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I hope Matthew Yglesias gets laid off

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by JayFarrar, Mar 19, 2013.

  1. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    Okay, maybe I really don't, but maybe I think he should enjoy a furlough or two after penning this:

    Followed by this
    The article can be found here, http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/03/pew_s_state_of_the_media_ignore_the_doomsaying_american_journalism_has_never.html , and is a reaction to the recent Pew Report on journalism.

    So, just remember, to all those in the business who have been laid off, or had their pay cut or been furloughed. Those are excellent problems to have, from a social viewpoint.
     
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    What's he say that's inaccurate?
     
  3. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    He's right about what he's saying, but he skips over some of the more important parts of the Pew report. Here are some excerpts from the Associated Press story on the survey:

    In other words, there may be more journalistic content of interest to people, but it's not as important or as well reported. The new content has made us less informed. I can spend 10 hours a day reading sports, music and TV writing without ever having to see a news headline.
     
  4. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    The other problem with what Yglesias says is that someone like him doesn't care about trivial things like school board meetings and city council intrigue and small-town political corruption that affect the lives of people outside of Manhattan's Upper West Side. These journalists are losing their jobs, too, and that's a social cost to readers.

    But the fact that the Wall Street Journal and New York Times and Slate and ProPublica can produce news more efficiently and readers can access it more efficiently?

    Sign me up.
     
  5. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Actually Yglesias obsessively covers local government issues in D.C. related to housing, traffic, zoning, etc. They're to make macro points, but those blog posts are as local as can be about the town where he lives.
     
  6. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    I had you or Norrin in the pool.

    If you have fewer paid producers, you will, eventually, have fewer choices.

    It is not any different from cheese to chocolate to wine to the news. You need people buying the product to continue having a robust selection. If fewer people buy, then the product becomes more generalized to appeal to the greatest number of people. So instead of deeply reported niche issues, you get general interest fluff about the weather or some celebrity you don't give two shits about.

    And if you think, well I can just get that news from a niche producer. Those people eventually need to be paid, by someone, to continue doing it.
     
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    This wasn't your initial point.

    Your initial point was that it was an outrage for Yglesias to write this because journalists were getting furloughed and laid off.
     
  8. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    It is an outrage and the article offended my paycheck sensibilities.
     
  9. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Let me shift the discussion a little bit here: Can a TV station reorient its priorities to repackage weather in a way that you cut the time you spend on it in half, making room for something (anything) else in the newscast? And could a news station actually pitch that as an alternative to viewers?

    I mean, I guess I'm appalled by the amount of weather in the TV news. The Internet seems to have made little dent in TV practices in this regard. Any sentient human being can read a forecast online and watch the radar, and weather forecasters are consistently wrong.
     
  10. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Isn't weather a huge driver of television news ratings, though? This would turn off viewers, not draw them in.
     
  11. I'm no TV expert, but the most frequent promo for TV news casts in my area are "first and most accurate with weather" and "weather and traffic every x minutes."

    I'm sure a lot of people always tune into TV for the weather and weather only...I prefer to just hit up the National Weather Service for it.
     
  12. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    If you think local newscasts are bad, try watching Diane Sawyer some night.
     
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