Current Events > Everyone complains about the state of journalism today, but...

(+) Yeah! (+)

...do you actually support "real" journalism?

I'm willing to armchair quarterback bet that the typical profile of someone who constantly complains about the state of journalism in the world is the kind of guy who hasn't bought a newspaper in years and has adblock installed. Someone who scrolls through reddit or facebook and clicks on sensational titles just to see how over the top silly they are, but who also is unwilling to allow advertising or paywalls and will circumvent every attempt at monetization.

I'm part of the problem too. I haven't supported journalism in years, outside of a subscription to The Economist. I just don't think it's any wonder that buzzfeed is doing better than The Times, these days.
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It's an increasing problem. We want all this content online yet moan at anything that tries to circumvent Adblockers, as if everything is magically going to be made for free.

-Gavirulax- posted...

...you just made me realize that I support (pay for via Cable) Fox News, CNN, Al Jazeera, all of 'em and now I feel bad.

So I'm going to post this here to make you feel bad....

I'm sure you can guess what it is.



Edit: Eww, that was way bigger than I intended....glad I put it behind spoilers.

FFFFfffff
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iirc TC you arent american so i dont know if you get how pervasive entertainment-news is in the US.

it's very hard to find a true unbiased news source in the US, unless you are savvy and actively seeking it out, which should not be the case and is kind of the antithesis of creating an informed public. you know how it is online with fake news articles or exaggerated ones, clickbait, opinion pieces disguised as breaking news, etc. but then you get to actual sources in the US and a lot of it is ratings based pundits, entertainment shows with a news twist, newspapers with clear agendas (i.e. clinton staffer who was a writer for the NYT), etc.

it is very hard to feel that you are informed but not being intentionally swayed. my primary news source is NPR, which I feel is pretty impartial, but it's hard to not get swept up in a bullshit article online or a reddit post
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Romulox28 posted...

iirc TC you arent american so i dont know if you get how pervasive entertainment-news is in the US.

it's very hard to find a true unbiased news source in the US, unless you are savvy and actively seeking it out, which should not be the case and is kind of the antithesis of creating an informed public. you know how it is online with fake news articles or exaggerated ones, clickbait, opinion pieces disguised as breaking news, etc. but then you get to actual sources in the US and a lot of it is ratings based pundits, entertainment shows with a news twist, newspapers with clear agendas (i.e. clinton staffer who was a writer for the NYT), etc.

it is very hard to feel that you are informed but not being intentionally swayed. my primary news source is NPR, which I feel is pretty impartial, but it's hard to not get swept up in a bullshit article online or a reddit post

It's exactly the same here. Most people get their news from Facebook, and facebook crafts its algorithm to create news for your feed that you already agree with. It's pretty remarkable how dramatic the difference is:

http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-feed-red-feed/#/president-trump

All I'm saying is that we don't really do anything to actually support "real" journalism anymore. We want credible journalists working on real stories and putting their degrees and acumen to work, but our habits say what we actually want is celebrity banter.
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i mean, we do support government-sponsored organizations like NPR keeping their funding

that's where a lot of the best journalism is anyway
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pinky0926 posted...

.do you actually support "real" journalism?

Yes, I regularly read Breitbart.
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There isn't just one way of supporting so-called real journalism. There is a continuum of support. Like just subscribing and not using Adblock are nice but if you really want to support you should be commenting, writing in, putting out ads, etc. I support them by linking to them instead of paraphrasing them.


The fact is that great journalism still rises to the top for the most part. Or rather the reporters do.
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