churnalism

American  

[chur-nuh-liz-uhm] / ˈtʃɜr nəˌlɪz əm /

noun

Disparaging.

1. a form of journalism that is characterized by a lack of original research and fact-checking and by reuse of existing material such as press releases.

   The website's fast-paced churnalism meant that most of its stories copied heavily from other sources.

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Other Word Forms

• churnalist noun

Etymology

Origin of churnalism

First recorded in 2004, attributed to BBC journalist Waseem Zakir (born 1985) in Journalism Principles and Practices; churn ( def. ) + (journ)alism ( def. )

Example Sentences

“Spam, fluff, clickbait, churnalism, kitsch — slop: These are all ways to describe mass-produced, low-quality content.”

From Los Angeles Times

Davies’s quest to explore the power of the press had resulted in a fiercely forensic book, Flat Earth News, which chronicled how many newsrooms, obsessed with traffic and with ever-declining budgets, had started practising what he termed “churnalism”.

From The Guardian

It is the reverse of so-called “churnalism”, the endless recycling of other people’s stories for clicks.

From The Guardian

In the latest spat, a forum article last month on the website of the Columbia Journalism Review, St Louis accused the SMC of “fuelling a culture of churnalism”.

From Nature

It was a reaction against the culture of 'churnalism' identified by Nick Davies in his book Flat Earth News, a welcome counterpoint to the wealth of pieces updating us on the state of somebody's broken toe, or telling us that a manager has the "full support" of his chairman, or that a player is "committed" to the club.

From The Guardian