David Schlesinger of Reuters defends his use of Twitter while covering the World Economic Forum. In doing so he gets into a rant about Journalism in general…
I have little patience for those who cling to sentimental (and frankly inaccurate) memories of the good old halcyon days of journalism that were somehow purer and better than a world where tweets and blogs compete with news wires and newspapers.
Bring it on, I say!
Journalism is one of the great self-declared professions and crafts. I am a journalist because I said I was one more than two decades ago and have spent the years since working on my abilities. I am not one because I am somehow anointed with a certificate or an exam result.
Journalism is ideally designed for democratisation.
Working for Reuters gives me a tremendous platform and great access. It does not give me a license.
Microblogging and macroblogging and social networks are themselves great platforms.
If great storytellers use those platforms to display their knowledge, access, expertise and abilities, I think that is a marvellous advance.
If I don’t beat the Reuters wire with a live tweet because I deliberately hold back, someone else will. If I don’t beat the Reuters wire because I’m slow or inattentive, someone else will.
First, do they not give degrees in Journalism anymore? Did I miss that?
Snarky commentary aside, I’d like you to notice the extensive use of “I” in the paragraph above. Mr. Schlesinger clearly thinks very highly of himself. So much so that he seems to place his own judgment over any standards of decorum that his profession has had before him.
He is what is important in the news that he reports.
That attitude is exactly why Newspapers around the world are failing. To understand that let’s take a brief look at bloggers. Blogging is a work of self expression. It’s one person taking the news and wrapping it around their impressions of it. That’s what blogging is supposed to be.
Journalism on the other end is the art of telling the story as honestly as you can. Rules of detachment, verifying sources, etc... are designed to create the most truthful representation of the facts.
So the value in reporting is getting as unbiased an account as possible.
The problem with reporters who aren't dedicated to truth is that the public doesn't value personal opinion as much as truth. In the past the function of a reporter has been to investigate things we as the public don’t have time to investigate and determine what is true. The payment people made for Newspapers was a way to make sure there were people out there who had the time and resources to seek that truth.
But, and this is the important part, Truth requires detachment.
Because we all know someone who starts off trying to prove their own opinion can selectively find evidence to do just that. Detachment allows a person to consider all the evidence and form an opinion based on that evidence. The field of Journalism is about having that detachment.
That is why true Journalism is NOT one of the “great self-declared professions and crafts”
It is a very difficult to learn discipline. But it seems that has been all but forgotten with so many irresponsible Journalists being given carte blanche to do what they please. That in turn has caused newspapers to lose their competitive edge. Which is why people aren’t willing to pay for Newspaper’s anymore. Not because they are outdated but because they offer nothing above and beyond what we can get from bloggers for free.