Categories: OLD Media Moves

Tech reporters need to be more than product reviewers

Evgeny Morozov argues on Slate.com that technology journalism needs to be more than just gadget reviews and business plans.

Morozov writes, “As I’ve already noted, I hate trend-spotting stenographers and babbling pundits. In their place, I want to install critics and intellectuals. My ‘disruption’ of the current discourse—to use Silicon Valley’s favorite buzzword (‘disruption,’ not ‘discourse’!)—is quite deliberate and strategic. The difference between these two groups is that, in addition to reporting and analysis, critics and intellectuals have additional moral obligations. They don’t just regurgitate whatever Silicon Valley press release strikes their fancy, but they actually try to ask a different question: Is this startup good? Is it bad? The only question that our stenographers and pundits ask right now—as confirmed by your responses—is whether this startup is likely to take off.

“My problem with your approach, Farhad, is that, if I were to ask you a simple question—’How should a smart trash bin be designed?’—I’m afraid that your answer would be: ‘Just as the market wants it.’ But I see technology criticism as a far more ambitious exercise, one that is so much more than just market ventriloquism. So the reason why I go after so many reporters, writers, and thinkers in the book is precisely because I want to force that extra moral dimension on them.

“Judging by your refusal to engage with this project—in both of your postings—I suspect you don’t find this prospect terribly appealing. And I can see why. But read carefully, my book has arguments that are only peripherally related to technology companies in Silicon Valley. I also discuss how those of us influencing public debate should think about and report on those companies.”