Are financial hacks fearless investigators sticking it to business or a bunch of lowly typists repeating corporate claptrap?
A somewhat crushing report here from the University of Amsterdam has it that we are closer to the latter.
Hacks think of themselves as watchdogs, but act more like [information disseminators](http://talkingbiznews.com/1/financial-journalists-more-information-disseminators-than-watchdogs/), says the study.
The firing of older, more experienced journalists has made the situation worse (sighs).
I think researcher Nadine Strauss has a point, but is rather unkind about the skills my colleagues possess.
We don’t just disseminate information, we have to digest it, understand it, turn it into English. It’s not that easy.
And I’d say business commentary is as good as it ever has been.
Perhaps she is right though, that the future for financial hackery is a bunch of robots doing the straight results stuff, and a smaller number of journalists digging into the weeds.
She puts is like this…”recent developments in automated reporting might give journalists more leeway to live up to their desired active watchdog role in the future”.
How you flaks are going to police robots is one for another day. You might miss us when we’re gone.
