The State of Journalism in the Wake of the #G20

The media landscape has been shifting for quite some time. To an extent to be a journalist in 2010 is to be terrified about the future of your chosen profession. However the attack on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that the G20 was seems to have brought out the best and worst in people. Many of this city's journalists shone in a way that is all too rare from the press these days (one of the real reasons for the decline in newspapers.)

I'll start with the best because it is well earned. On the whole Toronto's media, both professional and 'citizen' deserve the highest possible praise. CTV, CP24, the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, National Post, Rabble.ca, Torontoist, Blog.to, Spacing and others including many independent journalists dove right in, fearlessly covering the story from the front lines and some of them paid a high price for it including arrests and assaults at the hands of police.

The worst though are also worthy of attention so that we can remember them in future and judge their future credibility according to their remarks.

The fear I spoke of earlier has sparked a certain mode of thinking - a certain school of journalism that attempts to divide "real" journalists from "citizen journalists", including alternative media and others. Sadly this school has yet to be able to defend itself on any logical basis. It seems to depend on where you work. If you work for a media organization that existed before 1990 then you are a "real" journalist. If you don't, then you're not - or if you work for an organization that only exists online then you are not a journalist. (So for example someone who wrote for the National Enquirer or Fox News would be a journalist, but not someone who wrote for Rabble or Torontoist.)

Proponents of this school like to claim that it's about having certain 'standards' and following certain practices that it's about experience - all total hogwash. Most good media organizations have standards and practices but they are not universal. Standards and their enforcement vary widely from one organization to another. There is no universal set of standards and practices. There is no governing body. You can't be disbarred or lose your license to practice journalism. All journalists are self-anointed - not all of them have even been to journalism school including the CBC's Peter Mansbridge and CNN's Anderson Cooper

Before I get into naming names I'd also like to get into a bit of definition and history.

First the definition: From merriam-webster:

jour·nal·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈjər-nə-ˌli-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: 1828
1 a : the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media b : the public press c : an academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium
2 a : writing designed for publication in a newspaper or magazine b : writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation c : writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest

Hmm nothing complicated, nothing about getting a specific education, or a license, or permission from anyone.

Now quickly a little history. I won't get into a whole lot of detail, anyone who has been to journalism school will know this stuff (or should if they went to their classes.) I would like to eradicate a few myths though. Journalism is not an ancient tradition. It's been around for a long, long time but the first journalism school wasn't founded until the 1860s and the concept of a "unbiased / impartial" media didn't really gain traction until after WWII - prior to that it was full of propaganda, opinion and 'citizen' journalism. So as an 'ancient tradition' it's pretty new.

It is also important to note that both the US and Canada offer freedom of the press but neither defines who is a journalist, rather journalism is seen as an offshoot of freedom of speech. If individuals have the right to speak freely, then they may also write and distribute their views.

So, the two journalists who really showed their true colors and at the same time demonstrated their lack of understanding of what journalism is and where it comes from.

First and foremost - Andrew Coyne, editor of McLean's who said on Twitter - "Can we PLEASE stop calling them "protesters"? They're not protesting anything, any of them, including the "peaceful" ones." Not only is Coyne's statement obviously not true, but as an assault on free speech it is also an assault on the free press (either that or the Editor of McLeans doesn't know where press freedom comes from and therefore knows less about journalism than I do.) When the editor of a national publication openly attacks a free press it can't be seen as anything but a colossal fail for the individual and the publication.

The second journalistic failure came from the Globe and Mail's Christie Blatchford today. I can only assume that Blatchford was sad because she wasn't part of the G20 story but in attacking other journalists she displayed nothing but her own ignorance of journalism. Her piece titled "Self-anointed G20 ‘journalists’ should get real" can be found here and contains such memorable quips as:

"First, journalism is not merely a collective of the self-anointed.

For all that it may not be a regulated profession, neither is it just a coming together of people with cellphones, video cameras and blogs as receptacle for an apparently endless stream of unfiltered, unedited consciousness.

In other words, just as you are not a physician or a lawyer merely because you say you are, much as you may want to believe it so, neither are you a journalist because you and your friends say you are or because your “writings” appear on a website."

and

"But let us not pretend that these folks are working journalists or that they are the equivalent. They aren’t, for the most part.

Their work isn’t subject to editing or lawyering or the ethical code which binds, for example, the writers at The Globe. The websites on which they appear don’t belong, as do most reputable newspapers in this province, to the Ontario Press Council, a body which hears complaints against traditional journalists and publications."

All in all demonstrating an ignorance of what Journalism actually is, where it comes from and why we have it - all while lambasting others for not being 'real' journalists.

So, I'm watching the news very closely these days - but I will certainly trust Rabble, Blog.to, Spacing, Torontoist, and others over Coyne, McLean's and Blatchford who did not contribute quality journalism to the G20 and who showed themselves to be less qualified than many of those they attacked.