Given the nature of the news business, journalists are always
burdened with being behind. A famous adage in newsrooms is "Newspapers -
reporting yesterday's news for tomorrow."
To compensate for this, journalists try to stay ahead of the curve
by reporting on trends, sometimes before they even happen. Journalists have
such an authority in the field of trends that they determine when trends start,
peak and end.
So when is something officially a trend? When a journalist decides
it is. In fact, Facebook, Twitter and the Internet were simply fads until
journalists determined they were trends.
And by announcing something as a trend, a journalist only needs
his or her observation as a source that something is, in fact, a trend.
When seeking to find the next trend, journalists simply look
around their immediate surroundings to find something someone is doing that
hasn't been reported on yet.
"Hey, what is that young, hip kid doing with his phone? Stop
the presses."
Or better yet, a journalist will determine something is a trend if
he or she is doing it for the first time. Usually, the train of thought goes:
"Hey, if I haven't heard of this, I bet no one else has!"
Because these trend stories are based on the journalist's
observations and not facts, journalists carefully phrase
their research. Rather than giving readers hard facts like,
"Compared to previous years, 51 percent more . . .," journalists writing trend pieces backup their claims by
including unsubstantial phrases such as "growing numbers"
and "more and more "and then find a so-called expert to confirm
the trend.
For more on how to write a trend piece, follow the advice of
Slate.com's Jack Shafer:
"How to write a bogus trend story: Start with something you
wish were on the rise. State that rise as a fact. Allow that there are no
facts, surveys, or test results to support such a fact. Use and reuse the
word seems. Collect anecdotes and sprinkle liberally. Drift from your
original point as far as you can to collect other data points. Add liberally.
Finish with an upbeat quotation like "My cat takes priority over the new
relationship. Realistically, unless there's something absolutely amazing about
[the woman I'm dating], he wins."
The publication best known of this journalist sin trait is the Gray Lady herself,
the New York Times. From trends of single
urban men becoming cat owners (pictured) to skaters taking over swimming pools of
foreclosed homes, the Times owns the market on creating trends.
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Topics:
famous journalists of today, world famous reporters, business journalism trends, famous journalists, how to start a trend story
More young people are getting tatoos as reported by the Ticky Tatoo Parlor in Ticawana, CA. The trend is becoming more commonplace as a form of Art in America as evidenced by the Tatoo fashion show scheduled for Valentines Day 2009 at the Tuabman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia -taubmanmuseum.org
My last trend piece was about the rising cost of bullets, as assigned by my editors. Turns out that by the time I got the assignment, the prices were leveling off. But I made up for it by reporting the trend in shooters making their own bullets. I was fortunate enough to get two sources, a bullet manufacturer and someone who was building the bullets. Was it a real trend – I don’t know, but if those two said it I was allowed to print it. I’ve always thought “trend stories” should be labeled “analysis” so as not to mislead readers.