Feminized Journalism

As feminism (and its post modern equivalents) invaded the Humanities, the fields that were supported and nurtured by the Humanities also began to become rotten. Now some are beginning to fall off the tree as the rotten fruit they are. History, law, business, and others are all becoming afflicted.

But the most rotten one to the core is Journalism.

“Young men are just not interested,” says Allen, who runs the broadcast news program at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. “There’s been almost an evacuation of men from this field.”

 This comes from a Washington Post story on how the newsroom is becoming feminized. I think I can add to this story.

While most of my time in school ended up, in the end, veering towards pre-law and political science and the English departments, I did dabble in everything I could. I took acting classes. I snuck into the music hall. I took advantage of whatever I could. But the Journalism Department stunned me.

There is a time when one examines the patient and knows that it is not only dying but it is far too late to do anything for it. You must pronounce it dead. Journalism is not only dead; it has come back as a zombie and terrorizing everything around it. Honestly, I think I’d rather take a “Woman’s Studies” class than some of the modern Journalism classes.

Journalism is more political than the Political Science department (and THAT is saying something). In most businesses, if the customer has a complaint, the business listens because it is the business’s job to please the customer. Not Journalism. Any customer who complains…well, what does the customer know? The journalists will just ignore the customer and keep right on going. I think the big reason why newspapers and television news is in full decline is not so much the Internet but because these journalists refuse to even give a care about the market. Even retro technology sources are increasing their customer base such as radio.

To those of you in University, ask a journalist this question, “Why do you want to become a journalist?” They will reply, “Because…I want to change the world.” Baffled, I say, “But your job is not to change the world. Your job is to stand there with a notepad and write down what is happening.” They do not like this answer.

One of the things I decided to check out was the “Debate Club.” I thought this might be a stimulating university experience. For some reason, the Journalism Department handled this. So I attend a meeting and, boy, did I have some surprises.

The first rule of the Debate Club was that you do not debate. Rather, you war with images. In the competition, I was told that you were graded more on your appearances. During breaks, everyone becomes entirely fake and political. They rush to each other and shake hands to say, “Oh, HOW ARE YOU!?” in the sweetest tone because judges are watching. So the meeting was not a discussion of debating techniques or anything OBVIOUS as that. Rather, it was how to create the best appearance. Yes, most of the members there were women. The guys there were fairly metrosexual. The teacher was a lesbian.

The problem with journalism is not how to get it to work but rather how to get it to stop. I have to swear that the stupidest people per average tend to end up in the Journalism Department.

These people are attracted to glamour, to media, to attention. I know guys who were interested in journalism but quit after a single semester of being in it. “It’s screwed up,” they said. Or as one aptly put it: “It is style over substance.”

Journalism has turned into political activism. It is not that the Journalism field has been corrupted. Corruption would be a godsend. Rather, it has been turned inside out. Rather than being the most curious, the most informed, and the least bias, Journalism has become not interested in anything that doesn’t match pre-established contexts, is ripe with mediocrity, and each want to ‘change the world’ as if they were pseudo-politicians. They literally believe they are the ‘fourth branch of the government.’

What is Chick News?

The traditional media is rapidly becoming ‘chick news.’ Every story is CRISIS. If there is a rain storm, you will find a reporter standing outside in the rain shouting, “IT IS WET OUT HERE, CINDY! YOU WON’T BELIEVE THE WIND OR THE RAIN! IT IS INCREDIBLE!” Yet, it’s just rain. Absolutely everything is a crisis. Consider the commercial that appears before the 10 o’clock news: “SOMETHING IN YOUR KITCHEN MAY KILL YOU! TUNE IN TONIGHT TO FIND OUT WHAT THAT IS!”

Chick News also has a high focus of feature stories as all stories. They cannot simply report what is happening in Lebanon. They must put some woman from Lebanon as she cries and talks about the friends she knows and how she is so worried. Also, there is a high rate of news concerning anything sexual such as contraception.

I am not sure how Journalism turned into Chick News. But I believe it began in the 1970s when Journalism believed that it could oust a U.S. President (Nixon) and stop a war (Vietnam) single handedly. So ever since then, every president is ‘Nixon’ to them and every war is ‘Vietnam’ to them. Like a whore, Chick News attempts to manipulate and influence just for the sake of manipulating and influencing.

I think the feminization of the News Room could be a microcosm of other fields to come (corporate board rooms for example for certain industries). But, for now, here is the best example of Chick News with the CRISIS mindset firmly in play. Watch the video.