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I'm astonished by the sheer ignorance and under-appreciation of journalism. First, good journalism is extraordinarily important. (In case that's not obvious in
by FabHK 7y ago
I'm astonished by the sheer ignorance and under-appreciation of journalism.
First, good journalism is extraordinarily important. (In case that's not obvious in times of Brexit and Trump I can expand on this. Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg released their documents to journalists.) Sure, most stories are not that important, but they are still an important part of a community.
Second, journalism is not trivial. Good writing is hard. Understanding a subject that you're not necessarily an expert in enough to explain it to others is hard. (Have a look at most documentation!)
Third, many journalists are not only very well educated, but with an admirable idealism (well, initially) and a desire to make the world a better place (really better, not peddling ads). A friend of mine was science journalist, and he had studied physics, philosophy, and psychology (with a PhD in the philosophy of mind).
The decline of journalism is something to lament (and I don't how their coding ability has any bearing on the subject whatsoever).
To put it in economic terms: I submit that the good work of journalists has massive positive externalities, while the work of lots of techies has huge negative externalities.
- gpm 7y agoGood journalism is extraordinarily important. If you go read a few random article about a topic that you are an expert on, you will quickly realize that good journalism is not the norm.
- TheOtherHobbes 7y agoAlso applies to code.
- ravenstine 7y ago> many journalists are not only very well educated So then where exactly do you disagree with me? I never said that I don't appreciate journalism. What am I ignorant about?
- danso 7y agoYou're ignorant about what journalism actually entails, especially journalism that is consumed and found to be useful (i.e. what anyone will bother reading, nevermind paying for). It's no different than someone arguing they can be a successful software engineer just because they've literally created "production ready code" by incorporating Bootstrap.css and jquery.
- ravenstine 7y ago> You're ignorant about what journalism actually entails How about you enlighten us as to what journalism actually entails? You completely dodged my question.
- danso 7y agoSorry, but your original comment said “you have no doubt” that you (or anyone) could get a bunch of software engineers and within a day create a functioning news org. But now it sounds like you have no core concept about what journalism is? edit: just to expand on this, I'm declining to respond to your overly broad request, in the same way that I would decline to respond to someone who, after taking 10 minutes to roll out a beautiful SquareSpace template, mocks the tens of thousands of computer science grads who fail to be even 0.001% the success that dropout Mark Zuckerberg is. Your original comment, without further clarification on your part, carries an amount of arrogance and likely ignorance that doesn't feel worthwhile to engage with in good faith. But for starters, you make a major categorical error by conflating "functioning news organization" – an entity that requires social and political power, entrepreneurship, and business acumen – as something that only requires a bunch of people (journalists, or not) getting together and doing whatever you think "journalism" is. No non-foolish journalist would ever argue that a roomful of journalists could produce a "functioning news organization" in a day or even in a month. And recent counter-examples to your belief are plentiful. If it were possible to throw a bunch of software devs into a room to create a "functional news organization", then Facebook would not be throwing millions [0] at existing news orgs for the rights to display article headlines and previews, when it could be using the hundreds/thousands of not-fully-utilized software engineers it already has in-house to produce news, if your hypothesis were based in reality. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/technology/facebook-news-publishers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/technology/facebook-news-...