It's journalism, Jim, but not as we knew it
Wednesday, July 27, 2016 at 14:47 Here's an interesting business model:
Journalistic.org is a non-commercial, co-operative model where the journalists do not accept or expect remuneration for their work but only due credit.
And here's an example of their work:
Vaping vs. Smoking: The price of our healthcare system, environment and cost to businesses!!
A shocking £12.9billion is the total cost of smoking to society every year! Not only could switching to vaping save a life, £3.2billion could be re-located to impoverished areas of the world!
Action is needed to make a change!
At journalistic.org we collected research and data in conjunction with vapourlites.co.uk to compare the true cost of vaping, against smoking. We analysed three keys areas of society: health, environment and cost, valuing each factor against each other.
Not only are 5.6 trillion cigarettes smoked every day in the world, but in the UK alone, 80,000 people die every year from smoking. To put that into perspective 86% of cancer cases in the UK could be avoided.
If it costs currently £2billion every year to the NHS from smoking-related diseases and deaths, think about what £2billion a year could be spent on instead??
The Royal College of Physicians, released a report entitled: Nicotine without Smoke: Tobacco Harm Reduction. In the report, they stated that ‘electronic cigarettes have the potential to make a huge contribution towards preventing the premature death, disease and social inequalities in health that smoking currently causes in the UK’.
If medical professionals agree, then what’s stopping you?
When I left university in 1980 with every intention of pursuing a career in journalism (it had been my ambition since the age of nine or ten) there was a very clear distinction between journalism and public relations.
To put it bluntly, old school journalists hated PR execs, especially those who had been to university.
Then again, many viewed all graduates with suspicion, dismissing them as smart alecs who thought they knew everything after a couple of years on some crummy student rag.
The best age for joining a newspaper, it was explained to me, was 17, before you had time to pick up any bad habits.
Anyway there was a clear line you didn't cross and when, hot out of university, I accepted a job in PR I knew I was almost certainly torpedoing a career in mainstream journalism (although by then I was more interested in writing for The Spectator or Private Eye).
Today the line between PR and journalism has been breached and twisted on its head so much it's difficult to spot the difference – unless it comes with an obliging note that reads "in conjunction with vapourlites.co.uk".
So thank you, journalistic.org, the home of "innovative and unique journalism", I'll politely decline your interesting graphic "detailing the true cost of vaping against smoking".
I don't really have room for dubious stats and colourful estimates on this blog.
I'm sure there's a market, though. Have you tried tobacco control?
Reader Comments (4)
Nobody ever explains which causes of death increases to compensate for the "saved" 80,000 who of course will still die of something.
We could then execute some studies that prove stopping smoking increases death by (insert cause) by xxx%.
Too bad they have confused journalism with propaganda and advocacy! Their figures are extremely suspect and based on tobacco control assertions rather than reliable empirical foundation.
Oh well. At least they had the good grace to cite within the article that they'd produced it in conjunction with - err - an e-cigarette manufacturer. Usually these "vested interests" are hidden away right at the bottom in teeny, tiny print! The journalists may not ask for any remuneration for their writing, but no doubt Vapourlites appreciated the free advertising!
Actually, it's not journalism, at all. It's PR, pure and simple. I received a 'story' from this outfit this morning. It was irrelevant to my readership (so much for their 'meticulous' research) and included a brazen request that we include a clickable link to a business - their client, clearly - within the story. We don't publish editorial to provide free promotion to third-party businesses. The worst thing is that they purport to be freelance journalists who work for nothing - a gross insult and potentially damaging to real freelance journalists who have bills to pay.