Although journalistic writing and academic writing are extremely different in word usage, sentence structure and format, for me, the biggest difference between these two forms is audience. Yes, in journalism your word choice needs to be more accessible. Yes, the sentence structure is longer in academic writing. And yes, the formatting of even the smallest piece is entirely different, with an abundance of rules. But these are all about writing for your audience.
In journalistic writing the author is writing for a broad base. Depending on where the piece is published this could mean it needs to be accessible cross-generationally, cross-culturally, and so on. But academic writing is for a much smaller audience. For most of us this is simply a teacher. And we are usually writing to impress, not to connect or inform.
I agree. Since there is no way of knowing the audience it forces you to make it as simple as possible. I think having to cross different cultures is what makes it difficult.
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