Today’s journalists are a mono-culture (nearly 4 in 5 have degrees in arts and humanities), and at the national level, attended elite universities, with global experiences. They are disconnected from the public about which they report, and for whom their stories are targeted.
the authors find that students with wealthy parents enjoy a large advantage in elite college admissions that academic credentials alone cannot explain. Moreover, graduates of these institutions reap significant monetary and nonmonetary rewards compared to similar college graduates who attended less-prestigious schools. New Study Investigates Why Elite Colleges Favor Rich Kids (forbes.com) And this applies to elite journalists as well: The twelve most prestigious private schools (the Ivy League plus the University of Chicago, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of…
News author bios tell us that the writer enjoys hiking, has 3 dogs, and likes to write music – rather than giving us background on the author’s qualifications to write the story. Why does the media do this?
Partly because so many of those in the field went to elite schools, and partly because the major national news outlets like the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post are catering to their readers, who are the elite who also went to elite schools. But it’s hard not to suspect that there is also another reason for reporters’ focus on elite colleges: At least in major national media outlets, that’s where most of them went. There’s…
The Pulitzer Prizes are nothing but elite self-congratulation divorced from real journalism (nypost.com) Ouch.
87% of journalism graduates say they wish they had pursued a different plan of study in college.
Interesting demographics of journalists. About 77% have a degree is the arts or humanities, much higher than the overall population of degree holders. Fewer have a Master’s degree than in many other fields. Journalism pay is not very good.
The linked article explains the business of content mills.
Source: Reporter David Axe publishes literally the same headline, every month for a year – and all of them have been wrong – Social Panic At this point, it’s hilarious. The reporter David Axe has a BA in history and an MA in fiction writing (really).
Amazon is selling AI written fake travel books, and other fake books.