
Tech journalists: take my tech test - fogus
http://blog.tommorris.org/post/26528963866/tech-journalists-take-my-tech-test
======
jfasi
I am insulted by the smugness of this post. Firstly, the pretension that tech
journalists have any reason whatsoever to be reading this blog. Secondly, the
lack of any evidence, enforcement, or argument as to why "journalists don't
know what they are talking about."

Thirdly, the notion that all you need to be a tech journalist is an
understanding of programming, when technology journalism today touches on
hardware, electrical engineering, business, politics, environmental issues,
and finance, not to mention the fact that many of these people are actually
trained journalists, which is a worthy field by itself.

However, the most damning implication, the one which tends to lie at the root
of many self-delusional blogs beyond this one: the idea that only insiders'
word is worth hearing. Only an insider in a very particular segment of the
tech world will be able to immediately tell you which of the NoSQL databases
is the odd man out.

The notion that someone who can't isn't worth listening to is a surefire way
to seal yourself in a stifling echo chamber where you cling to your own
(usually flawed) ideas like a teenager clinging to a safety blanket while the
other kids are out making friends and growing.

~~~
tommorris
Why do I have the right to write the post? Simple. I read tech journalism. I
read newspapers, blogs, magazines and much more. Consumer feedback from a
consumer.

Lack of evidence? Oh god, it's like the air we breathe. Every time there's a
product announcement, the amount of completely bullshit reporting, completely
oblivious to what has gone before drowns out everything else.

My quiz covered programming, sure. It also covered software more generally,
security (WEP vs. WPA) and Internet standards. The programming questions led
up to a question about the App Store, which is kind of a business question
really (if someone comes along and says they'll build you an amazing iPhone
game in PHP...).

As I noted in the comments, I'm not expecting perfection. You don't have to be
able to answer all the questions: but I've met far, far too many people who
write about technology for a living and not only couldn't give an answer if I
asked any of those questions but wouldn't even have a clue what I was talking
about.

Do I expect every tech journalist to be able to answer all those questions?
No. Am I being unreasonable in expecting tech journalists to know a smidgen
about tech? Not at all. No more than if I expect people who write about
politics to know a little bit about Parliamentary procedure or the democratic
process.

Do the tech journalists which fail my admittedly very hastily made-up
quiz/rant know about hardware or electrical engineering or the complexities of
business or political and environmental regulation? I don't know. They seem to
know a lot about social media, which seems to stand people in good stead for
writing about technology for some reason.

And finally, there is a pretty fucking significant difference between being
someone who "isn't worth listening to" to and being paid to write about
technology. I don't know anything about wine – if offered a column writing
about wine in a national newspaper, modesty would forbid, right? The reason
you get elevated to a paying gig writing about technology could have just a
little something to do with knowing something about the actual technology.

If only so when someone from a technology vendor comes to you and says that
the brand new thing does ten octoflops with added HTML5 social media
wigetization, you know what the fuck they are talking about and can call them
out on it if it sounds like bullshit.

~~~
unconed
"completely bullshit reporting, completely oblivious to what has gone before
drowns out everything else."

This is really the crux of the problem. Reporting has lost its memory, and PR-
copy-pasting substitutes for in-depth analysis. Everything else follows from
that.

------
Revex
This is my first comment on HN....

I am a mid-level software developer, and this test is bullshit... The only
question that was even remotely applicable to a tech journalist, (even a
typical techie) is the one regarding network security.

I agree with jfasi; Tom, your post was incredibly arrogant.

