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On the angst of American journalists (2019)

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Re: On the angst of American journalists (2019)

#51

Post by idlehand »

chongli wrote: post #17
t-3 wrote: post #13

For a brief period, journalism was a respected professional-class career. Social media and streaming video killed that, so it's back to muckraking. I have confidence that eventually new economic models will emerge that allow writers to better meet the demand for "real" journalism, but figuring that out will take time and more societal adjustment to technology.

There is still a path to professionalism and respect in journalism. It’s the same tough one that’s always been there. War correspondents, investigative journalists, foreign correspondents in general. There are still lots of journalists around who are devoting large amounts of their time and often taking substantial or even grave personal risks to their livelihood, their freedom, or even their lives. They’re doing all…

I think most people aren't actively seeking out knowledge about the most terrible parts of our modern society. That's why we don't take the time to look these things up, I get enough negativity from the news.

Re: On the angst of American journalists (2019)

#52

Post by GravitasFailure »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #42
GravitasFailure wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is from 2019 and things were in pretty good shape then, though I do think the author's broader point about the concerns of journalists not really aligning with the concerns of everyone else does still hold true.

The article is from 2019 and things were in pretty good shape then... Were they, though? I mean, things have gotten worse since then - but that doesn't mean we were doing well then. Simply that things got worse.

They were. It would be trivial to point to a time in the past when things were better than 2019, naturally, but the economy was growing, unemployment was shrinking, labor force participation was increasing, inflation was low. Some portions of the economy were in better shape than others, as the article points out, but the overall picture was good and improving.

Re: On the angst of American journalists (2019)

#53

Post by ZeroGravitas »

> Spend a few hours on twitter and you will think America is a 21st century Weimar Republic. But spend time talking with neighbors and friends in the flesh and you find that this feeling ebbs away. The economy is doing well. People are getting paid bounding sums. Nothing seems so fraught as the online hordes would have you fear.

I don't really recognize either side of this dichotomy?

Twitter is full of people being funny, kind, weird, fascinating as well as angry trolls, of the profesionall and amatuer kind.

Real life has illness, death, war, pollution and assholes as well as art, music, love, weddings, births, friendships etc.

I'm generally optimistic that things are getting better, on average, for the human race but don't see how pretending horrors as well as small unnecessary hardships aren't happening every day helps that progress.

Re: On the angst of American journalists (2019)

#54

Post by epicureanideal »

caslon wrote: post #48
paulpauper wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you know. did you ring the doorbell and as "hey, are you guys well off?" What does it mean to be well off anyway? Sometimes people who save a lot of money appear poorer than they are.

Do you not... talk, to your neighbors?

Do most people these days? I don’t think I’ve ever even seen my neighbors.

Re: On the angst of American journalists (2019)

#55

Post by krageon »

epicureanideal wrote: post #54
caslon wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not... talk, to your neighbors?

Do most people these days? I don’t think I’ve ever even seen my neighbors.

This reads as so outlandish it's close to satire. How can you not see your neighbours? Do you live in the middle of a huge field with nothing in it?

Re: On the angst of American journalists (2019)

#56

Post by krageon »

t-3 wrote: post #13

For a brief period, journalism was a respected professional-class career. Social media and streaming video killed that, so it's back to muckraking. I have confidence that eventually new economic models will emerge that allow writers to better meet the demand for "real" journalism, but figuring that out will take time and more societal adjustment to technology.

> For a brief period, journalism was a respected professional-class career.

That must have been an extremely brief period significantly before I was alive, because I have never heard a single human being imply this.

Re: On the angst of American journalists (2019)

#57

Post by krageon »

chaps wrote: post #41
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the public suffering from a lack of journalism? I'm not sure I can identify any kind of journalistic output that's harder for the average person to find in 2019 (or 2022) than it was in 1980. I wouldn't deny that there are real problems in the new model of journalism, in particular the substantially increased incentives for bias, but I don't think a lack of journalism to read is one of them.

What? This is a stupendously bleak vision of journalism. Are you saying that there should be no new journalism because there's no benefit? If you're sourcing your news from national news, try looking for investigative journalism at the local level.

Either it's impacting your social web and you already know about it or it fundamentally doesn't matter. "News" being necessary is something people that benefit from it being necessary like to tell you, but it doesn't actually improve anything in anyone's life.

Re: On the angst of American journalists (2019)

#58

Post by refurb »

caslon wrote: post #50
ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 2019 when this was written, the US was economically doing well. Unemployment was at a 15-year minimum (1), net compensation was increasing for the middle/lower classes at the fastest rate in 20 years (2), and productivity was up. The economic crash started in Jan/Feb 2020 upon Covid worries, and then just kept on going with supply and demand shocks. (1) https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-…

None of what you're saying implies things were good in 2019, though. It just implies things were getting better compared to the last two crashes we'd had, in theory, for some people. I think people have a right to feel angry, and I don't think the pandemic is the thing that caused it.

If things weren't good in 2019, then they've never been good.

Seriously. In 20 years people will look back on the post-2008 economic frenzy like they look back on the Clinton years.

Re: On the angst of American journalists (2019)

#59

Post by freeone3000 »

krageon wrote: post #55
epicureanideal wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do most people these days? I don’t think I’ve ever even seen my neighbors.

This reads as so outlandish it's close to satire. How can you not see your neighbours? Do you live in the middle of a huge field with nothing in it?

I know my neighbors exist -- I share a wall with them. There's thirty families on my block and I don't know the names of a single one. I think I've said "hi" to one once, when we happened to be on our balconies at the same time. But what ocassion would I have to talk to them?
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