Friday, April 19, 2019

There's No Such Thing as Journalism or Journalists Anymore

This was forced in front of my face as headline news on Bing, the search engine I prefer.

It is headline news because that's where the new is - on main search engines or the landing page when you log out of e-mail.

Here's the problem and I do not intend to besmirch the dead - she wasn't a journalist.

I hold myself as the bottom of the barrel metric when it comes to relevance, journalism or the media industry.  I have a mere 7,000 twitter followers and this here blog.  I never aimed to be nor claim to be a "journalist."  And if you are a professional journalist you should have a WAAAAY larger social media pull than my pathetic ass.  This "journalist" had less.

This journalist also got killed protesting which indicates to me she had an agenda and a narrative, a crusade in which she cared more about than reporting the news and actually being a journalist.

There is so much that is not said in this article about journalism and journalists I'll probably expand on it in my podcast, but for now, realize that journalism and journalists do not exist anymore.  It's just a bunch of kids on the internet with pet causes, causes of which at times end up in tragic deaths that should have never occurred had you just been an actual journalist and not an activist.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The UK is in no position to whine about fake journalists when they imprison a man who dares to point out corrupt courts letting muslim child rape gangs go free.

David Wholly said...

There are no journalists. Just activists with press badges.

Un Americano said...

She was not a 'journalist,' she was an "Influencer."

Alt London said...

I think you need to evidence your claims, Cappy, because otherwise this piece just seems to be in extremely poor taste at this time and rather beneath you.

maruadventurer said...

A real REPORTER has an uncomfortable alliance with the society in which they report. They must swim with the fishes in order to get the story. But at the same time they must stand on dry land in order to be impartial. That is a tough life to lead and few can do it successfully.

A Texan said...

What's sad about the whole concept of 'journalism' these days is that you need some BS degree to do a good job of it. If you can write reasonably well, do good research (you should have an English teacher who made you do a research paper with actual references), and can be truthful, it's really not that hard. It helps to have had some real experiences and have something interesting to say.

I find you way more interesting or Bayou Renaissance Man for example who have actually done something and have something interesting to say. You Captain are probably way more qualified to write about banking and finance than most out there.

Journalism should be a minor at most with a real background in something to back it up whether it is accounting or maybe some STEM.

David Becker said...

I'll admit that I am a journalism major in college and that I have personally seen this first-hand how a lot of these "journalists" are these moronic activists or that the media programs usually bring on activists to interview.

Me personally, I do not believe that I am an activist because I don't cover politics. I talk about tech and have been freelancing the last few months at a website called "Applesophy." We talk about Apple, today's tech, and some news about the streaming world since that is what a lot of people are into right now.

My Twitter following is only a little under 750 followers, which does include Cappy himself. My Instagram following is over 1500 followers, though.

Now, the only reason that I have been able to do this for so long is that I truly hustle. There have been many days where I'm writing 4-6 articles in a day since none of the other writers do the work or do it the right way. It's sad but it is what I have been doing in college and even in my classes (because we don't learn anything useful) because it helps me and also helps me build a portfolio for myself, as well as keep me busy in class.

I'm not struggling in my classes either since I still have over a 3.5 GPA since most of the work is pretty easy and that I don't have to do much work in the classes. So, that allows me to work on a lot of my own stuff, which is what I prefer. I am living proof that you can learn journalism today without paying attention in class and that the best education you can get is through experience.

So why the college degree, you might ask? Well, I am going to school for free since my mom saved up a bunch of money so that my brother and I would not have to go into debt for college (which is the responsible thing to do). At the end of the day, it's better than having the taxpayers pay for it through the nose with big government student loans.

I also want to point out that this semester I have been working at a local TV station as an intern (unpaid, sadly) and can say that local journalism sucks too. While some guy got his car stolen at a gas station over the weekend, my station and others in the area didn't even cover it. But they did make sure to cover the story about the Mueller Report and making sure that everyone keeps hating Trump, as well as stupid "feel-good stories" that are worthless.

Lastly, since I have hustled my butt off over the last few months (I get a lot of free time at my internship but still like to keep busy and am not considered an employee there), just yesterday, I had an article that was featured on 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Tech Crunch, and Business Insider. Now, Business Insider and 9to5Mac never credited me or Applesophy as the source, I was the first one to report the story on Sunday on Easter while everyone was taking the holiday to relax. MacRumors and TechCrunch did credit Appleosophy, though.

Meanwhile, the next day, all of the sources just happen to report it? Yeah, they got the information from me originally, as well as the fact that JCPenney did release a statement about what had happened (they quit accepting Apple Pay and all forms of contactless payment in their stores) because of my story.

So don't worry too much Cappy, there are still come of us out there in the journalism world trying to make a positive difference in one way, shape, or form when it comes to journalism. I am the millennial that likes working and being busy. Yes, I take the occasional day off, but for the most part, I am working 24/7 (or so it feels like some days).

Joe BLow said...

When I look at the incalculable damage the one-sided "reporting", fake news, propaganda and disinformation the media has knowingly peddled for the past 30 years or so, I don't really feel sorry. She had the look too, short hair, problem glasses and resting bitch face. As I get older, I get less and less inclined to forgive my enemies, knowing they have worked tirelessly to destroy everything we have built. They would destroy me too given a chance, without a second thought. I'd like to see what she wrote about "the troubles". Probably not very pro-British. Is it Karma she was hit by a new IRA bullet? Whatever, she isn't worth looking for confirmation.

Joe BLow said...

One day, I saw an editor for the Toronto Sun (ex page 3 girl) walk into a room full of Air Force Colonels and Lt Colonels, about 40 of them. She told them flat out that when a reporter or media asks (demand) information on an aircraft accident, "You will give it to us, or we'll burn you." A Colonel did just that, held an interview for W5 (a CBC product) about an aircraft accident. Gave them all the facts. The media lied. They were just there to get sound bites. They did a montage of sound bites without context, played with the lighting and added doom and gloom music to make it sound like the military was in some kind of conspiracy to kill pilots to save money. Fuck the media.