Today's word is churnalism, and thanks to Lorcan Dempsey and his blog for this one. The word comes from Nick Davies's book, Flat Earth News, about the state of British journalism; here is a review in the Guardian, and another in the London Review of Books. Davies says that churnalism has replaced journalism, and defines it as pseudo events manufactured by the PR industry and news stories generated by a new machinery of international propaganda.
Dempsey provides as an example the many lists which are generated one way and another, such as the recent list of the world's 50 most powerful blogs; he links back to another list, of British writers, which had the distinction for librarians of including one, Philip Larkin.
And although this column is flexible about what might constitute a word, the following, contributed by Gary, is not eligible since it is an idiom or it is a piece of extremely sound advice - "always keep another horse in the bushes." Gary attributes it to Jeff Leeuwenberg.
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1 comment:
Hmmm I think The Guardian's list is mostly accurate, although I'd query the absence of Lifehacker.
I'm hardly surprised that no librarians made it to the list, but I guess we can always hope ...
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