“I’ve been covering technology news full-time for about five
years now, and concentrating almost entirely on Linux and Open
Source for the last three. Before I got heavily involved with the
Internet I did over 10 years worth of (print) free-lance
investigative reporting and feature writing. I find that online
tech reporting in general is poor compared to most newspaper and
magazine journalism. Can it be improved? And, especially when it
comes to Linux and Open Source, does anyone really want quality
journalism?”
“There is a tendency in all areas of journalism to spend too
much time covering what I call “manufactured news,” a category in
which I place all press releases, political debates, press
conferences, and statements by official spokespeople of any kind,
including the craggy-faced senior firefighter every large fire
department has around whose sole job is to look good in front of a
burned-out house on the nightly TV news.”
“Pumping out manufactured news is easy for reporters, most of
whom aren’t paid nearly as much as programmers or sysadmins despite
being under constant deadline pressure, especially if they are
writing for Internet media. Corporate spokespeople are always happy
to say something glowing about their companies’ products and
services. Groups like the EFF and EPIC have agendas they love to
push, and sympathetic though you or I may be to those agendas (note
the bias here!) repeating their spokepeople’s public statements is
not real reporting.”
“So what is real reporting?…”