"The End of Journalism" at Shotgun Players

Mike Daisey is back in town. I last saw him last fall, doing a monologue about Donald Trump and what a piece of work he is. And I've written about some of the other times I've seen him and the controversy around him, too. So I'll spare you the recap.

Apparently Mike enjoyed his appearance at Shotgun's Ashby Stage last September, so he's back with two brand new monologues as part of Shotgun's Blast Festival between seasons of their regular productions. Thursday night I caught the second night of his presentation of his first new work, "The End of Journalism." Next week he'll be doing a separate new work called "This is Not Normal."

Unlike Daisey's works I've seen in the past, these new shows are quite early in their development, and as such less polished and less complete than what I'm accustomed to. So in addition to enjoying the performance, I'm getting a view into a part of his development process I've not had before.

I will also note that reading other reviews of, for example, the opening night of the show made it clear to me just how different Daisey's shows are from one performance to the next, and probably even more so in the very early stages of development. So it's entirely possible that my comments are not applicable to shows that came before or after.

This Show

Journalism is in trouble. You don't have to be paying very close attention to know that. Newspapers are either shrinking or disappearing entirely as what remains of the industry consolidates into a relatively few hands. Relieved of their public-interest obligations, broadcasters have largely abandoned any pretense of doing more than sensationalism and ambulance chasing. Local and independent journalism is nearly non-existent. So how did we get here?

Daisey takes us through a cursory history of journalism from the invention of movable type through the heyday of 20th century journalism and mass media, through to today's shriveling landscape, examining some themes that contribute to the ongoing decline.

Primary among those is the notion of objectivity, that a journalist can somehow stand outside of events and evaluate what is true and what is not, and report on that. Daisey makes the fairly convincing case that true objectivity doesn't really exist, and that maintaining the pretense and appearance of objectivity is one of the key factors undermining the enterprise of journalism. With the rise of media who do not feel constrained by the pretense of objectivity, traditional journalism finds itself at a considerable disadvantage today. Daisey makes a good case that attempting to treat "objectively" that which in fact has no connection to any objective reality is inherently self-defeating. The only outcome is essentially validating that which it should be discounting.

The Frame Story

As anyone who has seen Daisey's previous works knows, his talks are generally structured with several layers of meaning, some explicit, and some only implied. The weaving of stories and exposition make for both entertainment and plenty of room for interpretation. In this case, the show starts and ends with Daisey sitting vigil in a hospital with an ailing friend who seems to be dying, though he doesn't say that explicitly. This leads to some interesting digressions on the health care system that never quite relate back to the main event, but they are fun and interesting.

Unlike most of the frame stories I'm accustomed to with his monologues, however, this one seems to be ambiguous as to its nature. We had considerable debate on the way home whether it was purely metaphorical, or whether there was an actual friend at death's door. Ultimately, that's probably not that important, but I think the ambiguity distracts from some of the more important items one should be thinking about at the end of the show.

A Couple of Other Notes

One aspect of journalism that gets hammered a bit in the course of the show is theatrical reviews (for reasons that should be obvious). The decline in journalism has resulted in few journalistic resources being devoted to the arts and theater, and Daisey talks about his own relationship to reviews and reviewers. Among other things, he insists that he reads all the reviews (Hi, Mike!), looking for "pull quotes," among other things.

As a local theater aficionado, I can see first-hand what an outsized impact the few professional reviewers with large circulations have on the success and failure of individual productions. On the one hand, because those reviewers cannot see every show, their selection of what to review must necessarily help to shape the local market. And then the impact of either a favorable or unfavorable review can have a make-or-break impact on a show. In a market with more reviewers and more outlets for their reviews, consumers might be able to make better-informed choices of what they want to see.

And of course, the same goes for other parts of the news as well. Fewer reporters covering fewer events or relying on remote sources and stringers for content means fewer viewpoints in general, and many issues left uncovered. The result is a poverty of real information and discussion, even in the flood of information that seems to engulf us.

Nitpicks: In the course of the monologue, I thought there would be some discussion of the definition of "journalism." I wasn't sure whether he intentionally avoided that to enable himself to be a little slippery on the subject, or whether it was just an oversight in the current incarnation of the show. The history portion of the talk seems a little scattered without having that definition to hold it up. The distinction between "journalism" and "news" seems key here, but it's not really discussed directly. For example, many people get their "news" from Facebook these days, but that "news" may not be based on anything I would recognize as "journalism" at all. The issue was sort of mentioned, but again not defined clearly.

Bottom Line

I always enjoy Mike Daisey's shows. They never fail to both entertain and make me think. This is no exception, and I look forward to picking up another new one next week.