Are you an angry web producer?
I have to admit I’ve been spending a little too much time reading AngryJournalist.com. It’s sad, really, because in a way it’s a running diary of an industry in the throes of painful change. “I’m angry because our newspaper is dying and our leaders are more concerned with rules that say we can’t wear jeans to work, eat at our desks or tape anything on the file cabinets,” writes one. “I am angry that when I go home at night and turn on the television and look up news online it doesn’t look like I’ve done my job to provide a service to this country,” writes another. “I’m angry because we all talk about our industry tanking and the things we could do, but we don’t actually DO any of them,” says a third. After reading a hundred of these, I feel like a drink.
But I’m finding wisdom between the rants. A few newspaper journalists focus on the lack of leadership to invest in the internet and adapt to changing times. TV journalists lament the lack of quality. And nearly everyone rants about management’s lack of communication and receptiveness to new ideas.
All of this makes me wonder what online journalists are angry about, because if we take a constructive approach, perhaps we can learn a few things. So I’m resurrecting “The Circuit,” Lost Remote’s forum, with a thread that asks if you’re an angry web producer. If you are, tell us why, but also suggest how it can be fixed. This is probably the wrong way to jump-start a forum, but I think it’s time we start talking honestly from an online perspective about the very real challenges facing journalism… before it’s too late.
5 comments February 22nd, 2008
