Journalism is dying and I have no idea what will happen to us
Most journalism these days is mere 'electronic photocopying', according to Kelly Baker. She aches for the loss of the craft she loves, and wonders what the future holds for a journalist with nowhere to go.
I started out as a 19-year-old copy kid at a rough and tumble regional newspaper where big stories, written by big men, broke often.
Fast forward 30 years and here I am. Still a journalist, but with no real place to ply my wares.
Journalism no longer exists in this country. Not like it used to.
Newspapers are slowly (rapidly in some cases) dying out and being replaced by online news outlets. But the quality just isn’t there anymore. Or, at the very least, it’s hard to find.
And yet the first thing I do each day is reach for my phone and check Apple News. I want to know what’s going on in the world, even if it is poorly-structured and littered with typos and, occasionally, not even based on facts at all.
Sure, I’m subscribed to more serious and legitimate news sources. But even they’re not what they ought to be.
I was mortified to post on the Guardian’s Instagram feed that they needed to check their spelling. I wasn’t trying to be an asshole, but it breaks my heart to see a prestigious product pumping out statements that aren’t spelt correctly.
Don’t get me wrong, I have worked online. And I know the pressure to get stories published, fast. And there’s nobody to check them and human beings aren’t machines – we’ll occasionally hit the wrong keys. But still. The craft of journalism itself seems to be dying out too.
Very little of what appears online is written by trained journalists. Very little is researched. There are few interviews.
There is, however, plenty of lightweight faff about random folk in small towns (often in other countries) who did something despicable that someone figures Australians would like to read about.
Most of it can be referred to as electronic photocopying. The main skill of online ‘journalists’ is that they get up early. They scan the internet to see what’s already live. If anything piques their interest, it’s tweaked and republished. With a byline. Why you’d want to put your name on something that is essentially someone else’s work baffles me. And, again, I don’t say this to point fingers. I have done it myself, with gusto.
Back when I worked in newspapers, I figured it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to spend my life. I wanted more. Maybe I was just trying to hide the fact I didn’t have what it took to knock on someone’s door and tell them their child was dead. I did it though. And it nearly killed me. So I turned to magazines.
News is about providing a voice for those who don’t have one. It’s about the truth. Magazines are about entertainment. And money. I loved it.
Bring me long, leisurely interviews with lead times to match. Give me the pressure of wooing ad dollars instead of holding the hands of parents who lost their kids.
But eventually I saw the writing was on the wall for magazines too, so I moved to the world of digital and learned how it worked: how to navigate a CMS and social media, how to interpret analytics and clicks. My soul died a little.
Real journalists can nose out a yarn, connect with people, be compassionate and kind, and coax a story out of someone who may or may not want to part with it. And after all of that, they can sit and write a story that’s persuasive and has the power to leave a reader thinking and feeling and altered in some way.
Those journalists are few and far between today. Because the opportunities for them are few and far between. And so they have had to abandon their craft. Become teachers, corporate communications officers, editors of in-house magazines. They’re good at that, of course. But my heart aches for this profession, this craft and its loss.
I keep hearing about the return of long form and I love the idea. But when will it happen? And when (if indeed) it does, who will be the salty sea dogs who will teach and guide?
There won’t be any. Because we’ll have died out. Or gone quietly away to earn money in other professions, teaching office workers about apostrophes and how it’s best to own a mistake rather than offer public statements pointing the finger.
We will get paid for that, of course, and we won’t complain. After all, this is progress, I suppose.
I had it good. Real good. For a damn long time. But who will teach young up and comers? Who will tell the extraordinary stories of the ordinary people of Australia? Where will those stories go?
I have no answers. All I know is I need to feed my two kids, and support their expensive digital lives. And I have no idea how I will do it. None whatsoever.
Kelly Baker is a freelance journalist. She is the former beauty and health director of the Australian Women’s Weekly and editor of Shop Til You Drop, and a regular contributor to 9Honey.
Kelly writes “The craft of journalism itself seems to be dying out too.” Back when I was trained (by the ABC) many years ago, one thing that was drummed into us was that “the adjective is the enemy of good journalism”. On that basis alone, there’s precious little “good journalism” around these days. Maybe if people who call themselves journalists went back to their real job of reporting the news, things might improve?
User ID not verified.
Learn to code.
User ID not verified.
Yawn.
User ID not verified.
To be fair, the Guardian has had a reputation for spelling mistakes going back decades in the UK.
User ID not verified.
Google fact: The joke nickname in the UK of “The Grauniad” came from exactly that.
User ID not verified.
Considering the Guardian has long been known as the Grauniad I don’t think their spelling issues are linked to the decline of journalism.
User ID not verified.
You lament the loss of quality writing and contact the Guardian via Instagram… Maybe you could start by getting off the platforms that undermined your career, maybe your kids could make a conscientious choice to do the same based on your story? Influencers see social media as about entertainment and money. I’m sure they love it. How are they different to you apart from being on the right side of where the advertisers are?
User ID not verified.
The craft of journalism itself seems to be dying out (comma) too.
User ID not verified.
As a former editor of Shop til you drop, what stories was it you were sharing?
User ID not verified.
Nicknamed The Grauniad in the 60s and 70s, The Guardian always had typos. It was famous for them.
User ID not verified.
Was this story written in 2011? Kelly, these changes have been going on for years, so what have you been doing to adapt and adjust to the changing times? Sounds like you have had a pretty good run, all things considered.
And as someone who makes a real point in this about the need for ‘research’, I would like to know what research you undertook to make this statement – “Very little of what appears online is written by trained journalists.” Where did you get that info? Did you check that detail? As someone who works regularly with journos in the digital space across a number of media companies, almost 100% of the ones I have worked with have all been well trained. So please, some more details about where you got your data on that point would be appreciated.
User ID not verified.
Completely agree with sentiments. Questions. Should journalism be regulated? Should journalism be reserved for trained – and experienced – journalists?
But Kelly, why: “started out”, “dying out” (2), “get up”, “out of”, “died out”? Didn’t you get taught proper like about redundant words?
User ID not verified.
There’s plenty to disagree with here, including the broad brush conclusion (that journalism is dying). However, the article reflects the very heartfelt ache of many that important aspects of the craft are heading for the door marked exit. As journalism is transformed, figuring out how its core values, such as accuracy and objectivity, aren’t thrown out with the proverbial bathwater.
User ID not verified.
Not needed.
User ID not verified.
30 years ago there were articles in newspapers complaining that TV and cable had taken all the “real” journalism like reportage and breaking news and all that was left for newspaper journalists were soft sell pap like commentaries, woman’s pages and endless DIY/hobby articles like “Floor tiles – they’re back !”…..
User ID not verified.
Mortified means embarrassed and ashamed… it breaks my heart seeing this word used incorrectly (and it frequently is).
User ID not verified.
Interesting article. Definitely as a user I want to see and read those better researched, detailed articles, but snackable short form has a huge role to play too. Probably my biggest bugbear is the reviews of something, eg a TV show, and the headline will say “OMG, this is terrible”. When you read the article it says “social media lit up, this twitter user said – this is terrible” with a screenshot of the tweet. How that 1 loser’s opinion (and most likely in modern pile-on fashion) becomes Australia’s view in general, or even the journos, is beyond me.
User ID not verified.
Learn to engineer.
User ID not verified.
I really liked magazine journalism too. Genuinely.
User ID not verified.
Hey Kelly, You should take a look at Primer.com.au – they are doing great things in the women’s journalism space.
User ID not verified.
Good piece. Are you on Twitter/Facebook? If so, please add me. Cheers (and good luck)
User ID not verified.
Learn to meme.
User ID not verified.
Kelly
Re your comment:Who will tell the extraordinary stories of the ordinary people of Australia? Where will those stories go?
That’s exactly what I’m building on http://www.nationallife.com.au
It’s early days but the platform to do it is there now.
User ID not verified.
Since Social Media grew to the levels it now occupies, everyone’s a journalist. Anyone who can tap a keyboard is able to vent their spleen, make outlandish statements, state the bleeding obvious and pass their work as fact even if it was dreamt up five minutes earlier. You can’t be a doctor or a lawyer without qualifications. Maybe journalism needs a registrar with a tight control on who is qualified and who is not. Nonsense ? Maybe but what else can save a profession that is right up there when it comes to creditable representation.
User ID not verified.
It doesn’t take a journalist to write ‘A man was run over by a taxi, today’, just a reporter. Journalism is a different craft.
User ID not verified.
“Adland, we need to do better”
User ID not verified.
Well said Max
Many careers have been disrupted but they don’t have large platforms to lament (complain) about it on
Adapt, pivot, learn, show value and there will always be a place for you
User ID not verified.
–“Very little of what appears online is written by trained journalists.” Where did you get that info? Did you check that detail? —
You see, a good editor would never let that pass. I have noticed this kind of generalism appear a lot more in articles by supposed trained journalists – “many people say”, “most people agree” and of course the now infamous “Twitter users were outraged…”
I know that in the UK, the subs were the first to be let go. It shows.
User ID not verified.
I weep with you Kelly, and barely bother to read anything anymore. Its either pap or ‘activist journalism’, which is an oxymoron. You are an activist or a journalist. By definition, you cant be both.
User ID not verified.
Agree Kelly. The problem is that media networks and social media platforms engaged in a race to the bottom on ad pricing and free news platforms are no longer sustainable. This is fine if people are happy to pay for paywalls but most aren’t. The Australian population can’t sustain a huge variety of profitable publications either. I get most of my longreads from the US where investigative journalism and feature writing is still supported. The NYT, Atlantic, MotherJones etc.
User ID not verified.
This reads to me as a poorly researched, unhelpful whinge. The Guardian is embarking on meaningful research projects, the Judith Nielsen grants are allowing journalists to cover topics they otherwise couldn’t. There is a lot of excellent long form journalism around if you look for it. This article would have been so much better if she had taken her own advice and included some research or interviews. It’s a perfect example of the kind of lazy journalism she’s decrying.
User ID not verified.
Stories are stories. Not surprisingly their value has declined as the market’s exploded and fragmented. Same goes for news.
There certainly is a market for proper, investigative journalism, but most Australia’s self-described “real” journalists sat on their hands when the whistleblowers at the ABC/Newscorp/Fairfax said how top management was manipulating the news for political reasons. And now there’s noone left to advocate for it.
It might be fair to expect the MEAA and CPSU unions to do the standing up for it, but they all sat on their hands too. Now their client base is dying out because they didn’t want to cause trouble.
The good news is that this is exactly what’s happening with the environment, so when that goes to hell in the coming years neither you or anyone else will give any kinds of toss about the plight of journalism jobs.
User ID not verified.
Insert 4chan.
User ID not verified.
I hear you, sister. I am also an ex-journalist now working in the gig economy as a journalism lecturer, media trainer, content writer. Yes, the hey day of quality journalism is over – but it’s not just journalists who are wringing their hands – it’s also the reading public.
User ID not verified.
Spelling and grammatical errors have nothing to do with why msm ‘journalism’ has gone the way of the Dodo
The use of propaganda and censorship is more frequently associated with despotic regimes, not democracies, however history (including recent history) is showing that this is not necessarily the case.
Western govts with their corporate masters have used the media to control the narrative on many aspects that are affecting us. Journalist from main stream media including the NYT, WaPo, BBC, ABC, Guardian etc have all been complicit in this, knowingly reporting false facts.
Due to the emergence of new media, and i dont mean social media like facebook (echo chamber of mediocrity) either, people are now getting their news from independent journalist. These journalist value their profession and have true integrity to report news not opinions.
For the msm journalist any reduction in pay or perceived prestige for them to go work for an independent outlet is not worth it so they stay and get paid big bucks for being a mouthpiece for Govts and industry.
User ID not verified.
I know where you are coming from Kelly, but I also believe journalism is “dying” in some quarters because mediocrity has been the order of the day and it has been allowed to thrive for decades (always chasing the advertising dollar and that’s what mattered), and we were not encouraged to strive for good, solid journalism, let alone excellence.
I recently worked on a publication where one of the stories was a long feature on Doris Day – and the demographic was not her generation, but she was put up as an icon (boy, I loathe that word). It was one of the most boring, uninspired, lacklustre, rote – and worst of all – safe – reads I have had the misfortune to be involved with for a long time. Yet all those around me thought it was worthwhile. I was shocked.
The flip side of the coin is that there are still plenty of journalists out there who are passionate about their craft and want to see solid journalism thrive rather than the homogenous 24 hour news cycle. Just listen to Peter Fitzsimmons’ Andrew Olle lecture – a fabulous speech. It gives me hope that good journalism still exists and can thrive. Long live Four Corners and others of its ilk. We need them more than ever.
User ID not verified.
If you want answers, here are some.
First , many people dislike journalists due to journo haveing decided long ago to become activists and insert themselves into a story that they often don’t even know or understand.
There are several issues I follow closely and the last thing I want is to have them “reported on” by clueless bigots pretending tp be journalists.
I can follow these issues via people who know and understand the politics, the legalities and the history of the issue, not to mention active players who know what they’re talking about and report directly on the issue unmediated by media alliances and ideological positioning?
Why on earth do I need some junior or middle aged lefty – or righty, come to that – telling me about something they can’t even interrogate or understand but follow the ideological line of their movement or media fellows, especially when they decide to pontificate on it, again when they can’t be bothered learning anything solid?
Short answer – I don’t. High level operators write and publish online. I’ll read and listen to them. Directly.
As to interviews, many people delight in listening to long-form interviews, myself included. This is what PODCASTS are for.
Blogs are for writing and all the Internet offerings available are ideal for journos to reach an audience directly.
If that’s what you want I suggest you set it up; if you’re trained in it already you should have the equipment and the contacts to get out and about.
User ID not verified.
Ok Boomer
User ID not verified.
You’ll never own your home until you’re almost dead, jealous much?
User ID not verified.