Hunter Walk has rounded up some comments from prominent technology journalists about what they think about the state of tech journalism today. Apple comes up a couple of times. for example:
Jason Kincaid, TechCrunch:
“… if you compare the traffic numbers, it’s very rare for a new startup launch to come close to the popularity of, say, a random Apple rumor (which I think are the lowest form of tech reporting, btw).
Most readers run 10 different ad blockers at any given time, and have the attention span of a fart. They’ll happily click on one of these stupid “top ten ways to masturbate while riding a unicorn on Tuesdays” posts, but they won’t read anything over 500 words that makes them use their brain just a little bit.
They prefer to read a blog written by someone with a strong opinion about a particular piece of tech, simply so they can complain in the comments that the writer is biased, lacks journalist integrity, and made a typo in paragraph 8 on the third line. (I’m thinking of MG Siegler, off the top of my head). Of course, if the writer DOES stick strictly to the facts and offers no opinion, they complain that the writer simply re-published a press release and it’s not real journalism.
The biggest problem with tech journalism (or any other kind of journalism) nowadays is that the average tech reader wants it all for free and catered to their obnoxiously narrow minded opinion.
Of course, it’s not all the reader’s fault. Most sites are stuck trying to make a buck or two and publish whatever gets click-throughs just to earn a trivial income. They can’t afford to pay great writers to publish thoughtful, well researched articles. And those writers can’t or won’t work for peanuts.
Unfortunately, it is what it is.
[personal experience] [broad generalization of a heterogenous group based solely upon personal experience] [fatuous observation based upon broad generalization] [unintentional irony] [content-free conclusion]
My takeaway from each of your comment’s paragraphs:
1. Most readers of tech blogs are lazy and stupid.
2. Most readers of tech blogs are maliciously contentious.
3. Most readers of tech blogs are cheap and ignorant (see paragraph 1).
4. Most tech blogs suck.
5. I have no way to connect all of this to the sad irony of Jason Kincaid complaining about poor tech writing, but since elapsedtime didn’t ask my opinion, I wanted to toss out a few careless generalizations about the subject.
Cheers.
Yep, you’ve pretty much summed it up.