(Cross posted from Facebook because blogs are dead.)
This morning I was listening to journalists complain about how hard it is to get paid for doing journalism. And I thought, “It’s interesting how much “journalism” relied on limited access to media distribution.”
It turns out that when ANYONE has access to a “press” then the actual value of “journalism” approaches its intrinsic value of zero.
They used an example of doing a story on the iPhone 5, about how you’d have to talk to Apple and then Interview Johnny Ive and then take a camera crew to China, and how expensive that would be. And I wanted to say, “It’s expensive for YOU to do it but someone will do it for free.”
Being a “journalist” will be tough but the news will still get out because people will still do it. It’s like that Little Green Footballs blog and the Dan Rather Documents. That was his one big story and he’s never done anything else of note. But that ONE thing happened and if millions of people are reporting about ONE thing that happens, one thing they were there for or that one thing they’re an expert on, then we’ll be better informed than ever and we won’t have the mass media filter deciding what is news and what isn’t.
Of course then we’ll have to have a conversation about Google.
“Cross posted from Facebook…”
So’s Facebook, apparently. You should have put a picture of your thoughts on Pinterest and linked to it from your Tumblr, ya frickin’ geezer.
You want to be a Journalist? Add value. Break stories, don’t chase Twitter.
Of if you wan to have martini lunches with the movers and shakers? Make sure you’re born into the 1%, just like it used to be.
What, your J-School Prof said different? Wow. I’ll bet that it’s a shock that he pocketed all your tuition. After all, he was a good Marxist …