Churnalism

[didymus]

Here’s today’s offering from a language blog I subscribe to:

churnalism
n. Journalism that churns out articles based on wire stories and press releases, rather than original reporting. [Blend of *churn and journalism.]

Example Citations:
Last year, I highlighted for MediaGuardian how Northumbria police hold back serious crimes from the media. Meanwhile, the force’s £1.5m-a-year corporate communications department pumps out more press releases on falling crime rates, clampdowns, raids, initiatives and other stories designed to produce positive PR. The result, I believe, is that most crime reporting in the north-east is now little more than churnalism.
—Nigel Green, “Media are increasingly relying on police handouts as a basis for crime stories,” The Guardian, December 7, 2009

Atkins is rightly concerned about the disastrous effects on our journalistic culture of editorial cutbacks, the rising influence of public relations and online ‘churnalism’, with its constant demand for unchecked celebrity gossip.
—Chris Tookey, “Turning the tables on the celebrity gossip-mongers,” Daily Mail, October 30, 2009

Earliest Citation:
If you were to survive the Ralph Chavez school of journalism (or “churnalism” as he sometimes liked to call it) you learned to churn the stuff out, fix it up in the second draft and then get on with the next thing.
—John Clausen, “Too Lazy to Work, Too Nervous to Steal,” Writer’s Digest Books, February 1, 2001

We’ve certainly had plenty of “churnalism” on parade in the coverage of the sex-abuse scandal, but more generally reporters no longer go hunting they are spoon-fed by one interested party or another.

 

[Carlan]

Here’s today’s offering from a language blog I subscribe to:

churnalism
n. Journalism that churns out articles based on wire stories and press releases, rather than original reporting. [Blend of *churn

and journalism

We’ve certainly had plenty of “churnalism” on parade in the coverage of the sex-abuse scandal, but more generally reporters no longer go hunting they are spoon-fed by one interested party or another.

Yes, and how the Media hates being called out on it. The Media lives to dish it out, but can’t take the criticism when it doesCarlan