Originally posted at PNIQ.
Journalism is an industry facing many threats. Print circulations are falling, taking with them advertising money. Online news is still finding its feet, with major outlets feeling their way around various business models and monetisation methods with varying levels of success. The evolution of the web has blown access to this development wide open, hence the inevitable inclusion of blogging and forms of citizen journalism in any assessment of the news mix in 2010.
The positive outlook here is that news is being democratised. You or I can take part in the reporting of news, in the practice of “journalism”. I do it every day. I’m doing it now, or something approximating to it.
But not everyone sees the removal of barriers as a positive. The National Union of Journalists is, depending on your stance, either remarkably concerned about the standard of journalism being dragged down by hordes of scribbling amateurs, or worried about its members and their jobs. Either would be understandable, but I was still a little surprised to read about an extraordinary broadside from NUJ members in Scotland aimed at newspaper editors employing amateur football writers to cover matches in Scotland.
Freelance journalist Patrick Smith’s blog first drew my attention to the NUJ’s letter to editors, entitled “Kick the Amateurs into Touch”, and quotes one of its most telling paragraphs:
“The union recognises the pressures every desk and editor is under to cut costs but where an event is being covered anyway, we just ask you to consider using a professional journalist. The regular professionals who are still asked to cover games are sick of working next to the growing army of amateurs. They are worried about falling editorial standards and their livelihood driven down by cheap labour or people with second jobs.”
It is, of course, the NUJ’s job to take a protectionist approach to journalism, but the language used betrays its sensitivity when it comes to new media. It also shows a lack of understanding of the situation, or at least a desire to exaggerate exactly how amateurish these amateurs may be. As a football blogger myself, I can tell you it’s not particularly common for me to do any work which would otherwise be classed as the domain of a staffer or even a freelancer.
As Patrick discusses in his post, the letter to editors also ignores the often excellent quality work offered for free by dedicated bloggers and amateur journalists covering not only football but almost every other industry about which one could hope to read. It also fails to address one or two lesser discussed shortcomings of the traditional journalism industry, particularly when it comes to football.
First, it’s actually beneficial to have fresh, bias-free eyes cast over the game every now and again. Football journalism is arguably tainted by the relationships established journalists have with people in the game – proximity to the stars, as it were. Second, and not entirely unrelated, is that a good, enthusiastic blogger is better than a complacent, arrogant journalist in some cases. This was noted by former Scottish newspaper editor Jack Irvine, a response flagged up to me by the author of Scottish Football Blog:
“Here’s an idea. Why don’t we kick all the tossers out of the press box who:- a) invent spurious transfer stories b) invent takeover bids for clubs that never happen c) refuse to share contact details and information with their news desks colleagues when a major sports story breaks d) cover up the appalling behaviour of their sporting buddies (golfing press take a bow!) What have these morons done to earn press cards? No wonder bloggers are putting print media out [of] business. I would suggest that the essential qualification for a good sportswriter is not a press card but a sizeable pair of balls.”
For me, the long and short of it is that both journalists and “amateurs” have much to bring to news and debate. Most of what they offer is different, give or take a few blogger-journalists skirting the borderline. And who knows, if the NUJ’s general outlook on bloggers had been more welcoming from the beginning we might all be a little better at news today.
bloggers, football, NUJ