Journalists writing about cycling: bikesnobnyc

tomasrojo

Good post today. I agree wholeheartedly. Sums up the Irish papers too.

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2009/08/rectilinear-or-obtuse-cycling-in-media.html

"Really, though, none of this is surprising. While mainstream publications will generally require that people who write about movies, or cuisine, or cars, or finance, or politics have at least a basic understanding of them, when it comes to cycling they like to pick writers who are completely clueless. This is because they assume their readers also know nothing about cycling and will be more likely to accept information from and relate to somebody like them. This is not true. People actually read things to gain information, and they actually like it when writers know more than they do. Even a hacky movie critic knows the difference between a film and a sitcom, even the lamest automotive journalist can tell a manual transmission from an automatic, and even the worst political analyst knows the difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives. Bicycles should be treated like computers by the media, in that both were once the domain of nerds and children but are now totally commonplace and thus can be written about with more sophistication. The media does this with computers, but when it comes to bikes they still write about them like they're reciting the alphabet over and over again to a bunch of children--only they keep getting the letter order wrong."

petethedrummer

On Yer Bike, ho ho.

tomasrojo

petethedrummer wrote: »

On Yer Bike, ho ho.

If I see that headline one more time ...

flickerx

TV or radio too.
"Today we sent Elaine, who normally drives into work in her Nissan Micra, out into the mean streets of Dublin/London/wherever on a bicycle, and she survived the ordeal to tell us her tale today. Elaine?"

Gavin

Sure the snob must be a journo

not bakunin

Well I don't read publications specifically geared towards the sport of cycling, but I presume that they have cycle-savvy writers?

The journalist writing for the national/local/feature paper has to take in the consideration of his or her target audience, i.e.......not everyone cycles.

tomasrojo

not bakunin wrote: »

Well I don't read publications specifically geared towards the sport of cycling, but I presume that they have cycle-savvy writers?

The journalist writing for the national/local/feature paper has to take in the consideration of his or her target audience, i.e.......not everyone cycles.

But it's not how the article is pitched that's the problem; it's that the author has no idea what he or she is talking about, and then has the temerity to issue categorical but patently wrong statements by the end of the article, such as "only the foolhardy would consider riding in traffic in Dublin" or "cycling 5km everyday is beyond the ability of normal people".

The bikesnob post explains this better than I can. This is good too:
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/commute/sufferin.htm

not bakunin

tomasrojo wrote: »

But it's not how the article is pitched that's the problem; it's that the author has no idea what he or she is talking about, and then has the temerity to issue categorical but patently wrong statements by the end of the article, such as "only the foolhardy would consider riding in traffic in Dublin" or "cycling 5km everyday is beyond the ability of normal people".

oh yeah, fair enough, that is complete bull. I remember reading an article on urban cycling in The Gaurdain last year and it was utterly sensationalist, describing taking to the streets by bike of cities with tram lines as being the "ultimate commuting russian roulette" and other such piss...

Captain Havoc

@tomasrojo really enjoyed the suffering motorist part at the end.

tomasrojo

Ah, he was a great guy, Ken Kifer.

tomasrojo

Gavin wrote: »

Sure the snob must be a journo

He is now; writes for Bicycling Magazine. I think he got the job from the blog though, rather than branching out into blogging from journalism.

petethedrummer

Well there's an article in the Irish Times today and the journalist didn't know how to fix a puncture before heading on a month long trip around Ireland!!

Other than that it was a reasonable article on cyclnig.

monument

It's not just cycling, and it's not just tech or social networking sites as this focuses on - http://glinner.posterous.com/the-conversation-23

flickerx

Those type of articles drive me mad, sending someone who has never cycled before into urban traffic, and the resulting "oh i was nearly killed!" sensationalist drivel. What do they think would happen if they took a cyclist who didnt know how to drive and stuck them in a car to deal with the M50 at rush hour?

That'd be a good one for the motors section of a paper.

DualFrontDiscs

tomasrojo wrote: »

Ah, he was a great guy, Ken Kifer.

+1

tomasrojo

monument wrote: »

It's not just cycling, and it's not just tech or social networking sites as this focuses on - http://glinner.posterous.com/the-conversation-23

Bit off-topic, but you've reminded me of a real howler.

I remember the Guardian once writing a whole article about how people might have to reconsider forgoing aerosol deodorants because scientists had found that aerosols were slowing global warming. This was in the Science and Technology section, if I remember correctly. Maybe you'd have to have studied science to know this, but the aerosol deodorant is so called because it creates an aerosol, a suspension of droplets in the air. The scientists were talking about suspensions of droplets and solid particles in the atmosphere, not about deodorant delivery systems.

A whole article.