Alexandra Kitty, a crime journalist who previously worked for Presstime magazine, published her near-obituary When Journalism Was A Thing in 2018. Kitty (very aggressively) explains what journalism previously was during its ascendancy, and identifies what has aggravated its downfall. She strongly suggests that journalism became the architect of its own demise and explores the various seeds of destruction that supposedly played a role in destroying the profession. Kitty charges several publications, journalists and political figures for killing journalism and then presents a strategy for reviving it.

While she brings up several points that I agree with, her perspective on how journalism should move forward, seems distorted by her obvious anger towards those who purportedly played a role in its downfall.

Kitty starts ‘An open letter to journalists’ by declaring: ‘you are working in a dead profession that you all had a part in killing.’ I was left shocked by this statement. Not only because of her hyper-aggressive tone, but also because of how massively sweeping this notion is; and it really does reflect her attitude towards journalists throughout the entire book.

But does Kitty have the evidence to prove every journalist has played a role in the death of journalism? No she doesn’t; instead she is simply sensationalising, just like all the others journalists she accuses of killing journalism.

In Chapter One, ‘What was Journalism?’, Kitty states that ‘in an era where overtly partisan news operations such as the Fox News Channel have replaced fact with opinion, the function of the press has morphed from information-gatherers and disseminators to cheerleaders and enablers’. This I completely agree with. Publications should remain neutral when disseminating information because if not, they can only be producing propaganda which comprises the credibility of the information we receive from them; they are shooting themselves in the foot, potentially fatally.

In Chapter Two she insists that ‘the seeds of destruction began when journalism’s power was shown to make and break careers, fortunes, and even lives.’ I can see how this power might turn into arrogance, eventually leading public/political figures such as Donald Trump to bypass the press rather than bow down to them. On the other hand, when was it that journalism didn’t matter that much? Surely ‘the power of the press’ has been palpable for a very long time, and as often as not, it has been used unwisely. Furthermore, it wouldn’t make sense for journalism to try to recover its powerlessness. So what, exactly, is she asking journalism to do here?

In Chapter Nine Kitty accuses journalism tutors of mis-educating young journalists. She says that ‘psychology is an essential subject for any journalist to know; yet it is not taught in j-school.’ I agree this would be a valuable addition to the syllabus. I also believe that having a solid understanding of the human psyche and being able to identify people’s mis-perceptions, are key skills for a journalist gathering information. But this sin of omission hardly amounts to the professors murdering the profession.

The final section of the book is entitled ‘The Resurrection’ – it’s the author’s strategy for pulling journalism out of the grave. When journalism’s not even dead, it doesn’t help to talk about it in these apocalyptic tones. However, when Kitty claims journalism ‘must embrace science to become a different thing’, I find myself largely in agreement with her. Stories based on hard-won facts need to be seen as far superior to stories based on superficial narratives. If we don’t re-instate this hierarchy we are allowing opinion to masquerade as reporting, effectively devaluing them both. Instead I agree with Kitty that we need an injection of what used to be called ‘precision journalism’ in order to rid ourselves of such laziness.

Re-introducing the scientific element is important. However, I don’t believe this alone is enough to revive journalism. It needs a re-vamp that is more wide-ranging than that.

Overall Alexandra Kitty does a great job at explaining how the previous model of journalism worked and describing the different factors which eventually disrupted it. Although her book felt very repetitive in parts, it has prompted me to explore the journalist’s fall from grace and to investigate how journalism can do better in future.