First, an economic downtown. Then competition from digital media. Then classified all but disappeared and all ad revenues plummeted. Then layoffs. Then more of the same.
Journalists have certainly had enough to sing the blues about.
But maybe they haven’t a great blues song to sing, one that reflected what was happening in journalism, and especially community journalism.
But now they do, courtesy of the Texas Center for Community journalism.
It started with a blues song written by veteran journalist Donna Darovich, a lyricist well-known for her work in the Fort Worth SPJ Gridiron shows, which were discontinued in 1996.
I saw Darovich’s lyrics and urged her to add more references to the unique world of community journalism, and The Journalism Blues was born.
To make the video, we enlisted a faculty blues band from the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism – The South Moudy Blues (so named from the Moudy Building South at TCU where most of them have offices) – and audio and video help from the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at the university.
We wanted a blues song that really reflected some of the dilemmas of today’s community journalist. The song talks about everything from competition with Craigslist and Patch to the problems many long-time journalists have in adapting to a digital world. It’s the real-world journalism blues, pure and simple.
The video and its lyrics can be accessed at /journalism-blues.