Is Journalism Just A Form Of Art?

An insight I should have had already, and maybe has been bandied about without my noticing: is journalism just a form of art? In the new world of exploding web media, and collapsing direct subsidies (‘salaries’ from publishers), maybe journalists are just like musicians, painters, dancers and actors.

Deanna Zandt had a Twitter exchange with Andrew Golis in which she suggested this idea, and then wrote a post to extend it:

- Deanna Zandt, Journalism Mimics Art

How can journalistic endeavors, desperately needed to maintain our terribly just and free society and all that, be supported? Since information/news is no longer a scarce commodity, it just doesn’t fit into a market-based model anymore, in my head. Advertising is only going to carry it so far, as we’re seeing. And besides, do we really want news to be only of commercial value? Do I only want to read news in places where advertisers want to see their ads?

This is what got me thinking about the art analogy a few weeks ago. (who was I talking to about this? did I read something? let me know.) For eons, there have been many avenues the artist can follow: commercial (Hallmark cards, pop music, etc), government-funded (NEA grants, NYSCA grants, etc), foundation funded (Yaddo retreats, what have you), family funded, collective supported, street selling (a form of commercial, for sure)… and any blend of those above is becoming more and more prominent.

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Art, despite the instability that Andrew rightly calls out, hasn’t disappeared, tho. Art hasn’t even gotten worse, just more available. There is always cynicism about popular culture, but that’s too easy of a target. There’s just more of everything available to us. If you’re a musician, for example, it’s easier than ever to get your work heard by more people than just your friends. But not paid for by a whole bunch, probably. That’s the sticker, eh? A few years ago, as Napster started ticking off the recording industry, someone said that it was clearer than ever what the musician’s job is: not to sell records, but to travel around and play for people. That’s what they’ve always done, and that’s what they’re returning to.

Journalism is grasping at straws for a new model to pay everyone’s salaries. The old model, though, was in many ways distorted, and probably distended. Maybe it’s not, however, that journalistic endeavors are going to be the new starving artists— maybe it’s that news producers and art makers need to get their heads together and figure out how we’re going to create not a model, but a whole new system that creates thrivable conditions for creators to get their jobs done.

I think we will have to look to the arts for ideas. I’d like to get a grant to do what I am doing, for example. And in part, that’s the idea behind microsyntax.org, the non-profit I started last year.

Maybe I could get a gig as the blogger in residence at a university?