Penises, Butts, and Gossip: Why Modern Journalism Sucks
My social media feeds are full of rants (and often snarky comments) from frustrated people in the entertainment industry. What worked so well for many years suddenly doesn't seem to work anymore. Distribution of music has never been easier (Soundcloud, BandCamp, Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, etc.) and there are more publications, magazines, and blogs than ever before. Why, then, is it so difficult to secure artists and brands the exposure they deserve?
Well. The past two weeks, publications have been busy publishing articles on Kim Kardashian's butt and Lorde's "feud" with Diplo regarding his "tiny penis":
The Huffington Post Entertainment
Lorde Totally Owns Diplo After He Disses Taylor Swift on Twitter
Fox News Entertainment
Katy Perry's boyfriend Diplo disses Taylor Swift's butt; Lorde disses Diplo's manhood
CNN Entertainment
Time Magazine
I could go on for hours with similar examples, but you get the point. Instead of using these platforms, which reach millions of people, to promote and reward deserving individuals for their skills and talents, the relentless pursuit of advertising revenue has pushed us to cover gossip about butts and penises.
We get it. Kim Kardashian has a huge ass, and Lorde made fun of Diplo in a hilarious way. And that's a great way to get people to click on your website! Great, now writers and journalists are using wasting their skills writing about ludicrous and irrelevant stories, and all is well.It's easy to poke fun at these publications for struggling to adapt to technology and the internet. In order to remain relevant and make money, they have opted to become TMZ-esque because it's easy and it works. But I can't see this being a long-term solution, because all of these publications are becoming mirror images of each other and nothing more.
One of these days, we will start to care about journalistic integrity once more. We will begin to write stories that deserve to be shared with the rest of the world, and we'll reward people who have earned the exposure through hard work and creativity and not through their fame. But that day is not today. And thus, everyone (artists and publicists included) needs to adapt the way they work in order to succeed.
Update:
Thank you Jim Carroll and The Irish Times for covering this.