churnalism

n.

Journalism that churns out articles based on wire stories and press releases, rather than original reporting. [Blend of churn and journalism.]

Example Citations:

Last year, I highlighted for MediaGuardian how Northumbria police hold back serious crimes from the media. Meanwhile, the force's £1.5m-a-year corporate communications department pumps out more press releases on falling crime rates, clampdowns, raids, initiatives and other stories designed to produce positive PR. The result, I believe, is that most crime reporting in the north-east is now little more than churnalism.

—Nigel Green, " Media are increasingly relying on police handouts as a basis for crime stories: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/07/crime-reporting-newspapers-research," The Guardian, December 7, 2009

Atkins is rightly concerned about the disastrous effects on our journalistic culture of editorial cutbacks, the rising influence of public relations and online 'churnalism', with its constant demand for unchecked celebrity gossip.

—Chris Tookey, " Turning the tables on the celebrity gossip-mongers: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-1223963/Turning-tables-celebrity-gossip-mongers.html," Daily Mail, October 30, 2009

Earliest Citation:

If you were to survive the Ralph Chavez school of journalism (or "churnalism" as he sometimes liked to call it) you learned to churn the stuff out, fix it up in the second draft and then get on with the next thing.

—John Clausen, "Too Lazy to Work, Too Nervous to Steal," Writer's Digest Books, February 1, 2001

Notes:

Here's a much earlier citation, although in this case the writer coined "churnalism" — not quite comprehensibly — to refer to salacious, celebrity-driven news stories (proving himself, therefore, to be slightly ahead of his time):

The news media are sliding merrily downmarket, trying to retain shrinking advertising revenue and spur sales with spicier, riskier, gamier "news" that wouldn't have made it two or three years ago....churnalism" would be a better name for it.

—David Nyhan, "When trash appears as news," The Boston Globe, May 2, 1991

Related Words:

anniversary journalism

charticle

civic journalism

gotcha journalism

horse-race journalism

infoganda

Category:

Media and Journalism

What's all this "Word Blending" shite? The Oxford Dictionary of English contains a prodigious amount (twenty volumes) of glorious, spellbinding and, lets face it, perfectly apt words (plus at least another three volumes of additions.) So, why not ditch the 'thumbo's and 'churnalism's in favour of a few endangered (and actually useful) words. Not that I mind neologising of course, but 'jihobbyinst'? Really? It doesn't exactly purvey a sense of demagoguery, does it? –CONCERNED–