Mum, I want to thank you for the slinky and the pocket radio

The hot topic issue for journalism right at this very moment is how we're all going to get paid, and it's probably one that weighs heavily on the minds of most budding journalists.

Shrinking newsrooms,the rise of citizen journalism, dwindling coverage of current events. these are the ghost stories told around the campfire at a journalist student's retreat, and unlike the escaped lunatic for a hook with a hand, they're problems journalists cannot simply run away from.

But the main problem with journalism in the 21st century is that it is free. If a crisis happens anywhere in the world, a quick google (or Bing if you're that way inclined) search will find you all the information you'll ever need, in real time and living colour, at no cost.

The Australian has embraced paywalls with gusto

So what was the initial solution? Charge the bastards.

Paywalls have come in to several newspapers in Australia over the past few years. News Limited's The Australian became the first general newspaper in Australia to introduce a paywall in 2011.

Charge people to read the news online, and all of a sudden, we're back and booming. And ignoring the obvious problems of a relatively homogenous product being sold at a price when readily available elsewhere for free, it has worked in some respects. If we look internationally, the New York Times' paywall has certainly succeeded.

There's just one minor problem, which is that not every newspaper in the world is the New York Times.

Blogger Mathew Ingram makes the point that "the NYT is an outlier in almost every sense of the term, and therefore isn't a good benchmark for all papers."

As such, despite many paywalls being financially stable around the world, the newspapers aren't attracting any new readers. Michael Wolff wrote in the Guardian about this underlying problem that there is "An extraordinary indifference, if not utter lack of interest, on the part of younger people to news brands and to news habits, a development that established news organizations have been unable to address, stall, or even fathom."

So no people are subscribing to your paper, only middle aged people. That sucks. And it gets worse.

Because generally speaking, revenue from newspapers hasn't come from readers buying copies. It has always come from advertisers attracted to subscription and circulation numbers. So with paywalls stalling growth in the newspaper market, it's no surprise that online advertising sales are stalling just as quickly.

That is way scarier than any ghost.

So if paywalls aren't the answer, what is?

Crowd Sourcing Journalism has been nominated as the next big thing by some pundits around the world, and Richard Aedy's interview with Joe Verdirame, head of crowd sourcing site Vourno. points toward a little bit of excitement in the industry for grass roots, freelance journalism. You propose a story, post it up for 30 days and have people donate to see the story covered. I'll admit, even I got a little excited when I heard of it. Until Aedy pointed out a major issue:

"What I'm maybe not clear on, is why anyone would fund a 22 year old kid who hasn't really done anything compared to someone who's maybe 38, has spent maybe 15 years in the business and already has this strong track record?"

That is what they call a bingo.

Verdirame admits this is the million dollar question, and then proceeds to say something which broke my heart. He proposed that young journalists were going to have to try extra hard and maybe rely on friends and family to fund their stories. Yes, you read that correctly, getting your mum to fund your career as a journalist through crowd sourcing.

It remind me of when the MS Read-a-thon would come to my school, and you would need to go and find sponsors to donate money to see you read a whole bunch of books and cure multiple sclerosis. Once you'd raised a certain dollar amount, you'd get a prize. So for 20 dollars, it was a slinky, for 30 it was a little pocket FM radio with fluorescent colours. It was great.


Only my mum wasn't comfortable with her 10 year old son going doorknocking around the neighbourhood for change, and just decided to drive me around to different Auntie's houses to have them sponsor me, or just outright give me money herself.

So it was less a charity drive and more just my mum buying me slinkys and radios and sticker books. And that is what Verdirame made it sound like to me.

Still, its an idea to rescue a failing industry. and I certainly can't think of anything better.

I personally think anyone who does PR is a hippo

Nature is full of wonderful little phenomena. Take the red-billed oxpecker for example. It flies around until it finds a big mammal covered in ticks and then proceeds to clean up things with the efficiency of a maid at the Ritz.

The hippo gets clean and free of ticks, while the red-billed oxpecker gets lunch and protection from the big hulking hippo.

 

Image Courtesy of Oregon Budget Traveler

They call this symbiosis, and I see it every day working in a newsroom between journalists working towards a deadline and PR people who have to spread the word. 

Which one is the hippo and which one is the little bird really depends on whose side you're on. The fact remains however that media releases sent out en masse by public relations professionals are increasingly becoming an integral part of the everyday news bulletin.

 

Richard Aedy stated in a 2012 media report that the heavy reliance on media releases was journalism's dirty little secret, and that "once you take out crime, disasters, sport and firemen rescuing kittens from stormwater drains, most of what’s left begins life as a media release."

There are more than a few reasons why this is the case.

Firstly, it's easy. As a journalist trying to meet daily or even hourly deadlines, taking news that land in your lap can only be too easy. 

Let's keep in mind that PR practitioners and journalists are being trained in the same Universities, often doing the same courses and learning the same techniques.

When a journalist sees a press release written in a concise manner selling a point, the temptation to simply add a byline and publish to meet a deadline is immense. And this is speaking from personal experience.

Secondly, if you ever want to speak to someone in a position of power, be it a politician or a prop for the Newcastle Knights, there will be a caveat. As Aedy states, to get to the source, a journalist will "have to deal with someone whose job it is to craft how their boss appears in the media." 

But perhaps the most telling reason as to why media releases have engrained themselves into news bulletins is the simple fact that there are just more PR professionals out there for journalists to fact check.

What does this mean for investigative journalism?

Clearly, newsrooms are shrinking and platoons of PR people are growing. The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill provided a clear picture of the times, with more PR people present at the press conference to give answers than there were journalists to ask questions.

Less personnel in the newsroom means less time to investigate stories thoroughly in the non-stop race to get a bulletin or a story up in time.

This does not make investigative journalism obselete or any less important.

Indeed, it makes it all the more critical for journalists to be on their guard and navigate the minefield of press releases unloaded on them each day with poise.

Media releases are the seed capital for a story, something to build on and explore. 

Unfortunately, journalists have just started serving up seeds - repackaged press releases with no insight into the issue.

Investigative journalism isn't dead by any stretch of the imagination, but if journalists want to keep the vital tradition alive in their own newsroom, perhaps its time to pick up the phone and make some calls the next time they open a press release.