I am not a "real journalist"!
My friend David Pescovitz recently appeared on a panel addressing the question of whether bloggers were "real journalists." Then I had one of those experiences that made that abstract question all too shockingly real.
I was preparing my application for a USC Annenberg School for Communication media fellowship, which paid tuition for a weekend seminar on "Covering Entertainment in the Digital Age." I noticed that the application required a lot of information to come from my "supervisor," so I called them up to ask how I as a freelancer should handle this. I'd already obtained a letter of recommendation from my editor of six years at Photo District News, for whom I've written dozens of features about how digital technology was transforming the visual arts. Several years ago when I was awarded two media fellowships from CASE, including one on art and technology, they were extremely accommodating, so I was not prepared to hear that while USC would accept applications from people like me, I might as well not bother because they really couldn't prove I was a "real journalist." When I listed all the publications I've written for over the years, they said it didn't matter. If I didn't work in a newsroom, I apparently wasn't a real journalist in their book.
I was angry at first, of course. But on further contemplation, it made a little sense. The "real journalists," newsroom reporters who are responsible for some of the sloppiest, most fear-mongering reporting around when it comes to the digital/information age we live in, are probably more in need of a thoughtful, informative seminar than writers such as myself, who cannot cruise by knowing my paycheck will come every two weeks no matter what half-assed dreck I publish. It made me realize that the most thoughtful, provocative journalism today is, in fact, coming from independents writing for magazines, writing books, an in some cases maintaining blogs. That's not to say all television and news reporters suck, of course, but I'm not the first to intimate a serious decline in standards.
In fact, I can't even remember the last time I referred to myself as a journalist. In my view, the word has an almost tawdry ring to it. I consider myself an independent writer who, in addition to writing fiction, doing some creative consulting and fun stuff like this blog, provides high-quality journalism for some great publications. If USC doesn't think that's even worth investing in, then I hope they enjoy going down with the sinking ship they've chosen to cast their lot with.
I was preparing my application for a USC Annenberg School for Communication media fellowship, which paid tuition for a weekend seminar on "Covering Entertainment in the Digital Age." I noticed that the application required a lot of information to come from my "supervisor," so I called them up to ask how I as a freelancer should handle this. I'd already obtained a letter of recommendation from my editor of six years at Photo District News, for whom I've written dozens of features about how digital technology was transforming the visual arts. Several years ago when I was awarded two media fellowships from CASE, including one on art and technology, they were extremely accommodating, so I was not prepared to hear that while USC would accept applications from people like me, I might as well not bother because they really couldn't prove I was a "real journalist." When I listed all the publications I've written for over the years, they said it didn't matter. If I didn't work in a newsroom, I apparently wasn't a real journalist in their book.
I was angry at first, of course. But on further contemplation, it made a little sense. The "real journalists," newsroom reporters who are responsible for some of the sloppiest, most fear-mongering reporting around when it comes to the digital/information age we live in, are probably more in need of a thoughtful, informative seminar than writers such as myself, who cannot cruise by knowing my paycheck will come every two weeks no matter what half-assed dreck I publish. It made me realize that the most thoughtful, provocative journalism today is, in fact, coming from independents writing for magazines, writing books, an in some cases maintaining blogs. That's not to say all television and news reporters suck, of course, but I'm not the first to intimate a serious decline in standards.
In fact, I can't even remember the last time I referred to myself as a journalist. In my view, the word has an almost tawdry ring to it. I consider myself an independent writer who, in addition to writing fiction, doing some creative consulting and fun stuff like this blog, provides high-quality journalism for some great publications. If USC doesn't think that's even worth investing in, then I hope they enjoy going down with the sinking ship they've chosen to cast their lot with.
9 Comments:
Hmm, you felt like a journalist when you interviewed me in the late 90's! :)
This is parochial thinking at its finest. Maybe you should be flattered that they don't consider you a "real journalist", if only because of the horrible job many in the mainstream media are doing at the moment.
I'm hoping this is a matter of administrative bullheadedness and semantics rather than an actual Annenberg school policy that designates freelancers as non-journalists. Wouldn't any one of your editors at Wired, Slate, Salon, Mojo, etc. be considered a supervisor? Gad, I hope so. Good luck.
I'm also "independent" writer who hasn't been published,
yet...
and is trying to figure out how to do so.
The more "established" writers who have advised me have told me that starting a Blog and freelance writing is not considered valid in the writing world...
They must have been staff at USC.
Your article changed that for me.
Thanks!
your posting Changed that for me.
Freelancers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but fellowships, health care and invitations to National Press Club snore fests.
BTW, that McHugh guy isn't a real journalist either. He doesn't even have a chair. He has to write standing up.
Annenberg has issues. I'm a undergrad there. I recommend persistance. They have freelancers who teach classes at an undergrad and graduate level.
No, "real journalists" are people like Michael Parks, chairman of the journalism program there, who resigned from the LA Times after presiding over the paper during the Staples Center scandal.
http://ascweb.usc.edu/asc.php?pageID=26&thisFacultyID=95&sort=jour
I've read you for years, and if you aren't a "real journalist," I'd like to hope there will be many more not real journalists like you, and fewer over-employed, undertalented newsroom employees like...well, like a certain long-winded blowhard who brags about the four editors who hone his work before it goes out.
What's sad is that the idiot who gave Ann Coulter a rimjob for Time and then whined, when caught in some major, MAJOR errors of fact, that it wasn't his job to be a fact-checker, would no doubt be considered a "journalist".
Yer pal al sez:
Ouch. If it's any consolation, they recently sent me a very flattering letter of rejection, which I promptly used to wipe my hiney. (It was a little scratchy, but felt good metaphorically.)
I felt even better when I heard from several other superb Bay Area journalists who'd been turned down that the Annenberg program favors journalists slogging away for some newsrag in Nebraska rather than us SF smartypants -- because, you know, people in Nebraska have the most insight to offer about the bleeding edge of digital media.
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