Where Did All the Reporters Go?
The biggest problem I've seen in my years of teaching journalism to young people at Simpson and elsewhere is that many of them are attracted to the field by the writing -- and they absolute hate to do the reporting. That, to me, means that not many of them are really that interested in journalism. Now Howard Kurtz reports in the Washington Post that the same mindset is overtaking "professional" journalism."Hundreds of cable and radio commentators, and millions of bloggers, can sound off about the news in real time," he writes. "But the number of old-fashioned fact-gatherers is dwindling, and will almost certainly continue to shrink."Where did all the reporters go?Kurtz's take comes at the same time that the Project for Excellence in Journalism released its annual State of the News Media report, which comes to much the same conclusion. "The new paradox of journalism is more outlets covering fewer stories," the report finds.
posted by Brian Steffen | 9:57 AM
1 Comments:
My observation has been that writing is what attracts many young journalists into the field. Some of them also see journalism and news as a worthwhile public service. But few of them start with the desire to be a fire-in-the-belly reporter. Many of them, however, after some time in the newsroom, do catch the bug from the hard-digging veteran reporters in the room -- especially when the editors,supervisors and senior colleagues continually make it clear that good reporting is what is held in highest respect.
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