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The first post is always an introduction, and an interview...
So I decided to join this site. I don't know why. I don't usually blog or anything of that sort, but on occasion I feel the need - as journalists often do - to go off on a rant or two every now and then.
I'm not a reporter or a columnist of any kind, though I am a journalism student at Bowling Green State University and I have to write stories for class all the time. I work at the college newspaper here as a copy editor, as I have for about two years now.
Frankly, I don't enjoy reporting. I find it dull, repetitive and mind-numbing. I don't like interviewing people and I despise the idea of speaking to whatever title-whore is making headlines today. Not that I'm anti-social, I'm just bitter I guess.
I much prefer to stay on the editorial side of things, correcting errors and critiquing in the background. The phrase "in the rear with the gear" comes to mind, but that doesn't quite say it. I personally believe that there are too many reporters out there who are too obsessed with seeing their by-line on the front page, and too few editors out there to keep them in line (not implying that I can). Let's face it, if you're in it for vanity, you've chosen the wrong profession (at least as a print journalist).
Nothing exemplifies this sort of narcissism quite as well as the blogosphere. The Internet came along and now very asshole with a laptop suddenly has something to say to the world. Most blogs (I'm going to say somewhere in the 95th percentile) are only read by two people at best - and one of those people is the person who wrote it. Still, day after day, people come back to write. It's like the whole world feels this void created by millions of little white boxes in applets just like this one, daring them to fill them with as much useless information as possible. And yes - I realize that I am not exempt from this category. But the fact of the matter is that if you're still reading this, it's highly likely you're the only one to do so considering the incalcuable millions of blogs on the internet.
This is why print has got to save us. We need more people reading full articles like their grandparents did instead of this search-and-scan medium we have created for ourselves. And we need less disorganized masses of bloggers in it for 30 seconds of youtube fame.
But that's just my opinion. I have more to say, but this has gone far enough. If you've made it this far, congratulations - you made it. I know - that's a pretty shitty reward after ranting about reading full articles...sorry? Leave a comment to let me know how pissed you are - isn't that why we invented the Internet (or was that Al Gore...)?
I'm not a reporter or a columnist of any kind, though I am a journalism student at Bowling Green State University and I have to write stories for class all the time. I work at the college newspaper here as a copy editor, as I have for about two years now.
Frankly, I don't enjoy reporting. I find it dull, repetitive and mind-numbing. I don't like interviewing people and I despise the idea of speaking to whatever title-whore is making headlines today. Not that I'm anti-social, I'm just bitter I guess.
I much prefer to stay on the editorial side of things, correcting errors and critiquing in the background. The phrase "in the rear with the gear" comes to mind, but that doesn't quite say it. I personally believe that there are too many reporters out there who are too obsessed with seeing their by-line on the front page, and too few editors out there to keep them in line (not implying that I can). Let's face it, if you're in it for vanity, you've chosen the wrong profession (at least as a print journalist).
Nothing exemplifies this sort of narcissism quite as well as the blogosphere. The Internet came along and now very asshole with a laptop suddenly has something to say to the world. Most blogs (I'm going to say somewhere in the 95th percentile) are only read by two people at best - and one of those people is the person who wrote it. Still, day after day, people come back to write. It's like the whole world feels this void created by millions of little white boxes in applets just like this one, daring them to fill them with as much useless information as possible. And yes - I realize that I am not exempt from this category. But the fact of the matter is that if you're still reading this, it's highly likely you're the only one to do so considering the incalcuable millions of blogs on the internet.
This is why print has got to save us. We need more people reading full articles like their grandparents did instead of this search-and-scan medium we have created for ourselves. And we need less disorganized masses of bloggers in it for 30 seconds of youtube fame.
But that's just my opinion. I have more to say, but this has gone far enough. If you've made it this far, congratulations - you made it. I know - that's a pretty shitty reward after ranting about reading full articles...sorry? Leave a comment to let me know how pissed you are - isn't that why we invented the Internet (or was that Al Gore...)?
2 Comments
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Comment by Alexandre Gamela on February 21, 2008 at 1:53am -
Nah, not pissed off at all, we pretty much say the same things. My favorites are the title-whores : i bannned them from some stories when they were there just to appear in the picture. And yes, i'm also a pretty bitter guy about a few things like why people go into journalism if they don't care about anyone else but themselves. The main difference between you and me is exactly that: i believe we must be truly interested on what is going on around us to do the job right, and not act like if we were waiting for an opportunity to promote ourselves. Those are the j-whores. How can the messenger be the star? I hate daily reporting, the routine stuff quite annoying, what i like are background pieces, interviews and investigative works. But the car pile is what keeps you from running out of business...
i agree with you about blogs, but i disagree when you say print has to save us. i believe the people who would read full articles like their grandparents are reading more, and more diversified articles on the web, i know i do. How could i ever read your article until the end if it wasn't for the internet? Maybe i'm just a tad more positive than you. But not that much more i tell you. And if Al Gore invented the internet, i invented cappucino. See? That's how title whores get it done.
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Comment by Doug Strausbaugh on February 21, 2008 at 10:04am -
I will admit that the Internet has provided us with a diversity of information, and I should give more credit to people who are reading more articles in their entirety.
However, I must say that this unfortunately is not your general audience on the Internet. When people make it to an article or blog entry online, it's probably due to a couple key words that lit up on Google. Because of this, they just look for that one little piece of information and move on to somewhere else, perhaps by following a link posted there. My point is this: there is most definitely a lot of information to be found out here on the Web, but it's so scattered and generally unreliable that the internet-saavy audience for the information has grown scattered too. And because of the vast amount of information out there and the way the Internet is set up, a coherent (and reliable) compilation of knowledge is becoming nearly non-existent. It is certain that in many ways the net has taken the keys away from the traditional gatekeepers of knowledge. But I don't want to go so far as to say that this is entirely a bad thing.
And as to print as a savior, I think that is the last glimmer of positive thinking I have left, however idealistic it may be. Lets just chalk that one up to wishful thinking.
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