I always feel like I have been completely and utterly submersed in new ideas when I walk out of my Business of News class. Dr. Syb is totally out of the norm. She's quirky and never stays on the same idea for more than 30 seconds. The class is totally based on discussion and what the students care about. She doesn't teach out of a textbook. Instead, she gets outside materials and has us read and discuss, opening our eyes through discussion, videos, audio tracks, websites, news sites. She writes our epiphanies on the board and having us delve in that idea deeper and deeper until we leave appreciating being taught how to be mavericks in a society that is wanting and pleading for more and an industry that is stuck in their geezer ways, dumb and stubborn as mules.
We talked about how our industry has become lazy. We listened to some audio of Michael Moore's take on why the newspapers are dying out like the dinosaurs. He compared US papers with those of Europe and Asia. See, Europe and Asia rely on circulation rather than advertisment. In other words, they rely on the readership. You know, the people who actually read the newspaper? Not just the ones who really don't care what's in the pages but just that their name is printed inside those pages? The US is the exact OPPOSITE. We have become lazy and narrow-minded. Our thoughts are "Well, if you can't make money don't do it." That thought is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. My parents say that and it's so sad because it's like, if I'm in an industry that was once considered a public good, what GOOD is it doing if my newspaper isn't being read, isn't being consumed by the public?
Moore then went political and talked about education, how the majority of Americans read at a 4-5th grade level, comprehension is just as bad. The newspapers endorsed the Republican party who, Moore claims, tries to destroy education. First of all, the newspapers shouldn't be endorsing anyone. Objectivity, anyone? Anyone? So that's their first "uh-duh moment". Second, if newspapers are supposed to be educating, why dumb down the news? Why give just a certain take on the issue? No wonder no one's reading! Also, journalists are being laid off. Therefore, the different beats aren't getting reported. The things the community deems necessary and important aren't being reported. A bunch of monkeys in the works, I swear. So the newspaper stats are as follows:
1) No one is being educated.
2) No one is being catered to.
3) There's no objectivity.
Three strikes and you're OUT, newspapers.
1) Education
I had an idea in class. Instead of dumbing the news down, how about using educated language and in a sidebar, including words people may not know the meanings of and put the meanings. Sort of like a sidebar dictionary for every article. Yea, it may take longer, but then people know how to use the words and they're learning something. They're able to retain the information better because it's right there. A girl in my class said "Or just spell out dictionary" In other words, she said you should tell them to look it up in the dictionary. But see, that's lazy for us as journalists. If we want people to read, we need to give them what they need not just say, "Here, we wrote it. It's your responsibility to look up the words." Give it to them! You're giving them NEWS why not give them EDUCATION? Everyone knows no one sits with a dictionary next to them while reading. It takes too long to look up the word. If the meanings were on the side of the article, they could stop where they were reading, and look to the side for the meaning. It would be right there, accessible. It's not laziness. We would be educating them and they would feel better about themselves because they're educated. They can use the words in their everyday vocabulary and feel a sense of worth and purpose.
2) Catering
What up with the big wigs taking away our jobs? I suppose y'all are planning on going and doing some reporting for yourselves for once to make up for the lost jobs? Hello, we're journalists. It's our JOB to go out into the community and report on what is going on. People want that. They want to read things that are relevant to their daily lives. You get rid of those things, you get rid of readership. You get rid of high circulation, you get rid of the newspaper. It's a vicious cycle, one the newspaper industry has willingly thrown itself in. Get your fat rear ends up, give journalists their jobs back, and stop thinking about your pockets and start thinking about the people. If you change your mindset and focus on people, your pockets won't be empty. DUH!
3) Objectivity
This makes me want to scream. There's that mindset of if you watch CNN you're liberal. If you watch Fox News, you're a conservative republican. CNN vs. Fox. Red vs. Blue. What happened to the idea of working together to find common ground and the real truth to the stories? Instead of working against each other, work WITH each other. You'd get way more accomplished and get more viewers because you would be reporting from an unbiased, objective manner. That's how the industry is supposed to be. The opinions are for the people to make not you making the opinions for them.
This class has opened my eyes to some awesome stuff. I could probably write until my fingers fell off. Alas, I have to finish up and start reading for my other classes.
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