Journalism’s dying, and no one cares. Frankly, why should they? On Facebook right now there is a video about how a man broke his penis three times. Do we really, honestly, care? We shouldn’t, but I dare you to not look it up right now. The reality is that journalism is becoming less and less about journalism, and more and more about...whatever this is.
Last Sunday, "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" aired an episode with the main story being the plight of contemporary journalism. Specifically the death wails of journalism. In this episode, he cited Bill Simon, a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun and series creator of “The Wire,” who stated that the next 10 or 15 years are “...gonna be one of the great times to be a corrupt politician; I really envy them. I really do.” Granted this was in reference to local government, but honestly? Journalism as a print media has been dying for some time. The majority of people that are ‘journalists’ are involved in digital journalism. The name of the game is advertisement. The revenue isn’t quality of content but in the ads that exist on the content we create, or on the sites we view. Digital journalism outlets only make money as a result of its audience viewing the ads.
With news being online now, its journalists have effectively become pundits. Our role in digital journalism isn’t tied to our credibility, but rather how effectively we share content. We don’t sell our content, we’re selling ad space. Buzzfeed is the the biggest example of what’s happened to journalism. There are a few individuals who serve as “Features Writers” but they only print one or two stories a year. The rest are all think pieces. Think pieces are easy to write, usually in the ballpark of 500 words, sometimes a little more, they can be cranked out consistently and as long as they’re interesting they get clicked on. So now we see the effectiveness of clickbait; tens, hundreds, of articles that have almost nothing to do with news but attract clicks with catchy headlines and little substance. On Facebook, right now there is a video about how a man broke his penis three times. Do we really, honestly, care? We shouldn’t, but I dare you to not look it up right now.
To be clear, I’m not saying that digital journalism is this terrible blight to the credibility of its writers. But I am saying that it has shifted our responsibility as writers from telling news to managing social media. Our success comes from our marketing abilities, not are journalistic integrity. That’s fine. It’s sad for journalism for the moment, but it’s not inherently toxic. The hilarious thing is that these sites are usually deemed "millennial news," but guess what? Most millennials use adblock, which prevents this business model from working. Which just perpetuates this cycle of marketing as they need more clicks to make up the difference.
So what then? News will have to evolve. We, as writers, and maybe even as journalists, will have to find a way to strike a balance. Manage a social media presence, push quality content. Maybe strive more and more to be features writers. If we value journalism, it will evolve, but if we’re content to just keep writing about the mundane things we write about, then we’re clearly content watching the New York Times slowly fade into obscurity.
