My Idealist View

I think the thing that bugs me most about journalism right now is that it's like a sales team. Journalism is having its ups and downs with consumers, and journalism-people are doing everything they can to make sure it stays afloat.

Counting viewers. Looking for advertisers. Putting up flashy headlines. Scandalous pictures. Yeah, it's always been a mix of this stuff, but has it always been so...obvious?

It's like everyday life has come down to trying to sell a car.

Memes aside -- journalism is about getting viewers to view the news, the recent stuff. Maybe I'm a purist, but I think journalism should be more focused on the important day-to-day. So Miley shook her patootie and Billy Ray cried. Miley is still the one with the spotlight on her when there are more IMPOTANT THINGS GOIN AWN. 

That's a victory face right there.

I guess you could say I'm worried about journalism. But I'm not worried about tabloid-journalism. No, unfortunately it looks like that will never go away. I'm worried about what happens when real reporters start reporting stories that will bring in a lot of attention because of numbers. 

Because the journalists and the editors and the websites want page-views, not a well-educated society. 

You know why I think people have been tuning out the news? You know why I think I've been tuning out the news? It's too hard to tell a fart from a photon these days. 

How can we know what's really important? I think there is more responsibility that falls onto the newsroom than just printing out stories and collecting loyalty. A journalist is the mediator between the questionable events of the world and what the public knows about it. 

Right? 

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think journalists should redefine what makes a story newsworthy. They should put out the everyday experiences of everyday people. And there should still be emphasis on the worldly news, as well as national, and local.

 Yeah, maybe there should be a small segment on Miley's patootie in an article that explains the various happenings at the VMA's. Does her indecent behavior really deserve a bigger spotlight with a full article? Or even a full headline? She's a means to get people to click on a website. Is she not?

So can we get back to what matters in life? Like what's going on with churches, and the environment, and veganism, and ammunition, and gun control, and diseases, and why trains are so cool? 

Come on. Wicked cool, right? How did they even make it look like that!?