Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Compelling

Yes journalists should do a better job of making issues, even "boring" ones, compelling. I think they're hamstrung by outdated notions of journalistic style, false balance considerations, various ways of dealing with sources, anonymous or not, access concerns, etc. What Jay Rosen calls "the view from nowhere" is almost intrinsically uncompelling. They're performing a weird dance not to please their readers, but to adhere to strange cultural routines and unnecessary practices.