Has journalism really sunk to these low depths?

[Dr Ralph]

What's the point of an article like this one:

Thailand travel guide and tips: 20 things that will surprise first-time visitors

http://www.traveller.com.au/thailan...-that-will-surprise-firsttime-visitors-gk92qd

Surely this can't be the best that a major newspaper can offer?

Or do they get the work experience kids to write pieces like this?

 

[RooFlyer]

Not that I'd call that 'journalism' or a major newspaper.

 

[Hvr]

Not even a tiny bit of journalism. Just basic computer generated cough probably sourced from a writing factory.

How sad a once proud newspaper is peddling this rubbish.

 

[opusman]

The Fairfax websites are all about clickbait now unfortunately. I stopped reading them long ago.

 

[Mark3000]

I totally agree. The stupidity of the click bait drives me nuts. The facts of the story are so often distorted so far that the click bait title either has no true relevance to the story or is a massive exaggeration.
I have lost all respect for most SMH journalists

 

[Anna]

The Fairfax websites are all about clickbait now unfortunately. I stopped reading them long ago.

What he said.

 

[Ausbt]

Ok so I read the article. Thailand isn't my favourite worldwide destination, however made my first trip there over 20 years ago and heading into my sixth I think come December. I didn't know alcohol sales were not permitted between 2 pm & 5 pm. Had not noticed that one before, and I've bought plenty of 30THB Singhas from local stores. Maybe the work experience kid got that one wrong. Didn't know about the massage thing. But then again, I'm no fan of massage. Certainly like happy endings though - hey let's just skip straight to the end, huh? The rest of it I pretty much knew. But anyone who has watched an episode of "What really happens in Thailand" will realise that the featured 'travellers' could do with reading an article like that. Except being in Fairfax, they likely won't. Needs to be syndicated out to Boar It Up Ya or Bacon Busters magazines to reach an appreciative audience.

 

[medhead]

Well it is called Traveller. So it's not a news section of the paper, I think most people understand such sections are mostly advertorials. Much like Drive. Journalism doesn't come into it. News doesn't come into it. I'm really not sure why we need to pretend something that was never intended to be news is news just to criticise the apparently lack of journalism.

Edit: It might have been better for them to clearly make the point that it is illegal to say anything bad about the king, rather than just being a matter of respect and national pride.

 

[harvyk]

I don't exactly see what the problem is, yes it's a click bait headline, but that said most articles on the internet have a click bait headline these days.

There are many more far worse examples of so called articles out there, at least someone somewhere appears to have written their own content and have used more than 25 words to do so.

The two types of articles which really annoy me are the ones which seem to be trying to win a 25 words or less competition (basically the article is what the headline should have been), or the articles which think that reposting a whole lot of tweets counts as journalism.

I'm also not a huge fan of the "developing story" which means the article is consistently changing as more news comes to light, as typically the first few rounds of updates are so removed from the truth, and unlike in old print media where proper retractions where issued (even if they where on page 48), the developing stories seems to be all about getting something out there first, facts be damned.

 

[anat0l]

Any thread along the lines of "...has journalism sunk this low..." is rather superfluous ), hear me out). We already knew that, and it has. Threads often posted about articles related to interests of AFF have been consistently criticised for the quality of journalism since I joined AFF and even more than that, viz. about 10 years and still going.

Unlike the ocean, it seems quite possible that it can sink even lower.

I don't know what the modern generation make of the quality of journalism these days, though I guess many of them may not have an opinion since a lot of information can be had via more popular social media networks, as well as general discouragement due to paywalls.

I don't know how journalists these days make of their profession, or if there are a majority out there who have a shred of ethics about them. Maybe we should blame the editors instead; the arrogant attitude of immunity of the latter boils my blood.


Then again, let's take five on this for a second and back to the article in question. As medhead said, it's on a subsection of the main (online) rag, and its purpose is not really news, plus the title really isn't click-bait as such. So I wouldn't hold it to the same standards as the headlines or news content. The only thing I'd expect, more or less, is that it is accurate.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I didn't know alcohol sales were not permitted between 2 pm & 5 pm.

I'm assuming you've only traveled to popular tourist resort area where this isn't always enforced. Otherwise it's very strange that you've never encountered it.

 

[harvyk]

I don't know how journalists these days make of their profession, or if there are a majority out there who have a shred of ethics about them. Maybe we should blame the editors instead; the arrogant attitude of immunity of the latter boils my blood.

I expect they are pretty realistic with how they are viewed. I doubt many of them got into the profession to turn out cough. I suspect that most of them had high and mighty goals, eg be the one whom reports on a world changing event. Of course high and mighty doesn't pay the bills, eyeballs on advertisers ad's does (with exception to the ABC and other non-commercial media).

Of course there is now more competition than ever before. A few years ago, I pretty much had a choice between a couple of local rags or the 6pm news. Now I can see up to the minute live updates from virtually anywhere in the world on my mobile phone whilst sitting on a bus. It's that sort of competition which journalists are up against and it's a war the good ones are slowly losing.

 

[Slime]

Easy to read with not too much personal opinion from the writer. Always easy to get grog there. Seems Ok

 

[Isochronous]

The day Fairfax goes bankrupt is one I will celebrate. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

 

[JohnK]

I didn't think it was a bad article.

I didn't know alcohol sales were not permitted between 2 pm & 5 pm. Had not noticed that one before, and I've bought plenty of 30THB Singhas from local stores.

Enforced in Bangkok in most major stores. I am not sure if enforced in Chiang Mai and have not seen it enforced in Pattaya either. And not 30 baht anymore either. Gone up slightly.

I think you can still purchase bulk alcohol from Tops, Makro, Tesco Lotus etc but not single bottles of alcohol.

 

[Warks]

The day Fairfax goes bankrupt is one I will celebrate. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

I, for one, will welcome our Murdoch overlords.

 

[Ausbt]

I am not sure if enforced in Chiang Mai and have not seen it enforced in Pattaya either.ol.

Don't recall it in Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai, but look who knows don't usually drink before 5 pm anyway. I recall being caught out in Port Vila once - no booze sales at all on a Saturday, and it was NYE. Ouch, that hurt a bit.

 

[Dr Ralph]

The day Fairfax goes bankrupt is one I will celebrate. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

Clearly you aren't a direct shareholder the. But you may find you actually hold shares in this business via your Super fund. Be careful what you wish for.

 

[Hvr]

The day Fairfax goes bankrupt is one I will celebrate. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

I, for one, will welcome our Murdoch overlords.

And this is the problem. Murdoch media is totally compromised and if we lose one company, i.e.Fairfax as supported by Isochronous then reporting will be a series of thinly disguised advertorials without any critical reporting of any political party to the left of the far right wing.

Both companies have their problems but we really do need local competition.

 

[burmans]

I didn't think it was a bad article.

Yeah, I'm struggling to see why this was regarded as so terrible. There are still plenty of people who haven't travelled that much and for whom this would be useful info.

For those who have, well I'm not really sure why there is this need for self-aggrandisement. Given we are all members of AFF ourselves, we probably do know that other members of AFF are well travelled and hence not in need of such articles. But hard as it may be for some of us to comprehend it's not all about us.

In terms of the title though, yes I certainly know (and have known for some considerable time now) there is plenty of terrible journalism around but this particular article in no way represent the depths for me.