig’s List that are slamming the newspapers.
The word sabotage comes from the word sabot – a type of wooden show
used by workers at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to clog the mechanisms of the emerging machine powered factories that were taking their jobs away.
Fortunately the eclipsing of print news is only being clogged by the prattling of the disenfranchised.
I left Knight-Ridder many years ago to work for McClatchy. The people are/were better and there is still integrity left in the company. Knight-Ridder acquisition was the worst mistake ever made.
The internal blog to save the company, McClatchy Next still had people suggesting saving the company by reusing rubber bands until very recently. I’d given up offering suggestions–the company was running in circles.
I think Gary O’Brien from the Charlotte Observer states it best when he says
I am afraid we’ve crippled our wonderful content generating machines – the newsrooms – to the point where even if we did make a strong move toward the ideas expressed here [McClatchy Next], we couldn’t do it.
Oh, AKM, you made me smile and cry on this one! I so truly love your writing. Not all polemicists can write the way you do. You, YOU, are my morning coffee! I read ADN online to read the cheeto-fed, journalistic reporting of the latest homicide!
During this past election cycle, I was criticized quite often by my conservative family members and friends for getting my “news” and information from all those radical liberal blogs (mainly mudflats
, and radio stations. I kept trying to point out that most of the “news” they were watching on TV like O’Reilly, Hannity, and Fox Morning News or listening to on the radio, like Limbaugh, was not “real” news from journalists, but from Pundits…, commentators who interject their opinions far more often then they report any news.
Now it is true that I have enjoyed watching Keith Olberman, but when I watch his show, I am listening to him with the knowledge that he is not a journalist and that he has a liberal biased point-of-view. I watch him to validate my already established personal opinion, and if he presents a story that alarms me, I look into it more in depth before I go off half-cocked and in a rage about it. I have come to the conclusion that my conservative family and friends can not tell the difference between simple facts, and some pundits’ opinion. If it is broadcast on Fox News, it must be the truth, the gospel.
In the latter part of the election, I challenged my Republican (2 x Bush voting) brother to watch Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC in equal increments, compare the coverage, and double check the “facts” that didn’t match. And, if he could prove to me Fox News was legit in their coverage, I would shut up and start watching Fox News with him on a regular basis. To his surprise, Fox News was most often off the mark on accuracy and reported the least actual news, even on their morning show which is supposed to be news not commentary. He resisted MSNBC because he detests KO and his loud liberal point-of-view, but is now a regular CNN viewer who is very disappointed in Fox News.
His realization came just in time for him to decide that Obama, even though a Democrat, was not as radical a liberal as had been reported, and was the best candidate running for office this election. He voted for Obama with a heavy heart, but did so knowing that Obama had a plan and a message he could live with, while McCain offered nothing but attacks and the divisive Sarah Palin – what was McCain’s message? Obama is an unqualified terrorist sympathizer not ready to lead?
Last night, my brother called me to tell me that he decided to check back in with Fox News, where Hannity happened to be on. He was so disgusted at the lack of truth and objectivity. In his newly developed opinion, Hannity is a hate monger who is a danger to America with his scare tactics. How, he asks, can Hannity blame Obama for the state of our economy and everything that is wrong in America when he has not even taken office yet. Didn’t Fox News regularly assert during the campaign that Obama had no experience and had never voted for anything while in office? Now he is responsible for the down fall of the country? Oh my God, this is our Dad’s only source of news.
His big complaint last night was that the news is seriously lacking journalists to report the news. In his observations, one only gets maybe 3 hours of actual news in a 24 hour news cycle, the other 21 hours are dominated by biased commentators who obviously have an agenda. My brother finally conceded that maybe, just maybe getting some of your news from the blogosphere, where one can engage in dialog with other people around the world, or post a contrary opinion, or support their opinion with a link to an actual news source, is maybe not such a bad idea. At least you can approach that medium with the knowledge that you should question what you read, and you can participate in the discussion rather than yelling at your TV.
Go bloggers, and especially you AKM, YOU ROCK!!! …and provide quite a bit of actual real news, …and you make it so enjoyable to read as well.
Maybe because my father is a journalist (trained in the 40ies, 50ies with idols like Ed Murrow, see Good Night and Good Luck), maybe because I work with journalists and maybe because one day I would like to be that good I think that AKM is closer to the kind of journalism I appreciate than many “real” journalists.
This election cycle I gave more attention to the style of reporting and there was too much spin, mediocre language and lack of integrity. That is why I got hooked to your blog. I need a daily dose of sense and sensibility.
I have just started out blogging, but at the same time I am creating a book with my father. The two worlds are holding their balance. While I reach out to the world with personalized stories about a certain subject, I am choosing paper thickness, -types and covers for a book. The need exists to use all senses when reading (recently went to Frankfurt Book Fair and checked out their section for handmade books), because it is a human need. We have our dimensions and the internet can only satisfy so much of that.
Kinda philosophical….
Thankyou AKM for being the kind of writer I really enjoy reading-thought provoking, thorough, original, funny and caring.
Oh and I almost forgot!
Relevant…
seachee99 (07:42:54) :
Good work on the Fox “news” expose to your brother. Now you and he need to convert your dad.
My mom only watches it to hear what the other side says. She’s got a stronger stomach than me. I’ll read Bill O in the paper, but then get all pissed about the BS he spews 99% of the time. Then I point out to her the BS, but I know she already gets it.
_____
She just stopped by! What a funny coincidence! She watched Bill Moyers last night and gave me the update because I didn’t call last night–too late when I got home.
“Family returns to find near-naked intruder
Anchorage Daily News
Published: January 3rd, 2009 01:39 AM
Last Modified: January 3rd, 2009 01:39 AM
GIRDWOOD — A scantily clad man wandered into a stranger’s Girdwood home early New Year’s Day and sat down on the couch, where the returning homeowners later found the uninvited guest passed out, according to Alaska State Troopers.
Troopers say the home- owners reported the man at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday after they arrived at the Taos Street residence to find the man clad only in a T-shirt and sitting on the couch, asleep. They detained the suspect and called troopers.”…
Isn’t that where ConvicTed’s house is? Couldn’t this guy have wandered into ConvicTed’s house and peed on the furniture that his wife didn’t want in the “TeePee”!?
Happy Saturday!
http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2008/12/31/choosing-a-name-bristol-palins-son-tripp/
Comments from the Wall Street Journal online about Tripp:
“A child’s name is the most important label he or she will ever receive. It will stay with the child throughout their whole lives. Parents who choose names poorly create misleading labels for their children. These labels can cause their children to be mocked, stereotyped, or ostracized. Mocked, stereotyped, and ostracized children grow to become demented adults.”
Comment by Igor – December 31, 2008 at 7:34 am
God bless this unfortunate tyke.
Comment by ericmiami – December 31, 2008 at 7:38 am
Two teen-aged, high school drop-out parents, one grandmother under arrest for drugs and the other grandma is Sarah Palin.
His name is the least of his “challenges.”
Comment by Great Lakes Jake – December 31, 2008 at 8:29 am
Great discussion–AKM–and all you mudpuppy commentators.
Speaking as an Alaskan, who began my own “journalism” career in Colorado (it was a long slog to find my way north), I want to note that despite the fact that many reporters are spokepersons for the “official” government line and for the interests of their paper’s business advertisers (because, yup, newspapers are a business), print newspapers here serve a useful purpose as fire starter when the temperatures dip
into the minus degrees.
This pucky views the best journalists as those who know which stories to put in the news department and which to put on the editorial page (and will sign their byline either way). Therefore this pucky is not employed as a “journalist” in Alaska.
Blogging is a new facet of communication that simply glistens with potential. As practiced by AKM, it’s clearly editorial journalism that also brings forth facts (along with much humor)–and is therefore viewed from this moosley eye as journalism at its best. This so, despite the unfortunate, but totally understandable, circumstance that here in Alaska, where frontier lawlessness still flourishes, that a pseudonym is deemed necessary.
Looking for a silver lining at least when SP says she “reads all the newspapers, all of them” it might be true soon.
Totally enjoyed this polemic piece.
Thank you AKM for being who you are and sharing your polemics with us. We do appreciate your well-developed ear, eyes, and pen (keyboard) for the people. The discussion here (mudflatters rock) is a welcome oasis among the drying up newsprint world as we have known it–brave new world…
South Side Chicago