Why is "beer journalism" so bad?

Now that's what I call journalism. A writer who isn't insecure about saying she doesn't know squat about the subject matter and uses sources that are more knowledgeable to make her point.

 

Yes, I overstated. Journalism is not dead. It's on life support and there doesn't seem to be a cure on the horizon.

 

So who is out there doing a good job? We should promote and share the good journalists if we're saying there's not enough of them.

Unfortunately, I know of very few national beer journalists I'd suggest. I read the Brookston Beer Bulletin, Alan McLeod's A Good Beer Blog, and the Beer Street Journal for general release info and some opinion. I follow Jeff Alworth's Beervana for Oregon stuff and some interesting feature pieces.

Then there's The New School, BrewDad, Seattle Beer News, and Northwest Beer Guide for local/regional info, but half of these guys are regular guys who happen to be the ones doing the legwork to find out info I'm interested in. No disrespect to them, I certainly wouldn't do better, but I realize these are guys writing because they're interested in the subject rather than because journalism is their calling.

 

This is bat country

And I will grossly stereotype: journalists are idiots

 

Does this mean they are going to start brewing beer with Brawndo instead of water? and that hops will go extinct ?

 

i was right in the middle of a fucking reptile zoo, and somebody was giving booze to these god damn things!

 

I work at a newspaper too and have just convinced the editors to let me pick up beer as a beat, but it's only working because I am a beer geek. Previously the topic bounced around among writers, to the extent it was covered at all. I'm delighted to have this as a beat, but there aren't enough bodies left in the news room to let me do it full time, so I wind up doing a lot of non-beer stuff too. But still, I get paid to write about beer, at least occasionally, and therefore life is good.[/quote]

 

Why is "beer journalism" so bad?


FTFY

edit: just kidding you guys--I work in advertising, so I get the same type of shit talk

 

Electrolytes will be added of course.

 

Aren't good journalists supposed to, you know, travel the world to find the great stories? Anyone doing that type of thing anymore?

 

Journalism and blogging are not mutually exclusive. A journalist may blog, but a blogger may not be a journalist who goes out, collects information and presents an analytical report of any topic, from city councils to craft beer. Opinion is not reporting. I agree with what PenningtonNY10 said. Unless there is a niche market being sought by a publication like "Beer Advocate" you are likely running up against writers with limited knowledge who report for a wide audience, someone who has some knowledge reporting for a wide audience, or someone with a greater (but in some areas limited) knowledge for a smaller but more informed audience. The Chicago Tribune has done a good job of reporting on the growing pains of the craft beer industry in the City of Big Shoulders.

 

Seems to me the act of journalism has evolved (like our beer) and >this< is the cutting edge

 

Check out Brandon Hernandez. He has a heavy focus on the San Diego beer scene, but he's a damn good and honest writer/person.

 

The worst offense a journalist essentially cribbing a press release to cobble together an article. Worse, if the press release comes with obvious biases and self-promotion by one side in a multifaceted environment. Unfortunately, this has become par for the course and, in beer journalism, it is one of the most common offenses.

 

Trouble is, very few people know that much about beer. Including those who love it.

 

We just got the talking points for Miller Fortune at our store. The whole thing is about how it will appeal to "millennials," and how 81% of 21-27 year olds said they'd buy it. I imagine journalists get this garbage and go "Really, Miller? Okay, whatever you say." I'd bet most articles like these are pretty much blind rehashing of the talking points.

 

The worst in my view is sloppy writing by professional beer writers.Many of them (including highly regarded individuals in the brewing world) don't take the trouble to check facts or original documents but choose the easy option of recycling what's already been written.The absolute drivel about IPA or Scottish brewing which you see on the net is endlessly repeated.Just look at the corrections list for the Oxford Companion.
An example from people who ought to know better;

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/201...ill-getting-beer-history-so-very-badly-wrong/

 

forget "beer" journalism, per se...

People in this era can't even put a sentence together. They can't even write!

The entire spellcheck generation has now caught up to us in full force, and it's in everything I read.

Newspapers are letting go of all their editorial and copy checkers. I read things now compared to twenty years ago and it stuns me how bad it is, even a grammatical error in a headline.. a HEADLINE!

I could use a copy editor myself sometimes, that's why it blows my mind how people who actually write and work at publishing organizations publish such horrid writing.

 

I'm with you. I was trained to write and learned to enjoy being able to coherently argue on paper. It was an organizing locus. "Acronyms and Emoticons" would be a good title to a snide piece on modern writing.