Would love to hear everyone elses thoughts on this-
I don't really have a problem with journos and what they do because I generally ignore them and treat them like Pride posters, people with an opinion, nothing more. Some you like, others not so much.
Sometimes I'll agree, sometimes I won't.
But I really don't think journos are the problem anyway.
I feel it's a generational and informational issue. Anyone under about 50 has been raised in a society in which you can sit behind a keyboard and within seconds have as much info about any topic as you could ever possibly find need for.
When I was a kid if you wanted to research a topic for a school project or whatever, you got your arse to the library, it was your only choice.
It's now a "look at me" generation, look at the ridiculous tag of "Instagram Influencer", what the **** is that? Someone who craves attention but has no ability or talent.
So, look at league forums as an example.
Within five mins of a journo posting a story or "scoop", log on to the Pride, go to the rumours thread and someone will have taken the story from the journo and try to present it as their own. In these instances you can tell as it is always prefaced with something like "I'm hearing" or "I've been told" because they want to be first and crave attention.
No, you have not been told, you stole it.
Not sure why, it's not hard (obviously) for some of them to spend so much time on Facebook, X, Tik Tok or where ever, nick the journo's story then try to palm it off as their own.
People keep mentioning Alan Clarkson and Ian Heads as great journos, you could probably throw a lot of others in like Frilingos, maybe Mike Gibson, whatever. But those guys only had to compete against a handful of journos within the same area to get the "scoop".
And they basically only had to cover NSW.
These days journos have to cover NSW, VIC and QLD, as well as compete with a million bloggers, Facebook, Tik Tok and X and probably 99% of the population who have a PC.
It's a big race between them all (and their egos) to get the story out quickly. I am sure journos have KPI's and bonuses for clicks and advertising, the generation we live in probably forces them to make the story a little over the top or more controversial in order to meet those goals.
I have felt for a long time the access we now have to information is one of the greatest things I've seen in my life, it's also one of the worst and most dangerous.
If anything I possibly feel a little sorry for most journos as I think they are being forced to compete in areas they shouldn't have to, and it almost forces them to abandon their ethics in the never ending race to be first and grab the attention.
