Journalistic/Academic Writing

Writing for the media, in journalistic style is much different than how we are taught to write academically. I thought I was a great writer because I have a decent vocabulary and I can use big words over and over until all that the reader is aware of is that I have a seemingly large vocabulary. I found out fast that it is almost the complete opposite in news style writing. The whole point of news writing is for the reader to understand what is written and to get to the point briefly and clearly. Academic style writing is pretty much pointless to most audiences. If the reader has to look up every other word in the sentence, chances are they are lost and on to the next thing that they can understand. The most annoying place that I have found academic style writing is in text books. The whole point of a text book is to be a clear reference for you to look at and learn from, so why the unnecessary wordy writing?