Craptastic Reporting

What is journalism anymore? I really have no idea. I wonder what criteria there is to be a "reporter" for any online news outlet these days. I say this after reading some local online news that was short on information and full of spelling errors. If I make spelling errors in my blog, it makes me look dumb or lazy but I only write for me. I can be dumb or lazy with no expectation any higher that I'm not. I'm also not calling myself a reporter.

I really feel in this digital age, it's become all about scooping the other guys, whether the information is factual or not, and whether they actually have a full story or not. It's become comical. Retractions used to be a big deal and now they're just expected.

This need for instant gratification is just leading to incomplete stories in an effort to get any information out. Every time I'm reading local news now I'm left with so many questions. I shouldn't HAVE that many questions. How about waiting to write an article until you have complete and correct information?! I don't need to read just anything, for the hell of it. I don't care if you're the first to report it if it doesn't make any sense, leaves me with more questions than I had before reading, and the spelling is atrocious. If it's "just" typos then for Pete's sake- PROOFREAD! You want to be taken seriously? Make sure you write like it's seriously your job.

Half the time, there is more information on the state of Jared Leto's hair than there is pertinent and factual news reported. Instead of twelve different updates on the same story, how about actually researching the WHOLE story first, then writing a cohesive piece explaining it all at once? Am I wrong here?

I used to have this issue with a local "journalist"- I call him this VERY loosely. He basically told me that he does what is at his pay grade and he's not going above and beyond to do the job. Yet, he calls himself a journalist. Am I crazy to think that a real journalist does anything they have to do to get the story? That it's like an innate thing that drives them to get all the proper information? Or is it just all about the clicks now? Are we just living in a world of teasers to get us to click on these half-assed stories? We're supposed to know that we're going to have to come back a hundred times for updates on the same story? This piecemeal writing is for the birds. It's crap!

Step up the game, guys.