Debate will go on and on for the rest of humanity about what ‘journalism’ is.
I won’t go into that argument, but something about this job description, posted on journalism.co.uk, makes me wonder how many journalists-in-making get fooled into the PR path through these sorts of adverts:
The internet is changing the way we communicate. Companies are realising that the old marketing models do not work anymore and that marketing needs to be done for people, not at people.
Spannerworks is pioneering new ways for companies to be useful to their customers. Our rapidly expanding content and media division is looking for ambitious, forward thinking journalists to join the team.
The journalist will be instrumental in researching web culture and trends as well as ideas for news and features. You will write copy for PR; case studies; articles; content pages and product descriptions.
That last line I love. The lucky journalist (ahem) will be able to write copy for PR. Great. He or she will also be able to write for case studies (whatever that means… how do you write for case studies?!), articles (doesn’t say where…), content pages (so that’s fillers, then?) and product descriptions (bit like the bloke who works for Argos writing up page 522 of the catalogue).
I have no problem with people wanting to enter the world of PR. Indeed, without PR around a journalist’s job would be a LOT harder. What I have a problem with is when jobs such as this are advertised as journalism. Journalism it is certainly not.
Bah humbug.
12 Comments on “Journalist wanted”
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[...] been picked up by student journalist Dave Lee, who wrote in his blog: “What I have a problem with is when jobs such as this are advertised as journalism. [...]
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[...] this post — and the comments after it — about a job advert I wasn’t too happy about, I [...]
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[...] 3, 2008 by handolio Last week Dave Lee picked up on Spannerworks’ advert for a new journalist, and drew our attention to the fact that it was, frankly, [...]
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[...] been picked up by student journalist Dave Lee, who wrote in his blog: “What I have a problem with is when jobs such as this are advertised as journalism. [...]
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[...] interests of the advertiser - we’re writing directly for the advertiser. Some would argue - as Dave Lee has - that this inherently makes all of our content advertising, but I’d strongly disagree. With [...]
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[...] was all the rage on Hackbash, after student journalist Dave Lee picked up on the wording used in Spannerworks’ advertisements for its current journalist [...]
This blog is written by Dave Lee. I am a technology journalist for the
Ouch. Yep, that ad mixes up what a journalist is with what a copywriter or a PR person does - and we’ll replace it. It’s not what the job is.
The journalists at Spannerworks do journalism, as far as they are concerned, not PR.
We also have one former journalist from a national magazine who writes advertorial-style copy for client and advertorial websites. That blurs the line between journalism and PR / marketing for sure - but that’s also what their job entailed when they worked on magazines.
Thanks - seriously - for embarrassing me into realising a job ad had gone up that wasn’t really on the money. We’re really not in the business of fooling journalists-in-the-making or anyone else about the kind of work we do…
Posted on December 28, 2007 at 6:01 am.
Bet it pays well though :p You make an excellent point though Dave, I saw that job description and was thinking a similar thing - ‘that’s not journalism as I know it’.
Posted on December 28, 2007 at 8:53 am.
I think thats what you call good investigative journalism!
Posted on December 28, 2007 at 1:45 pm.
Not only do they need a copywriter rather than a journalist, they also need an editor. Part of the problem with that last quoted para is the use of the semi-colon. If it had read “You will write copy for PR: case studies, articles, content pages and product descriptions” it would make a lot more sense…
Posted on December 28, 2007 at 5:43 pm.
You don’t have to love innovative digital marketing environments to work here « hackbash says:
[...] been picked up by student journalist Dave Lee, who wrote in his blog: “What I have a problem with is when jobs such as this are advertised as journalism. [...]
Posted on December 29, 2007 at 5:08 pm.
Hi Dave,
I’m one of the two journalists currently at Spannerworks, and I don’t think I’d have applied if I’d seen an advert with the same wording - it bears little relation to what we do.
Antony’s comment regarding how Charlie and I feel is spot-on. I think we both started with some degree of trepidation, partly because hiring journalists was a new direction for the company and nobody was entirely sure how it would work out. It’s exceeded my expectations.
I’ve written a bit about the advert and your post on our blog Hackbash, if you’re interested.
Posted on December 29, 2007 at 5:45 pm.
Dave Lee / jBlog » Blog Archive » Journalism Wanted part 2 says:
[...] this post — and the comments after it — about a job advert I wasn’t too happy about, I [...]
Posted on December 30, 2007 at 11:43 pm.
Job done? « hackbash says:
[...] 3, 2008 by handolio Last week Dave Lee picked up on Spannerworks’ advert for a new journalist, and drew our attention to the fact that it was, frankly, [...]
Posted on January 3, 2008 at 1:47 pm.
hackbash » Blog Archive » You don’t have to love innovative digital marketing environments to work here says:
[...] been picked up by student journalist Dave Lee, who wrote in his blog: “What I have a problem with is when jobs such as this are advertised as journalism. [...]
Posted on January 4, 2008 at 10:14 pm.
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Posted on February 14, 2008 at 7:11 am.
hackbash » Blog Archive » How will we pay for journalism? says:
[...] interests of the advertiser - we’re writing directly for the advertiser. Some would argue - as Dave Lee has - that this inherently makes all of our content advertising, but I’d strongly disagree. With [...]
Posted on September 1, 2008 at 11:17 pm.
Spannerworkers’ blog digest - iCrossing says:
[...] was all the rage on Hackbash, after student journalist Dave Lee picked up on the wording used in Spannerworks’ advertisements for its current journalist [...]
Posted on October 8, 2008 at 4:12 pm.