Prosthetic Device

Howard Owens takes present-day whiny journalists to the woodshed for a history lesson.

An excerpt:

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James Gordon Bennett, Horace Greeley, E.W. Scripps and Joseph Pulitzer were not just earlier versions of Woodward and Bernstein. They were entrepreneurs, visionaries and risk takers who experimented and explored the capabilities of new technologies with a goal of meeting readers needs and growing audience.

They put ads on their front pages. They ran straight murder trial transcripts. They sent row boats out in the harbor to meet incoming ships so they might be the first with the news Europe. They produced multiple editions in the race to build reader loyalty. With the penny press, they disrupted the incumbent six-penny newspapers. They pushed partisan positions. They crusaded, some times to the point of unjustly influencing the course of events.

These entrepreneurs competed fiercely…

(Links in original omitted.)

Whining is not restricted to print journalists. Broadcast journalists also bitch and moan about cutbacks, sneer at “so-called citizen journalists” and worry whether their own job is next on the axe list.

Sneering at “so-called citizen journalists” shows a snobbish arrogance and elitist creditialism unsupported by the requirements of journalism.

You don’t need a degree from a snooty J-school to write a solid story about a local school board or city council meeting.

You need to be able to organize, write, copyedit and publish a structured article on deadline based on in-person data collection, staff reports and background research.

An ability to shoot well-framed photos minimally well raises the level of reporting considerably.

Moving up from solid entry-level journalism then requires perseverance, familiarity with your subject (including grooming of a list of people willing to speak with you) and careful tending of a nose for news.

Journalists don’t need the overhead and structure of a newsroom to be reporters. They need newsrooms to be comfortable.

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UPDATE: check out Leonard Witt’s post at PJNet about a new YouTube channel giving reporting tips to citizen journalists.