Amy Gahran has a fantastic blog post about a possible toxic culture forming at many journalism organizations and within the field of journalism.
I highly recommend you read Amy’s post and think about it. What she is basically saying is that many journalists are overcome by hubris or a journalistic arrogance, as Sam Zell put it. Those toxic journalists believe that they alone can produce good journalism, and they believe only established media outlets can produce journalism.
Obviously, attitudes like that are not helping journalism. We only have to look at insurgent operations like Politico, TechCrunch, Talking Points Memo, etc, etc, etc to see that this is simply not true.
I’ll add a few more toxic ideas from journalists to append Amy’s list.
1) We are the gatekeepers — This is the No. 1 reason why user-generated content is not taken seriously at news organizations. Yes, some UGC is corny and stupid, but other UGC is impact and powerful. UGC is sometimes the best way to report on disasters, as we saw with 9/11 and the recent disasters in Myanmar and China.
This is a major reason why most newspapers don’t accept photos from events like high school sports. But what’s the point in trying to send a photographer to ever high school sport to snap a few shots, when every high school game has several parents who take hundred of photos? We should harness that power. Everyone would be better served with a partnership like that.
This ultimately stems from the belief that only journalists can produce meaningful content. That is demonstrably false.
2) Someone else should be responsible for my training — Most of us did not have an employer pay for our education. So, why are so many journalists moaning that they would get with the program if only “someone would pay for me to get training?”
Listen, you’re in a dying industry (at least what we used to know of journalism). Layoffs and buy-outs are all around you. Do you think having a passive attitude is going to save your career? Hell no.
Journalism needs doers. Journalism needs thinkers. Journalism needs go getters.
Plus, even the most expensive account at Lynda.com is only $400 a year. That’s nothing, and you can learn a ton of really useful stuff in a year from that site.
3) The public needs to be better educated to appreciate our greatness – This one comes courtesy of @kev097 on Twitter (Kevin Koehler). Basically many journalists believe that if more people had educations and read more and understand the world more and blah, blah, blah they would appreciate newspapers more.
The issue — as many journalists see it — is that people are not smart enough to appreciate journalism. You know, the journalism that many journalists insist on giving us, regardless if we want it or if it is useful.
But here is the funny thing: First, many journalists are not exactly pushing the digital envelope. Many journalists are behind the average American when it comes to technology and Internet adoption. I still hear about how a lot of journalists don’t see the need to get Internet access at home. I had an editor in the last year (freelance work) who didn’t even have an e-mail address. I always had to call him on the phone (what?).
Who is the non-educated one now? Plus, journalism was never a field where having a college education was a necessity. The idea that journalists are somehow smarter, better educated and more learned than the average media consumer is ridiculous.
The problem is us. It’s never the consumer. That’s business 101.
Amy sees the changes in journalism as positive for not only our audiences, but also for journalists:
The way I see it (and I’m far from alone in this view), right now is a time of immense opportunity for journalism and journalists to take on a broader and even more vital role in society. It’s a chance for journalists to not only continue doing good work, but maybe also to have more impact than ever before. If they can make this progress within updated, adapted news organizations, fine. But if not, they can find ways to do it independently, collaboratively or by founding new supporting institutions or businesses.
Plus, new approaches to journalism can simply be more fun. As a group, journalists don’t seem to have nearly enough fun. In particular, engaging directly with your community can be fun and rewarding. Learning to monitor and improve the spread and impact of your work can be fun. And the process of learning anything new at all also can be a lot of fun. In fact, that basic craving for continual learning is what drew many of us to journalism in the first place. Remember that?
