Late Christmas wish/New Year’s Resolution

A commenter at Andy Dickinson’s blog writes:

Since switching from print-only to digital sports journalism, I’ve found myself shrugging off what I do as ‘only digital’ to the print types I work alongside who I feel look down on what I am here for because of an inherent internal reference point of journalism equals print. End of.

I love the immediacy of the web and am itching to launch the AV sections once we get the equipment (fantastic course BTW) - but, having been effectively banned from writing and subbing in print, it is easy to feel somewhat castrated as a journalist.

But that’s the U.K., you say? Try this, from a major university in the U.S.:

There was disagreements on how the medium should be run and the very question of whether an online medium independent of the paper should exist. Well, that’s not something you want to hear. I had staff members in classes who sometimes had to endure taunting at the hands of faculty and sometimes students. (emphasis added)

Dickinson calls it Rachmanism. Kevin Anderson adds a lengthy, passionate rant about the future of the craft, ending with these words:

To those of you who ask whether the internet or blogging or podcasting is ‘valid journalism’: We can be passionate about the internet and journalism. We can code HTML, shoot video, record and edit podcasts and write solid prose. Yes, it’s a lot to do, but we feel that the sum will be greater than its parts. We will challenge managers because we don’t fit into your current organisational chart (although your org chart is part of the problem). We are employees ready to do renaissance journalism, and we will do it, if we’re only given a chance.

As for me, I don’t feel the need to justify my journalistic credentials anymore. I can understand journalists whose jobs are under threat feeling defensive about the internet. But a fundamentalist attitude about what is and isn’t valid journalism isn’t going to solve the industry’s problems or save jobs. And telling the digital natives that they have to choose between journalism and technology is a self-defeating move by an industry that needs our talents.

I’ve heard enough of these types of tales to know that although the embrace of “new media” journalism has accelerated greatly over the last year, there is still a lot of work to be done before journalists whose practice is built on older platforms totally embrace those whose practice is built on the new. Some of that change needs to come from the halls of academia - and student media - as well.

So my belated Christmas wish is that we all make a New Year’s Resolution to end the backstabbing, in-fighting, and holier-than-thou attitudes and get on with the business of making good journalism - whatever the platform.

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