the(new)mediaslut

After friendly discussions with PR friends, corp comms teams, vendors and even senior journalists, it seems the passion in IT journalism have dissappered from the island state of Singapore.

It is in total agreement that IT journalists are no longer interested in the chase for the story and to an extend, unable to identify a story even it is staring right there in their face.

A PR friend lamented that a particular IT journalist in a daily paper is only interested in a story as long it fill his/her template of who,what,why and how, and send the answers in an email so it can be cut and pasted.

On the other hand, an experienced journalist friend said there is no need for the journalists today to chase for a story because they are constantly spoon fed by their PR counterparts which outnumbers the journalists here by almost 1:10. Or that the journalists now are short handed with 10 stories to fill a day.

Even when IT journalists look to cut and paste a press release and make the story sound as if it is theirs still do it wrong. A PR friend lamented how he/she had to make frantic call to a IT journalist who cut and paste a press release that the story did not appear as the orginal message of the press release. The journalist even had the cheek to reply,"But I cut and pasted everything from your press release".

How about the whole idea of networking after office hours?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist anymore. Not even for a cup of coffee. IT journalists go back home exactly when the clock strikes 6pm and sees no point in mixing around with the industry players.

However, from a journalist’s point of view, it is very difficult for a journalist to see any benefit it would do to their story if something is leaked during such networking session. 

Like in any other story, it face start off as a rumour before the journalist get somebody to reply offically. However, during such session, the vendor will just say, speak to my PR.

IT journalists today are so mechanical it is difficult to find somebody who steps out, or whose stories sound so similar to each other, it has become too easy for reader to ignore publication for another.

There are even stories of IT journalists who only do email interviews as he/she is to shy to talk to the vendors.

A journalist shy? Sounds like an oxymoron but such journalists exist.

It is this lack of passion, and not the lack of advertising dollars, that will lead to the downfall of IT journalism in Singapore.

IT publishers will still say they have the readers but the numbers are never subtainsiated. Maybe the readers are just the advertisers happy to see a product review that has originally scored a four out of ten but changed to a seven after having being threatened to withdraw the entire year’s advertising contract.

Even if the example if completely fictatious, that is the perception of readers today have of IT journalism.

Wither the passion and we will witness the begining of an end.