My reasoned guess is that journalists are more likely to be psychologically and socially normal than are IT people. Pathologically introverted nerds with zero social skills aren’t likely to go into journalism, while they often do go into IT, and maladjusted people of that sort are at higher risk of going wild.

If you distill things down to a script - or *think* you can - then you can give it to robots or unskilled workers. Programming has, in many senses, been distilled down to a script. It’s not a question of finding new or innovative solutions, just rewriting the same code that’s been used before.

Customer service has this same phenomenon, as well.

The reason for the flack against H1-B’s is simple: they get paid so much less than normal workers, AND they are brought over preferably against regular workers. The very existence of the H1-B visa in anything but overwhelming boom times is a giant extended middle finger right in the faces of the middle class.

Really?

In my experience, journalists are likely to be depressive; hystrionic; immature; heavy substance users or abusers; physically unattractive; childless or with troubled children; and with troubled or no relationships. This is probably less true for the small minority who work in large, well-paying media like the NY Times. Poverty and insecurity probably have a lot to do with the high dysfunctionality.

My own guess is that 1) we’re not as technically proficient as IT guys (how many reporters have a pilot’s license like Stack did?); 2) we had lower expectations of our careers to begin with, so even when we’re bitter and screwed it’s not as mind-blowing as someone who thought he could be Bill Gate; and 3) there are just fewer of us, per capita.

You also need to distinguish journalists from “reporters”; “reporters” are the pretty-face types that get put onto the TV newscasts and wind up with endorsement/advertising deals.

Web, those are the “on-camera” people. Reporters are the people who actually gather the information and write the stuff, either for news or TV. Plenty of unattractive people behind the scenes in TV, suffering similar fates.

Peter, it’s true one can’t be a pathological introvert. But being outgoing doesn’t mean you still can’t be dysfunctional.

The journalism industry conditions reporters to have a sanctimonious attitude about what they do, much as if they were working for non-profits. This makes it easy to exploit them. Reporters put up with a lot because they believe they’re doing good. It’s a great recipe for bitterness once they figure out they’re being used and, in most cases, eventually discarded.

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=5078&type=0

The manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy has experienced substantial job losses over the past several years. In January 2004, the number of such jobs stood at 14.3 million, down by 3.0 million jobs, or 17.5 percent, since July 2000 and about 5.2 million since the historical peak in 1979. Employment in manufacturing was its lowest since July 1950