Matt Taibbi: An Interesting Look at Alternative Journalism

I found Matt Taibbi's lecture on journalism to be an interesting look into alternate ways of getting into and writing journalism, which I had not considered doing in my more conventional entry into the profession, as well as the current nature of the mainstream and alternate press. Although I sometimes disagreed with his points, I found his talk to be informative, comprehensive and humorous.

While Taibbi was able to become a reporter without having studied journalism or worked for student media in college, I personally believe that an undergraduate degree in journalism can be very useful for journalists. Journalism students can learn the theory, professional skills and ethics of reporting in a classroom setting without being forced to learn on the job while being judged by their bosses. In this way, they can avoid some of Taibbi's early mistakes, such as not realizing what tone "hard news" outlets require leads to be. They can also realize far earlier whether journalism is an ideal career for them after getting some experience in the industry via internships, their coursework and student media.

Then again, if Taibbi had pursued this path, he may have internalized the values of objective journalism, and most likely would not have written as he did. I found his humorous writing style to be an intriguing way of pursuing journalism, and found his reactions to some of the press's flaws and absurdities amusing. One example is when he conveyed the viewers' shock that the "Great Democrat" displayed in a portrait was Boris Yeltsin by comparing it to the wedding of a death row inmate and cocktail waitress. Bits of writing like those are amusing ways of conveying the story, albeit ones not suitable for "hard news" media, and not ones that I would regularly use.

Taibbi brought up some highly concerning anecdotes about his reporting in Russia. He mentioned reporters who made fictitious man on the street interviews with the same person, knowing that their editors could never fact-check them, showing that they were wiling to break a fundamental journalistic taboo against fabrication to save time.

Taibbi's mentioning people internalizing the poor journalistic integrity of media outlets raises one of my primary concerns as a journalist to mind. While I recognize that it is natural and often necessary to question and re-evaluate one's principles, as I have done over time in the past, I sometimes fear that the pressures of the news industry, as well as employers who place profit before journalism, will slowly erode my resolve and ultimately leave me unable to make principled decisions.

Matt Taibbi's event was interesting because it helped me to look at the way the press works and the way we do journalism differently while still being humorously conveyed and containing much of his career story in it. Throughout my time at Ithaca College, much of the way I perceived journalism and the media has been redefined, and Taibbi's speech, by showing me a way of journalism I had not considered before, thus had its unique impact on my perceptions.