Why Tech Journalism Is Like Food Journalism
Or… Fanboys and Fangirls Forever!
In all sorts of journalism, there tends to be a symbiotic relationship between journalists, publicists and sources. We interact with each other in the same ecosystem—sometimes as friends,sometimes as enemies—but always in a way in which it is 110% clear we share the same swimming pool.
Before I began working as a tech journalist, I was (and remain, on a part-time, pho-loving basis) a food writer. Food writing and tech writing, for all their differences, share important structural similarities. Both tend to be aspirational—how many of us will purchase Google Glass in 2013? Are many of us eating at ?uestlove and Stephen Starr’s new restaurant over the next few months?—but at the same time, relentlessly tied to everyday life. Most of us use smartphones every day. Most of us want a delicious restaurant to try out soon.
Then there’s the issue of the fanboy and fangirlism. In the classic lexicon of nerdom, fanboys are obsessive, uncritical fans of movie/comic/gaming/etc. franchises. And, holy hell, obsessive and uncritical fans of tech and food brands are everywhere in the journalism world. Just think of how many journalists relentlessly trumpet the graces of Apple/Google/Samsung/Amazon/(insert brand here) regardless of the product’s graces—remember the Apple Maps debacle? And then just think of how many journalists relentlessly trumpet the graces of certain chain-building restaurateurs… are they really going to go full-throttle on the beloved-feared restaurant owner who dominates the game in their market?
Both tech and food journalism also thrive on junkets, dinners, and the usual lubricants of the PR industry. As a technology writer, my inbox has been filled with offers for (turned down) expense-paid conferences in sunny climates and complimentary copies of new products. As a food writer, my inbox was filled with offers for (turned down) expense-paid restaurant tours in sunny climates and complimentary dinners at new restaurants. Hey — anything to get a journalist’s attention and make your app or creative gastropub stand out from all the other apps or creative gastropub!
But most importantly, tech and food journalism share a massive structural similarity. Both fields depend on producing large amounts of content for an obsessive and mostly financially comfortable user base. There’s a reason for the glut of well-funded tech and food web sites these days; a shitload of people read them, and advertisers want to reach that audience. To put it bluntly—tech and food publications both reach monomaniacs with money to throw around.
However, there are differences between working in tech journalism and food journalism. The publicist game in food journalism is much more concentrated; going back to my time as a food writer covering the Philadelphia market, the bulk of the city’s restaurants were dominated by a handful of PR firms that controlled access to chefs. Blessedly, the publicist game in tech is the exact opposite.
Restaurateurs are also more fickle in terms of egomania/self-promotion. If I heard a juicy rumor, it was easy for me to get a big name or their flack on the phone doing a confirm or deny quickly. In the tech world, where bigger sums of money are at play and there are mediating layers of investors, advisors, and massive communications staffs, that’s not always the case.
Journalism in 2013 is strange, exciting, and ridiculous. The switch from print to digital, the growth of the commenter-as-content-producer, the rise of mobile, and our newfound ability to monetize online content are creating goddamned fascinating trends. But the basics of our beats remain—and I’m curious whether these structural similarities exist in other areas of journalism as well.
