Posts by Hebe
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Cracker: How Media Made me a Bad Person., in reply to Geoff Lealand,
a structural problem?
Time pressure and output requirements/ lack of resources is endemic.
Interesting findings. I'd like to know more.
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Cracker: How Media Made me a Bad Person., in reply to Russell Brown,
Can I just request that people make an effort to spell Damian's name correctly? It's on the masthead!
Mea culpa; again. Sorry. The pendulum has swung too far in the recovery from sub-editing phase. Bet you've wanted to do that to a sub for decades; beloved revels in every opportunity for payback ;-) Happy to help as my typing is appalling after all these years.
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Cracker: How Media Made me a Bad Person., in reply to Chris Waugh,
Quality journalism is still going to cost someone a lot of money.
Yep. And we have a tiny domestic market to pay for it.
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PS to my last post: "...I...is..." Cringe.
I am interested in Damien's piece because it is revealing of human frailty and emotions - the media worker as a human being - rather than an intellectualised, professional image, with the inherent contradictions and failings of chipping out a career in the constraints of a large media machine. One of the first things in journalism I was (repeatedly) told: "This is an industry; it's here to make money." That informs a huge number of decisions made in the industry -- from Chris Waugh's comments about news editing/story placement right through. Sex, money, fear and the Royal family sell big; worthy but dull doesn't. The only way to change that culture is by setting up your own outlet.
He's brave to publish: I appreciate it.
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Cracker: How Media Made me a Bad Person., in reply to giovanni tiso,
They are in our newspapers, aren't they? They are seamless part of the product.
They occupy space. Being published does not make them journalists any more than I, as a commenter/participant on PAS, is qualified to call myself a blogger, or a photographer because I take photographs that sometimes work well.
A journalist is a practitioner of craft who has had at least had some, often years of, learning that craft. Also someone who has an understanding and practical application of ethics. I could go on.
Having said that, I am not surprised at the negative reactions from journos to the likes of the Jonesy. I am repeatedly dumbfounded by some journalists I know who dismiss the internet and all its works -- with certain people I avoid mentioning anything webbish because the divide of experience and understanding is too great.
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Cracker: How Media Made me a Bad Person., in reply to giovanni tiso,
Michael Lhaws, Bob Jones, John Tamihere roam the land.
I don't count them as journalists. They are opinion columnists and talkback hosts: "personalities", paid by media companies. Most of all they are former politicians who have found anther venue to foist their views upon the public. No pretence of reportage or reasoned commentary among the three of them.
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Cracker: How Media Made me a Bad Person., in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
do I just ignore it, or what?
We need another "what I really hated on the news today and why xxx is so wrong" thread for that.
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Cracker: How Media Made me a Bad Person., in reply to Danielle,
I'm not sure where you expect this to go then, since the post seems designed to head the discussion precisely in that direction.
My take is that Damian is ruminating on the personal contradictions inherent in working in a seductive and toxic system and culture (the media) with which every sentient (not all are) participant has a love/hate thing going on. The discussion about the media's output being 50 shades of vile is another topic entirely.
I guess this is a media worker's story in a way: Damian is putting it out there how hard it can be to do our best, stay true to a basic ethical base (personally and professionally), and keep an income in a brutally competitive machine. I worked in comms for politicians after journalism, and I was suprised at how civilised and courtly that world is in comparison.
PS: Not every media workplace is toxic, obviously. I have worked in great, monstrous and vanilla settings.
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Thinking more about Damian's piece, I have a few points: there is no excuse -- no matter where I worked -- behaving like "the bitch from hell" as my beloved sweetly pointed out one day.
The everyday life and work interactions of journalists in a brutal culture inform their thinking and analysis of what is "normal" everyday behaviour and help with the disconnect between their reality and that of the world they supposedly reflect and serve. That allows a harsh black-and-white, good/bad with no shades of grey style of output to seem perfectly reasonable to them while the targets and the public cringe at the bullying and hectoring.
Having said that, good -- and wonderful -- people in the media are many and talented and often don't get the high profile of the knuckle-crackers.
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Damian, that's a great piece. It's why, after two decades of working in the media, I was thrilled to be in a position where I could exit my career with barely a backward glance. I didn't like who I became at work either.