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Charlie Beckett

March 31st, 2008

How To End Churnalism

1 comment

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

March 31st, 2008

How To End Churnalism

1 comment

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

There’s a good thought from Dave Lee’s blog on how to end ‘churnalism’. He suggests that all papers should stop using wire copy, which would force them to concentrate on their original work:

I propose that newspapers drop using wire copy. It’s dirty. Quotes aren’t real, facts are basic — do away with the whole damn thing. I’m not saying companies like AP, PA and AFP should cease to exist, far from it, but their current position of gate-keepers to the world should not be allowed. Have a breaking news service available to everyone. The internet allows this. Google News is practically a newswire anyway. Then allow media to follow it up if they wish — doing some real reporting. I’d prefer to read a newspaper that was 10 pages thick with original copy rather than 40 pages of re-written wire stuff, which is what we’re getting now.

This is what I was suggesting in my response to Nick Davies Flat Earth News and it is what Jeff Jarvis was addressing with his new rule for journalism: “Cover What You Do Best And Link To The Rest”. Whether you need a rule or not, I think it is happening anyway as part of the move to networked journalism.

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Charlie Beckett

Posted In: Journalism

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