Jack Shafer on the Death of Journalism

Jack Schafer quotes journalist Mark Sullivan's memoirs Education of an American (on Slate here) to point out that journalism has always been in a state of decline. In 1938 the veteran newsman Sullivan laments the passing of the American newspaper as ad dollars flowed from print to radio.

Far from being depressed Sullivan says

I felt as if I were like one of those old monks, the scriveners, who continued to copy by hand long after printing had been invented. To young writers looking forward the lesson is as plain, and even more important, than to old writers looking backward. Learn the art of writing, of course, but learn also the art of the motion picture, and of the radio.

Sound familiar? Good advice for today's journalists.

Schafer is interesting on this subject, in a previous article he says (here)

If newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters don't produce spectacular news coverage no blogger can match, they have no right to survive.

Personally I couldn't agree more.

Last year after Look 3 I came home more excited about telling stories than I had ever been but also more depressed about making a living as a journalist. The barriers of entry to story telling are now ridiculously low and there are many more stories being told. But how any of us -including Jack Schafer- will make a living? No idea

-Stephen Alvarez

Comments

[Kyle Scharf]

This is something I feared and this entry is especially depressing to me, a young photojournalist about to move out and into the workforce. I hope I can make a living or, if not, at least make some kind of impact with my work.