Jun 06 2007
Highest and Best
I bristle at the convention realtors have adopted of referring to the most profitable disposition of a piece of land as its “highest and best use”.
Likewise I find “the fifth rule of videojournalism” somewhat sinister. Essentially the rule states that All Good Journalism is Popular Journalism.
This is not the same as saying that all popular journalism is good journalism. But it is to recognize that with journalists as with chefs only the consumer can arbitrate between good and bad. It doesn’t matter how talented the cook, how clean the kitchen, or how fresh the food, if the meal cannot be made palatable then it belongs in the trash.
Andrea Seibel, the editor of Die Welt, speaking yesterday at the World Editors Forum in South Africa makes the point far more eloquently:
One of the most important, if not bitter discoveries for journalists over the past decade has been that they do not operate in the ivory tower of of intellectual pursuit but are subject to the laws and mechanisms of the market. They simply have to open up and realize that the reader is their actual employer. Which means saying goodbye to the hallowed notion of journalism as a cultural good worthy of protection.
hat tip buzzmachine where you can also find WEF video links
[UPDATE 07/03/ o7]
The Inksniffer takes up the theme of the customer as arbiter of good and bad:
Journalists have to overcome their contempt for readers who have less than noble motivations or interests, and work to put out a product people will want to buy. (Actually, journalists don’t have contempt for The Readers. They are proud to serve The Readers. But they have contempt for individual readers. It’s kind of like the communists distinguishing between the People and the people.)
