Journalist: Oh No! Student Journalists Will Destroy Journalism!
from the oh-please dept
So for the last few years, all we keep hearing about from professional journalists is how there is less and less reporting going on, and how we'll all miss "real" reporting once it's gone. They complain that without new business models journalism itself is doomed. Leave aside how ridiculous all of that is (and, yes, it's totally ridiculous), when a new project comes along that will enable more reporting in the San Francisco Bay Area, via a partnership between radio station KQED and journalism students at Berkeley, along come the professional reporters complaining about how this is the death of journalism and must be stopped. That's the view of the East Bay Express's Robert Gammon. Why? Well, because it involves students instead of pro journalists, and thus is unfair competition:The venture also threatens traditional news media in the Bay Area, because it will rely on 120 journalism students at Cal who will work for free. The massive free-labor workforce will give the new venture a huge advantage over established Bay Area media organizations that depend on paid, veteran journalists to gather and put together news stories.I read that and all I can think is, Mr. Gammon, did you really just mean to suggest that your years of experience and professional connections are so worthless that a group of students will automatically beat you in the marketplace? Because that's what he said. After we keep being told how pro journalists are so important, and all their experience, knowledge and reporting chops differentiates them from the unwashed masses, here is a guy who is flat-out admitting that he has no advantage over some pure amateurs.
Let's hope UC Berkeley and KQED seriously rethink this plan before it goes live early next year. The idea of a non-profit news organization has merit, but using what amounts to slave labor to make it happen is bad for journalism.So, let me see if I get this straight. Things have been really bad because there were fewer reporters working on the news, and we'll all miss them when they're gone... but as soon as anyone new enters the market, it will be bad for journalism? And even if the journalism is done by students who have no experience, the amazing pros simply won't be able to compete? Yeah, that's believable.
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Filed Under: bay area, journalism, local news, san francisco, students
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The East Bay Express?
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The Volokh Conspiracy has an interesting article about online articles from major media websites. Eugene Volokh (UCLA Law School) has some timely observations you might want to peruse.
MLS
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Forgot their jobs...
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His fears aren't entirely unfounded ...
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Re: His fears aren't entirely unfounded ...
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Re: Re: Re: His fears aren't entirely unfounded ...
"because it isn't harder in the sense that it involves a lot of braincells"
Notice I used the word "sophisticated" not necessarily "harder."
"because it isn't harder in the sense that it involves a lot of braincells "
Then the stuff that you want the more experienced person to do is stuff that entry level people can do perfectly well. As a result, the entry level people should be allowed to do it so
A: They can gain experience too
B: more experienced people can worry about more sophisticated tasks.
If the more experienced people have nothing to offer that the less experienced people have then the job is basically a commodity job, like chopping down trees or picking oranges, and we should encourage more sophisticated jobs to become commodity jobs where less experienced people with less education can perform those jobs more effectively at a cheaper price so as to enable the free market to create more sophisticated jobs that more experienced people can occupy. Otherwise, why should an industry hire a more experienced orange picker than a less experienced if both do the same job perfectly well? The same exact thing applies here.
But in the field of journalism more experienced people are likely to have a niche that less experienced people don't have. More experienced people, for instance, can learn specified topics; like biology, physics, law, etc... and start reporting/commenting on those topics with better detail and accuracy and clarity and insight. The fact is that there is SO MUCH information out there, so many fields you can learn and get a PH.D in that an experienced journalist can spend an entire lifetime studying these fields and barley scratch the surface but the fact that the more experienced journalists will have more experience reporting/commenting and being correcting and studying various topics will yield more value for the more experienced journalist to expand on these topics instead of just being a generalist. So yes, less experienced journalists should be allowed to take the place of more experienced journalists and more experienced journalists should be forced to compete with less experienced journalists to encourage the more experienced journalist to advance his/her understanding of various issues and continue to become a BETTER reporter/commenter than less experienced journalists so as to create a niche for himself/herself when it comes to commenting and reporting on various issues. If the more experienced journalist isn't going to advance his/her knowledge to offer something of value that the less experienced journalist can't offer as easily IN A FREE MARKET (ie: without crying to the government for help) then perhaps the more experienced journalist DESERVES to get paid as much as the less experienced journalist.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: His fears aren't entirely unfounded ...
But I find this hard to believe in journalism. Those who are entry level will become sophisticated within the field and will gain a good reputation (ie: like Mike on Techdirt has) with the people of being a reliable reporter and/or commentator and THAT will give that person a competitive advantage. Entry level people may take their old position but then that just means it's time for them to advance their position and to start reporting and reporting on a wider range of topics with a lot more specificity.
I mean, look at techdirt, we go into FAR MORE details on issues than mainstream media and this is a pretty general blog even. They have specialized blogs that deal with patents far more specifically and even blogs that deal with patents involving pharmaceuticals. There are blogs that deal with medicine specifically and discuss patents (among other things) within medicine. Face it, mainstream media and all these "experienced" journalists have completely failed us, mainstream media is a joke and we should ABSOLUTELY allow anyone to speak their mind on radio and blogs and to report on various issues so as to cover issues that aren't normally covered in more specificity and to cover a wider range of views instead of just the view that big corporations want to broadcast because of their control over mainstream media.
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...With which I completely agree. But that is not the same as hiring people to work for free. It is not slave work either if the free workers do it voluntarily, but nonetheless it pressures down the price of that kind of job.
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The government does not agree. If they agreed the airwaves, cablecos, and laws wouldn't be structured the way they are. They may tell me they agree but their actions tell me they don't agree and I have every reason not to trust them.
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You damn right I would be, but I wouldn't be asking for government intervention or even asking to stop the people from doing it for free. If the job that I do can be done for free then I better damn well get more valuable skills.
What's the difference between this and someone getting payed half or a quarter of what you do to do the same exact job? If you found out that the newcomers that do the same exact job that you do are getting payed 25% of what you are, won't you get worried as well?
This is where experience and valuable skills come in. I don't have to worry about the people who do tech support for free or extremely low pay because I have the experience and skills to do it right. And if they also have the experience and still charge less or none, it's called competition and I need to adjust my value or price accordingly.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: His fears aren't entirely unfounded ...
As far as I know people read the news only to socialize. They don't read about to get a "scoop". It's mostly related to the interaction between human being so you can say "Did you read that on the news? Can you believe it?!".
A journalist who has a Phd. is a waste of money, personally. A journalist with a Phd. in Computer Engineering, or any other form of Egineering, is not a journalist because he wanted to be one but probably because he coudln't find a job in the Engineering field.
Furthermore, people overhype the term "professional". As it stands, it means nothing other than being curteous, thus having curteous behaviour. Basically, professional means being respectful of others. It does not mean that you are well educated. Furthermore, have higher level degrees does not mean you are well educated.
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No, it means being paid for doing a job. Consider professional athletes. "Courteous" isn't the first word that comes to mind, is it? But they're professionals, because they have a paid career in whatever sport they play. Another definition is more akin to "white collar": professional careers such as law, accounting, etc. However, I've never heard it defined as "courteous".
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If the new entrants really aren't able to provide better service than senior journalists then there is no reason to allow the price of the product to become cheaper. However, what you are suggesting is that people are incompetent and somehow unable to choose better quality products over lower quality products because they are too ignorant and stupid so wee need some condescending "professional" to dictate to us what constitutes higher quality news/journalism so that s/he can charge a higher price. We are as capable of deciphering a good journalist from a bad one just like the "professionals" and we don't need some condescending journalist to cry to congress that s/he can't provide a better service to us so congress has to start passing laws.
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The situation you described is more a fault of the local population for looking for easy money...
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Re: Student Journalists Will Destroy Journalism!
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Slave?
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sp/and as more sophisticated people who want more pay will fulfill a more relevant market need/and as more sophisticated people who want more pay will fulfill a more relevant market needs
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flawed logic
So what they are saying is that they never want to see any new journalists enter the market? What happens when all the current ones retire? Guess that'll be the end of professional journalism.
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Re: flawed logic
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Journalist have become truth terrorists
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Re: Journalist have become truth terrorists
Another thing I hate about American tv news is that the hosts are told by their bosses to be funny and chit chat!?!? WTF!?!? Don't waste my time!!!
It's bad enough with all the aggressive adds and deafening volume in the middle of news programs, that makes my heart rate and cholesterol numbers explode. MAN, I miss good, public European, add free media!!! Even if I had to pay a decent amount for it, it was very much worth it for me.
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Student Journalists Will Destroy Journalism!
If the masses of radio listeners and other media users are fine with just music, adds and voluntary journalism, which I have a feeling they are, why should any media pay tons of money for expensive, time consuming investigative journalism, which is already under immense pressure as we speak?
I don't understand why journalists have a lesser right to be paid for their job that people in any other professions. Should we stop paying teachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, handymen and engineers? I think that's the point the complaining journalist is trying to make.
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Re: Student Journalists Will Destroy Journalism!
You're right, everyone has the same right to be paid: none.
Should we stop paying teachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, handymen and engineers?
If someone is willing and able to do their jobs just as well for free, it would be pretty stupid to continue paying, no?
I think that's the point the complaining journalist is trying to make.
I think Mike got that point, he just disagrees with it.
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Well, duh....
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Re: Well, duh....
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Just a wish ....
Wish someone would help the recording industry in the same way .....
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Journalism
Today, journalists are no longer journalists, they are JOURNALISTS - and seldom have much of anything to say that is worth listening to (now, blogs, on the other hand, such as Techdirt, tend to get too involved in trivia (artists, or is that artistes, whose biggest claim to fame is earning a lot of money without doing anything useful), but overall, actually report NEWS, and often with little or no comment.
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How dare they!
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It's all about control
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