The Other McCain writes,
And the Dan Rather Award For Outstanding Cluelessness in Journalism goes to whatever Fullerton (Calif.) College student wrote this idiotic editorial in the campus Hornet:I'm more forgiving that Other McCain - after all, this is an ed piece in a college newspaper and so shouldn't be credited with a lot of gravitas (full disclosure: I wrote op-ed pieces for my college paper and shudder to read them now). Nonetheless, McCain is correct to point out that the piece is rife with unsupportable assumptions, such as the silly distinctions between "legitimate writers" and the "average Joe," who simply, I guess, isn't bale to put subject and verb together. Oh, my! And we even let average Joes drive, too.A disturbing trend that also effects newspapers is the rise of the bloggers and the steady increase in their following. There are multiple problems with blogs.
It is impossible to decipher whether or not a blog is being posted by legitimate writers, who have been educated in journalism, or the average Joe, who does not know how to properly write a concise, well-thought out article. Without proper editors, blogs allow themselves to be polluted by unimpressive stories and writing.
Many bloggers also have the tendency of ignoring facts to support their own agendas, effectively eliminating unbiased journalism and creating a plethora of questions regarding ethics. If this trend of growing bloggers continues, newspapers may become glorified blogs themselves. Trying to stay informed in a newspaperless world would be an arduous, time consuming task, of scanning through countless blogs to find unbiased, factual news. We must make sacrifices now, to preserve the future of our profession.
But to cut to the quick: I posted a longer essay on the false distinction between bloggers and "journalists" in 2005 at the previous site. I copied and pasted it here, so if you're interested, go read!
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3 comments:
This suffers from the "credential syndrome" a disease especially virulent around college campuses.
The syndrome basically says that unless you've jumped through the hoops presented by various academic institutions, you cannot possibly be considered of any worth or gravitas.
It presumes that no individual or group can attain a level of knowledge or proficiency in any arean without the interaction of previously credential cadre of educators.
MC
It is impossible to decipher whether or not a blog is being posted by legitimate writers, who have been educated in journalism, or the average Joe, who does not know how to properly write a concise, well-thought out article.
To the extent that this is so, the reporters were useless.
It is impossible to decipher whether or not a blog is being posted by legitimate writers, who have been educated in journalism, or the average Joe, who does not know how to properly write a concise, well-thought out article. Umm, we can decipher this by READING THE BLOG ourselves and deciding if the blogger makes sense? In addition to assuming the need for credentials before one can write the blog, he is assuming that one needs a credential (or perhaps a stamp of approval) in order to hold the opinion that the blogger makes sense.
I do forgive the student, though. He still thinks that one needs a grade from the professor to deem a piece of writing to be publishable.
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