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 • Dec. 5, 2025

The result is a miserable, statistically-illiterate piece of churnalism, and it makes me far angrier than any video game every did.

From The Guardian • Jun. 7, 2012