Why is "beer journalism" so bad?

In the traditional, more professional media outlets, the beer industry is a niche. Reporters assigned to these pieces rarely write about beer, don't know much about beer and must rely on subject matter 'experts' for information. Without a decent beer background, the journalist will shovel out information and bias as gospel, as long as it carries the blessed attribution. We beer geeks read and scoff.

Bloggers of the world bring basic knowledge and enthusiasm, but lack the writing skills. We beer geeks read and scoff and think that we can do that better.

Individuals with a solid journalistic background who are blessed with a deep appreciation/knowledge of beer are as rare as BAers not trying to win their trades. Enjoy them.

 

For news: beerpulse.com, the news section of this forum, twitter. It's not journalism, but if you want news, that's what you'll get.

For actual beer journalism: BeerAdvocate Mag, tablematters.com/category/the-brew, BrewBokeh.com (photo-journalism!)

 

said every previous generation ever

 

Wow, from the most recent post on pnwbeerchick.com:

"[It] is a nicely hopped, well-balanced pale ale. Medium to full-bodied, this extreme pale ale is no lie! The aroma is hoppy yet has a touch of hard alcohol. Syrupy mouth feel. Toasty, very hop forward, and a bit of a whiskey finish. The overall taste reminds me of a crisp, autumn day."

That is the worst beer review I've read in recent memory. Hoppy with hard alcohol? Whiskey finish? Tastes like an Autumn day? She picked out no flavors or nuance beyond hops or alcohol. I also sincerely doubt the beer was "syrupy". I support people learning what they can about craft beer, but what the fuck is that? Useless.

And this is just incorrect: " “International Bittering Units” is a very important tool of measurement for IPA’s. Basically, it is a scale used to measure the bitterness of the beer once the hops are added. The higher the IBU’s the more bitter taste is created. IPA’s with high IBU’s are going to have a very strong grapefruit flavor and aroma."

 

Every journo grad wants a job like this. My advice--don't do it, unless you have connections in the media or in the respective industry. Aside from having connections, the best way to get there is to establish yourself as a feature writer who occasionally does pieces on food/beer/wine, but not as a reviewer. Getting a gig as a feature writer is quite another matter...

 

If you arent tied to any particular job, WRITE WHAT YOU WANT TO READ. Do it as a blog if necessary. If good, you will draw a following of regular readers.

 

TBH I think my review blog I did as a hobby is better than a lot of articles people get paid for.

Of course I'm just being biased and telling myself how great I am.

 

Who dropped the standards? Oh yeah, the parents of those kids.

But back to the question at hand...it's hard to find quality journalism on issues that actually matter in 2013. Finding quality journalism on something like beer? Forget about it.

"We the people" are willing to accept crap. We accept crappy politicians, we accept crappy wages, we accept Nickelback and indeed we accept crappy beer journalism. Time to get educated, get motivated and make a change. Sadly, that's unlikely because well, you know, that would take effort and stuff and Dancing With the Stars is on later so....

 

Lol you beat me to it, I was just gonna mention the "whisky finish" in a Pale Ale part.

 

beer and journalism doesn't mix, writers get stoopid drunk and can't write about beer . mystery solved. boom.

 

I think part of the problem is that these publications use the personal already on staff to write the articles. Most of these people have no background in craft beer and just don't have the initiative to learn about it for one article. The other problem is that a lot of these publications don't necessary care to cater to readers who actually know anything about craft. We're not their primary audience. For example. I get Cooking Light every month and for the last year or so, I've seen at least one article an issue doing a beer pairing with the recipe. But the beers they list are usually something along the lines of Sam Adams, New Belgium (they seem to REALLY like Flat Tire for some reason) or, god help me, Corona. And I'm always ticked off when I see it because I could name 3 or four better beers to pair with the dishes. But for the average reader, the one who wants to pick up a beer at the supermarket when buying the dish's ingredients, these are accessible/easy/not intimidating options.

I think until the publications are made aware that their readers want more than just a courtesy mention of craft beer in their magazines (newspapers, whatever) they aren't going to seek out people who have the knowledge to write better articles about the subject.

 

Exactly what I thought of too

 

Well, two things, and I say this as a former journalist:

One, you get what you pay for. Journalism never paid much, but now in the days of "free" online content, it pays even less. Some guy who getting paid 5 cents a word to crank out a piece on exciting new trends in craft beer is not going to be an expert, and he's not going to spend a lot of time doing research.

Two, it's not just beer. People who are writing articles for newspapers or copy for websites aren't usually experts in what they're writing about--far from it. They're just quickly pulling together info and trying to meet a deadline. So they make mistakes. In the olden days, newspapers used to have fact checkers and copy editors who would double check everything before it went to print, and mistakes were relatively rare. Not anymore. So just be aware that most of the stuff you're reading about your city council or Obamacare or whatever is equally as screwed up as these articles about beer.

Oh, and needless to say, I never made any of these kinds of mistakes back when I was a reporter.

 

It's not just beer journalism. Journalism as a professional endeavor is dead. It's no longer about informing people about something, it's all about entertainment and titillation or how can we get more people to watch, read or listen so we can charge more for advertising. The new [since the 80s] reality is: if it isn't profitable, it's not worth doing. And another journalistic problem is the "need" to be first. There are too many media outlets to begin with and too many of them put a story out without checking whether it's entirely factual or factual at all because they want to put it out there before the competition. Money again.

 

That Food Babe post made me livid. Poorly written, badly researched and just plain embarrassing as a fellow female beer blogger. Of course, anyone who has more photos of herself on her blog than the subject that she is writing about shouldn't really be taken that seriously in the first place.

I'm not sure if everyone saw a rebuttal that a different journalist wrote (and I call this woman a journalist because she took the time to research her subject and write a constructive article based on facts.) It's rather long, but an extremely good read.
http://maureenogle.com/2013/08/18/whats-in-your-beer-or-the-dangers-of-dumbassery/

 

I know. I have to earn my chops before I can do something like that anyway- unless you happen to have a daddy on the editing staff, journalism still seems to be something of a meritocracy. I could be incredibly wrong however.

I'm still learning a lot about beer, and at this point I am not sure I have the expertise to start that kind of thing unless people who know more are willing to be understanding that I'm learning as I go. I know what I like, sure, but I'm also learning what MAKES the beers I like, how to select them, etc. And this is the internet. People aren't known for that kind of patience on the internet

 

Substance abuse and writing don't mix...said no person ever

 

"i hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." - Hunter S. Thompson

 

Let them know how bad you think their work is. Negative feedback really works.

 

I'll share the perspective of a journalist.

There are very few journalists who sole job and responsibility it is to write about craft beer. Most newspapers or news organizations will not employ a full-time journalist in that role. They may from time to time have a feature writer or reporter cover something beer-related, but not full time. They may commission additional freelance assignments or have a weekly columnist writing about beer if it's a large part of their community.

For example, the newspaper I work at has a business desk. These are reporters that know a lot about insurance, etc. When they write about their area of expertise, they know what they're talking about. The same goes for niche publications. I'm still looking for the newspaper that has a craft beer desk

But most of you posting here are hardcore beer fans. Journalists are trained to write articles with the assumption that their audience doesn't know anything about the subject. Nothing can be a given. It's not that writers think their audience is dumb, it's just standard procedure. You cover all ground, whether it's obvious or not. So in turn, most of these articles will contain nothing new for your type. I think that is a fairly good explanation.

I think things are changing, though. A job was posted in Fort Collins, CO looking for a reporter that would cover the local beer industry as well as exercise. So even that isn't focused just on beer. There are plenty of good and capable writers that could fill these positions. There just aren't too many of them available.

So, scattered thoughts, but maybe it adds to this conversation.

I would vehemently disagree with this. Like any industry, you have rotten apples. I agree that there are some organizations and individuals that give the good ones a bad name. That's a given. The industry isn't perfect. It's undergoing a severe transformation as organizations figure out how to survive in an Internet first world. It isn't dead and it never will be. There are tons of great journalists doing amazing work out there.