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Churnalism
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Churnalism
Churnalism is a low-quality form of journalism in which press releases and other forms of pre-packaged material are used to create articles in newspapers and other news media in order to meet increasing pressures of time and cost without undertaking further research or fact-checking.
Churnalism is often the result of understaffed journalists who do not have the bandwidth for original news-gathering and checking sources. Because it can quickly be churned out (and thus is less expensive to produce), churnalism has become more common due to the revenue lost with the rise of Internet news and decline in advertising, with a particularly steep fall in late 2015. The origin of the term has been credited to BBC journalist Waseem Zakir. The name "Churnalism" is a portmanteau of "churn" and "journalism", referring to the perceived "churning out" of content by the press.
Churnalism has increased to the point that many stories found in the news are not original.
In his book Flat Earth News, the British journalist Nick Davies reported a study at Cardiff University by Justin Lewis and a team of researchers which found that 80% of the stories in Britain's quality press were not original and that only 12% of stories were generated by reporters. The result is a reduction of quality and accuracy, as the articles are open to manipulation and distortion.
A 2016 study of 1.8 million articles published by the U.S. and international editions of the HuffPost found that only 44% were written by staff journalists and thus could be considered original reporting.
The journalist Waseem Zakir has been credited for coining the term churnalism while working for the BBC in 2008 (however, Zakir himself recollects it being a decade earlier). According to Zakir, the trend towards this form of journalism involves reporters becoming more reactive and less proactive in searching for news: "You get copy coming in on the wires and reporters churn it out, processing stuff and maybe adding the odd local quote. It's affecting every newsroom in the country and reporters are becoming churnalists."
An editorial on the matter in the British Journalism Review saw this trend as terminal for journalism, "...a harbinger of the end of news journalism as we know it, the coroner's verdict can be nothing other than suicide." Others, such as Peter Preston, former editor of The Guardian, see the issue as over-wrought, saying that there was never a golden age of journalism in which journalists were not subject to such pressures.
Nick Davies and Roy Greenslade gave evidence on the matter to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in 2009.
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Churnalism
Churnalism is a low-quality form of journalism in which press releases and other forms of pre-packaged material are used to create articles in newspapers and other news media in order to meet increasing pressures of time and cost without undertaking further research or fact-checking.
Churnalism is often the result of understaffed journalists who do not have the bandwidth for original news-gathering and checking sources. Because it can quickly be churned out (and thus is less expensive to produce), churnalism has become more common due to the revenue lost with the rise of Internet news and decline in advertising, with a particularly steep fall in late 2015. The origin of the term has been credited to BBC journalist Waseem Zakir. The name "Churnalism" is a portmanteau of "churn" and "journalism", referring to the perceived "churning out" of content by the press.
Churnalism has increased to the point that many stories found in the news are not original.
In his book Flat Earth News, the British journalist Nick Davies reported a study at Cardiff University by Justin Lewis and a team of researchers which found that 80% of the stories in Britain's quality press were not original and that only 12% of stories were generated by reporters. The result is a reduction of quality and accuracy, as the articles are open to manipulation and distortion.
A 2016 study of 1.8 million articles published by the U.S. and international editions of the HuffPost found that only 44% were written by staff journalists and thus could be considered original reporting.
The journalist Waseem Zakir has been credited for coining the term churnalism while working for the BBC in 2008 (however, Zakir himself recollects it being a decade earlier). According to Zakir, the trend towards this form of journalism involves reporters becoming more reactive and less proactive in searching for news: "You get copy coming in on the wires and reporters churn it out, processing stuff and maybe adding the odd local quote. It's affecting every newsroom in the country and reporters are becoming churnalists."
An editorial on the matter in the British Journalism Review saw this trend as terminal for journalism, "...a harbinger of the end of news journalism as we know it, the coroner's verdict can be nothing other than suicide." Others, such as Peter Preston, former editor of The Guardian, see the issue as over-wrought, saying that there was never a golden age of journalism in which journalists were not subject to such pressures.
Nick Davies and Roy Greenslade gave evidence on the matter to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in 2009.