Why is it that anybody whose work involves computers in any way whatsoever is always described in the media as a “computer expert”?

If a newspaper sees a job title that is at all connected to the field of IT it just gets ignored and the person is described as an expert.  If John Smith, Analyst Programmer is interviewed he can give his job title any number of times but when the story is printed he will be “John Smith, computer expert”.  Do journalist have no idea what a Service Delivery Manager, Database Analyst or Software Engineer are or do they just assume their readers won’t?   Or is there just an assumption that anybody who can do more than turn a PC on must be an expert?

Computers have now been around long enough to have attracted plenty of useless workers, just like every other field of work. Still…  I shouldn’t moan as I do benefit from this attitude as much as anyone and maybe I only notice it because I am involved in IT.  Doesn’t anyone even tangentially involved in a law firm get called a ‘legal eagle’ and the humblest clerk in a bank get called a ‘financial wizard’?

There is a slight twist to all this though.  Anyone who is convicted of computer crime or child pornography seems to be described as a “self-taught computer expert”.  This seems to mean that they don’t work in IT but can still do more than just turn a computer on and off.