What is journalism, anyway?

There’s really not much difference between journalism and blogging right now. In both, you observe, write, record, publish, and let your viewers share the results.

But after that, what is to be done with the story? Does it just sit there?

Journalism is a weird profession. It’s not a personally-oriented profession which revolves around provider and client. It’s not a personal service. It’s directed toward some type of nameless “public”, be it the general public or a smaller section of society.

Narrower journalism genres tend to require a greater deal of sensitivity and rigor to the topic at hand. Depending on the genre, its time sensitivity and how much it may affect our lives and resources, one has to have professional and/or academic experience on the topic. Weather and environmental journalism is perhaps the best example of a journalism genre which has an immediate impact on human life; business journalism is another quasi-genre of journalism which immediately affects human resources and, hence, lives. There is little partisanship in either genre.

Political journalism, on the other hand, is a terrible and ill-formed genre. It vacillates between slow-going sports game coverage during campaign season and celebrity gossip during electoral off-years. Crime journalism is little better.

There is no rigor to political and crime journalism beyond the AP Stylebook. They rely on “investigative” bullshit which doesn’t help any reader or viewer in the short term.

Concrete action in politics is too slow to report on, so let’s report on some stupid shit that a politician said, and rinse and repeat everyday except for Election Day.

That’s how bad it has always been. Political journalism is sports crossed with celebrity gossip.