Pay-Per-View Journalism Is Burning Out Reporters Young

Hugh Pickens writes "Young journalists once dreamed of trotting the globe in pursuit of a story, but the NY Times now reports that instead many are working online shackled to their computers, where they try to eke out a fresh thought or be first to report even the smallest nugget of news — anything that will impress Google's algorithms and draw readers their way. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times all display a 'most viewed' list on their home pages; some media outlets, including Bloomberg News and Gawker Media, now pay writers based in part on how many readers click on their articles. 'At a [traditional] paper, your only real stress point is in the evening when you're actually sitting there on deadline, trying to file,' says Jim VandeHei, Politico's executive editor. 'Now at any point in the day starting at 5 in the morning, there can be that same level of intensity and pressure to get something out.' The pace has led to substantial turnover in staff at digital news organizations. At Politico, roughly a dozen reporters have left in the first half of the year — a big number for a newsroom that has only about 70 reporters and editors. 'When my students come back to visit, they carry the exhaustion of a person who's been working for a decade, not a couple of years,' says Duy Linh Tu of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. 'I worry about burnout.'"

Comments

hrm-di-hrrrm. Know what's REALLY news?

[jafac]

What Motivates People.

Yeah. There've been some interesting studies on this lately. And I know it's bordering on the realm of pseudoscience. Personally, I'd like to see some more rigorous work done, maybe wider studies, replicate these results, back it up with some hard neuroscience. Seriously. Because it makes a lot of sense - and I'd like to see whether this is just a culturally isolated phenomenon, or if it's all of humanity, or what. I'd like to see it proven. Really really proven. Or debunked.

Because it really turns our whole carrot-stick approach of work-ethic morality upside down.

Frankly. I mean, if it's true, do we (as a civilization. . . humanity), really need money?

I mean - our money, globally, is imaginary now, as it is. We don't even bother to PRINT 99% of it on paper. It's electronic bits. Some of which represent orders of magnitude of individual currency units. And the SICK thing is. . . 99% of us? Will never have a chance in hell of ever owning 99% of this imaginary "property". No matter how hard we work. No matter who we know. No matter how lucky we get.

Yet, we're supposed to be working and slaving away for it?
We're in-debt for it?
We're starving, hating, killing, and warring over it?
We're making decisions that short-change our future, our children, our planet's ability to sustain life. . . over imaginary units of . . . numbers used to measure financial transactions, that are used mostly for. . . what, um. . . the vast majority is basically hoarded.

And the only reason why I can figure out why anyone would want to hoard imaginary bits of currency, is to either just be MEAN, and keep it from everyone else, or just out of the mistaken belief, that they can motivate everyone else to work hard, if they can con everyone into thinking they can get some.

And this stuff isn't even really good for motivating us to do our best work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=autofb
. . . apparently.