As with the other article from 1922 [1], this article is just so much better written and conveys a far more widely useful point than the articles you see in the media today. Feels a bit like journalism in general has gone backwards enormously.
I think this because journalism is now ranked by 'page views', when in 1922, journalism was ranked by professional editors. For journalism, page views = ad views = revenue, so optimizing for anything else is folly. A short article with eye catching headlines and sensationalism is always going to outdo a great article like the OP. Any way to reverse this trend? Even pay-for journalism today is still plagued by 'page views', as no follow up article is going to be written if the views are low. Back in 1922, nobody really knew the page views and they could only be badly estimated with a reader's survey.
EDIT: I've actually changed my mind - journalism of this standard is definitely alive and well, you just have to look to lesser known bloggers now instead of big media. This is probably the true death-knell of big media if I ever saw it - loss of quality content. I present the following blog post from this year as evidence:
Pshaw. What a wide canopy you throw, "Journalism!" Are you talking about BuzzFeed's brand of linkbaity lists? The NYT's high-class reportage? National newsmagazines (Newsweek, RIP)? Television news-style storytelling? Or the financial press... or the regional publications out there (Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle come to mind)... or industry publications -- heck, Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting embarks on journalism, no doubt.
"No follow up article is going to be written in the views are low," you write. Says who? You've proven your ability to cite sources, why not cite this one? Professional editorship is dead? What an assumption.
You mention big media in your edit. Good of you to get more specific with your straw-man, I appreciate that. However, if you're sick of the perceived decline of what you think to be "journalism," call me sick of people who lump the worst of this world of reportage and writing in with everyone else.
Also, these are two articles hand picked from one year from all sources that printed news that year. That's a very small sample size to extrapolate from.
Really? I didn't find that article impressive at all. I thought it was sloppily written, short on in-depth analysis, and really didn't have much of a point beyond "my old job sucked." Note how many times he says "was that too many puns? Oh well." Maybe you'd call that the modern style, but for me all that says is he didn't bother to revise and redraft enough. It shows I think too that he hasn't really thought hard about what he's written because he doesn't have many points to make. If you redraft enough you end up developing your ideas and either realising you had something important to say or didn't. This guy didn't bother.
So he complains about thoughtless, rushed modern culture, but his writing is a case in point. I don't respect that.
I feel journalism is bad, and getting worse. The so called need for 'balance' and quick news cycles leads to bad writing. However this isn't data. What would be a measure that would show quality over time? Readership would be one - although this would be skewed by people changing media (paper to electronic). Industry profits might be another, although this is indirect and is messed up by the enormous amount of advertising dollars in the mix. Whats a better measure of quality?
Quality is always compromised when you set your sights on appealing to everyone. Most websites do that because they would rather make a lot of money than have the integrity that comes from higher standards and focus.
The irony is they cheat themselves out of their own success because they're too busy trying to pander.
I think this because journalism is now ranked by 'page views', when in 1922, journalism was ranked by professional editors. For journalism, page views = ad views = revenue, so optimizing for anything else is folly. A short article with eye catching headlines and sensationalism is always going to outdo a great article like the OP. Any way to reverse this trend? Even pay-for journalism today is still plagued by 'page views', as no follow up article is going to be written if the views are low. Back in 1922, nobody really knew the page views and they could only be badly estimated with a reader's survey.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4969041
EDIT: I've actually changed my mind - journalism of this standard is definitely alive and well, you just have to look to lesser known bloggers now instead of big media. This is probably the true death-knell of big media if I ever saw it - loss of quality content. I present the following blog post from this year as evidence:
http://www.lindsredding.com/2012/03/11/a-overdue-lesson-in-p...
The way writing styles have changed in general in 100 years is also interesting!