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).
The spin began with “deadly”, “life threatening”, “catastrophic” speculation, then followed that afterwards with “It wasn’t that bad”, and stories saying the tropical storm was 100% caused by the Global Boiling ClimateCrisis, and then a few adding historical context of past tropical storms and even a hurricane.
“Content mills” and “Content Generation” services are becoming the backbone of web “journalism”. Related: many journalists having surprisingly elite backgrounds, greatly disconnected from the rest of society. At the national level, most have attended elite universities, went to private high schools, and have done studies abroad, They have degrees in English Lit, Creative Writing, History or Political Science, and sometimes journalism – yet often call themselves “Science” or “Environmental Science” reporters, even though they have no background in those subjects. A bit of a surprise.
“Content mills” and “Content Generation” services are becoming the backbone of web “journalism”. 57% of newsroom jobs at newspapers went away from 2008 onwards. What does those people do now? They write stories about that one weird trick that explains why this airport did something to someone… in other words, fluffy filler click-bait articles.
We are all going to die, Really Soon Now. Your dose of The Daily Doomer.
Every few months, the media tell us that – horrors! – 61% (or whatever) of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Left out of the breathless reporting is that this is pretty much where it always is, except during recessions when it goes up higher.
One of the long ago greats in journalism, the late Jim McKay.
Rather than stick with facts, logic and reasoned arguments, the media has gone full yellow journalism, using exaggeration and hyperbole to sell eyeballs to advertisers. They’ve dived so far into nonsense territory as to render their climate reporting pointless, resulting in their message being tuned out.