These days, journalism comes in two flavors: Sensationalized or Partisan. And often the flavors are mixed together.
The blame for that lies with the mass media companies. For decades, news was a loss leader for the likes of the three major networks and their radio counterparts. They knew it wasn’t going to be a profit center, but instead, a prestige center. Then, one of them (I believe it was ABC) decided to merge their news and entertainment divisions and make their news profitable. That meant it had to be entertaining. Enter in the requirement for sensationalized journalism. See Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry” for more information:
We can do the innuendo, we can dance and sing<br>
When it’s said and done, we haven’t told you a thing<br>
We all know that crap is king, give us dirty laundryThen along came cable news, and their partisan alignments. Fox for Republicans, MSNBC for Democrats, CNN for idiots. Everything that those networks report is filtered through the lens of their particular political dogma. One, for example is now claiming that $2 a gallon gas is bad for America after saying $4 a gallon gas was bankrupting the country only 18 months ago. It’s hysterical at best, but in reality it is simply everything being political to that network. Everything. And all they do is Partisan Journalism, period.
Neither of those things can be blamed on any college. They don’t teach that in J-School. The graduates learn it, however, when they go to work. They have to if they want to keep their jobs. Journalists are like everyone else…they learn what they learn in college, but when they get their jobs, they find that what they were taught at their alma mater ain’t how it works in the real world.
I agree with you on the merger of news and entertainment but I cannot agree that they teach investigative news versus “entertainment and partisam journalism”. We certainly have forgot to teach independent thinking and being responsible for yourself. You just have to interview new graduates to see this clearly.
