Journalists take themselves too seriously

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth

Jeff Jarvis suggests that the video below shows that journalists have no sense of humour.

Certainly, they’ve completely failed to get the point here. I was channel-hopping last night, trying to build up the energy to shift myself from the too hot sofa to the too hot bedroom, when I found a show on BBC4 about the history of the Tory party. It had a clip of Winston Churchill, in his swimming trunks, no less, sliding down a water slide into a swimming pool. It was a strangely touching moment, a little glimpse into the man behind the image, from an age when the press was far more deferential than it is now. I don’t think returning to a deferential attitude would do anyone any good, but an interest in who our politicians are beyond the obvious prurient interest in sexual misdemeanours, would engage people in politics a little more.

There seems to be a mindset amongst journalists and politicians at the moment that politics is Serious, and should be treated in a Serious way at all times. The truth, of course, is that politics, like all human endeavour, has its fun side and its serious side, and the media should really be reflecting both.

We seem to have developed an idea that the route to serious, professional journalism is to conceal the human within the journalist at all times. Blogging, thankfully, is starting to erode that edifice.

Technorati Tags: blogging, humor, humour, journalism, politics, professionalism

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Adam is a digital journalism lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, a journalist for 30 and teaches audience strategy and engagement at City St George’s, London.

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