{"id":6637,"date":"2010-09-15T18:36:02","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T23:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2010\/09\/15\/"},"modified":"2024-12-26T14:06:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T19:06:34","slug":"beware-the-evil-media-hamster-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2010\/09\/15\/beware-the-evil-media-hamster-wheel\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware the evil media Hamster Wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today’s must read is a bleak but compelling piece<\/a> in Columbia Journalism<\/a> Review by Dean Starkman, who examines how downsized news organizations are churning out mindless, quick-hit stories with little regard for depth and public service journalism<\/a>. He gives the phenomenon a name: the Hamster Wheel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The Hamster Wheel isn\u2019t speed; it\u2019s motion for motion\u2019s sake. The Hamster Wheel is volume without thought. It is news panic, a lack of discipline, an inability to say no …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalists will tell you that where once newsroom incentives rewarded more deeply reported stories, now incentives skew toward work that can be turned around quickly and generate a bump in Web traffic …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this is written down anywhere, but it\u2019s real. The Hamster Wheel, then, is investigations you will never see, good work left undone, public service not performed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To some degree, the Hamster Wheel has always plagued news organizations but it’s getting worse. Starkman quantifies the damage — more stories are being cranked out by fewer journalists at the Wall Street Journal, for example, and time-strapped reporters are relying more on public relations spin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: Five news stories that show why open government is such a big deal<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scariest part about the Hamster Wheel? It is a structure of our own making — no one is forcing journalists to get on the wheel. But we suffer from a misguided notion that we have no choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo credit: sualk61<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hamster Wheel is investigations you will never see, good work left undone, public service not performed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[121,722],"class_list":["post-6637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journalism","tag-columbia-journalism-review","tag-journalism","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"yoast_head":"\nBeware the evil media Hamster Wheel | John Tedesco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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