Music, Film & Media: The IT Journalist- a Dying Breed?

I always found classifying myself as a journalist difficult, made worse by my finger in every pie, ad-hoc work situation. As a description, it just doesn't define me – in fact “the modern geek” is probably the closest approximation I've found to date (and it's a phrase I coined first ). IT journalism is so separate from “real” journalism, that it fully justifies the need for its own title.

In the world of IT journalists, there are two types of people. There are those that have trained as Journalists – so can write really well, but don't really understand the topic fully, and those who really understand the technology but really struggle to, well, you know, explain things. Both types of people are just as frustrating to deal with, in their own ways.

I started Spode's Abode when I was 15, and English was my weakest subject – B/C at GCSE. Even now, although my writing has improved over the years, I would still consider myself average at best. At 16 I started writing for Computer Shopper Labs. It was only at this point I learned to understand the market, and the context for which to apply my technical knowledge. I also fed of the years of writing experience that the rest of the team had. I like to think I've been lucky enough to eventually land in the middle – technically proficient enough to out smart most Journos, yet a good enough writer to be able to explain myself. Even trained writers aren't perfect – that's what sub-editors are for

The unfortunate truth is that in most cases, an editor is most likely to give work to freelancers that take the least editing, over someone who is technically more accurate. The up shot of this, is that a large majority of IT reviews and by extension, IT Journalists, have weak technological understanding.

I've naturally met a lot of Journalists, and had enough conversations with them to be very cautious about trusting what I read in reviews. Hiding behind the authoritative mask of a publication, often lies a barely functional human, counting the hours until the open bar at the next press launch.

Realistically, the technical advice you get will probably be better from a friend in the know. They might not be able to explain it as well, but that's what clarification questions are for. What Journalists tend to be good at, is knowing the market well, so they can tell you how a product fits into the current line up. However, if you ask anyone who is looking into a product of X type, chances are they are well researched and are going to know the market pretty well too.

Many people turn to friends for technical support – this very reason is the only way AMD ever sold CPUs, as it certainly wasn't their marketing budget that did it. The power of blogs and the watering down and merging of blogging and journalism is testament to the points I'm trying to bring across.

Browsing eBuyer the other week, I bought several products, purely off the back of their price, the rating other users gave it, and the promotional videos eBuyer supplied. Who needs a professional review? If you talk to the journalist writing the review, he can probably summarise it in two sentences for you. Instead, they have to add in loads of filler with the product specifications (which are available on the manufacturers website), and filling in the gaps for people who have never touched a computer in their life.

This is the information age, people are used to reading multiple sources to get what they need, the one stop shop scenario just doesn't happen with publications anymore, as people turn to search engines and portal sites for answers. Reading the “Conclusion” of a review, googling for the specifications and checking a price comparison site for prices, is pretty much all the information you need on whether a product is worth buying. Consumers aren't stupid – if a product is duff, people soon know about it.

So there are two things on my mind, one is classifying myself. As someone who has gone from bedroom site, to paid Journalist, to blogger and now to paid blogger, the line really blurs. But possibly more controversially, with the mass of Journalist-beating bloggers out there and PCs becoming closer to toasters when it comes to choice - when will the IT Journalism bubble burst?

The mass sales decline in magazines that review IT products (eg. Computer Shopper) and the increase in sales of magazines that show how to use IT products (eg. Computer Active) suggest that what the world needs is a few more doers, and a few less reviewers.

My opinion? Sure

Posted By: coyote

( Lolly, you could let the odd typo go occasionally)

There shouldn't be a space after the opening bracket.

Posted By: Lolly

Posted By: coyote

( Lolly, you could let the odd typo go occasionally)

There shouldn't be a space after the opening bracket.

I left that for you Lolly, just to keep you happy.

Spode, if you're a dying breed, we're all in big trouble. User reviews are to be taken with a pinch of salt as who is going to admit they've bought a pile of crap. I know some people moan about the item they bought, but it seems to me it's because they are either unable to set it up properly, it's unsuitable for the use intended, or their O/S install is corrupt.

You can sometime weed out these bad comments, so long as there are enough comments posted. It may sound a silly thought, but it almost seems you want to die out. (Journalistically speaking of course.)

Even the best reviews are sadly lacking, I only ever read the conclusion now as the the graphs mean Jack to me. the rest seems mostly pointless waffle about the packaging and very little about what I really need to know.
One front page reviewer always starts with this kind of verbal crud, he says at the end of the intro, "let's not waste any more time and get on with the rest of the review". What's really annoying is he says this every time nearly and why does he state he is wasting his/our time any way? Why say it, or don't write boring intro's. Then at the end, you are invited to discuss the "review" on the forums. Don't bother, all I seem to read is things like "Oh yeah, what a great review (Insert reviewers name here)" and the odd person saying that was rubbish, all the other reviews said it was a great bit of kit! Then that comment is very quickly deleted.
A few obvious professionals will make sensible, useful comments, but these seem to be becoming fairly rare.
I really do feel this is the new type of forum/journalism, at least I hope so.

I hope you can see the point I'm trying to make here, your kind of journalism seem to be the winner. It is hard to write down all the things you would like to explain, but this blog is great for adding things later under the relevant heading, where as a review is done and finished in probable reality.

Oh no, not another pedant. Honestly sprucegoose, ONE IS ENOUGH!

Oh God Lolly, you've shamed me. I feel like crying... As I said, even the best of us make mistakes. I'm now going to scour every post you ever made to try and find something grammatically wrong. I know I'm not going to get any sleep tonight for that damning error.

Look, do you not want me to sleep or what?