The journalists we spoke to bemoaned the relentless demands to churn out new content for websites and social media feeds. They talked about using multimedia to report on topics that were assigned primarily for their potential to amuse and entertain, rather than to inform or provoke thought. They griped about spending more time sitting at their desks sifting through press releases instead of gathering original reports from the field. And they described fewer and fewer opportunities to pursue stories that are personally interesting and socially valuable.

Journalism has become ground zero for the vocation crisis • Oregon Capital Chronicle

They publicly acknowledge the media’s purpose is to amuse and entertain – its content mills all the way down.