On James Foley Being a Real Journalism Martyr and Me Being a Churnalist

“Why do firemen go back into a blazing home? It was his job,” John Foley answered, according to CNN.com. Such an awesomely inspirational jerk! He made me feel so lame, sloppy and mediocre in doing my job.

We both are so different. Our super dedicated war journalist was so so so willing to risk his own life to cover conflicts that may in turn take his life in an unexpected fashion. While I am here, willing to be stuck in the job of churnalism, a form of journalism which sucks in a major way. A major way, I highlight. I need to create 15 or even more pieces of writing a single day due to pressure of improving Alexa rank and hits. It’s all about quantity. Screw reasearch! Screw checking! Screw reporting on the field! Screw interviewing. All I need to do is open my laptop, get on my social media feeds to scour the interesting sources to paraphrase and pick some uncopyrighted photos to publish with the listicles or mini articles and there I go. Click the publish button and done! No editing, no fact checking. It’s all about speed, quantity, return of investment. Period.

A huge, accumulative disappointment…

So when I get down to the field on Fridays, I take the chance to act like a real journalist. I talk with people, I record their voices (though at times I was lost in conversation), I ask questions which later on I assume to be foolishly unnecessary because the answers are so obvious. It feels great to create things with my own hands, efforts. I’m not paraphrasing and I meet with real people.

(image credit: news.yahoo.com)