Junkyard journalism

Abstract

The media I read are increasingly swamped by endless lists of things I can't get excited about or can't afford; and, conversely, all editors seem to want from me is lists, listings, bites and blobs, writes freelance writer Moss. The "list" has been creeping into the pages of newspapers and magazines for years and I'm not sure when I finally realised that it had replaced the news report, the feature and the commentary as the definitive quintessential genre of our times. Perhaps it was when a list of 100 British public intellectuals appeared in the July 2004 issue of worthy, well-meaning Prospect magazine. But a glance at our newspapers and the covers of mass market consumer magazines proves that editors and publishers now see inventories of tat as the main incentive to buy their publications. This, Moss wittily observes, is pure junkyard journalism.