Writer
Abroad has learned quite a bit about writing and democracy over the last few
years. So much so, that she’s now shopping around a novel that deals with this
very topic.
Unfortunately,
much of what she’s learned, especially in the last few weeks, is very
disturbing.
Most
recently, there was this piece in The
Nation: These
Journalists Dedicated Their Lives to Telling Other People’s Stories. What
Happens When No One Wants to Print Their Words Anymore? It talked about the
end of journalism (and therefore democracy) as we know it.
Writer
Abroad has experienced some of the things discussed in The Nation article and that’s why she really believes the end of
journalism to be one of the most dangerous issues facing America today.
Here’s why.
Once media companies (including some well-known newspapers you might recognize)
force freelance writers like those mentioned in The Nation article to sign contracts that force them to be entirely
liable for anything they write for that publication, you have basically ended
journalism’s role in upholding democracy. Because how can any writer afford to
write about controversial subjects and be held liable for their investigations—especially
if they involve large corporations with huge pockets? They can’t. So the
stories don’t get written.
This system
is not fair to journalists and it’s not fair to Americans who rely on
journalists to be watchdogs. What we have now is a media system that is owned
by corporations and run by corporations and that only tells the stories the
corporations want told.
What’s the
solution? Well, instead of reading what the press has to say, we should try to
read between the lines at what it is not
saying. For example, even when Bernie Sanders wins a state in the democratic
primaries, like Michigan, headlines about him are negative—he still doesn’t have a chance. To reinterpret these headlines
without the corporate spin, they would probably read: Bernie Sanders takes his revolution to new heights scaring an
establishment that depends on regular Americans to make up for their
billion-dollar tax breaks.
What else
tells Writer Abroad that something is wrong with journalism? Well, over the
last year, Writer Abroad has published essays and articles on many topics and
with many big publications. The topics that she’s been successful with are expat
and repatriate life, work-life balance, and parenting, etc. But she can’t seem
to get a positive essay about Bernie Sanders published anywhere. No. With those
pieces come rejections and/or silence from the big media companies. It’s frustrating.
And revealing.
What is the
solution? Well, it may be up to writers and journalists to develop their own
ways to get the stories out there. They can develop their own publishing
companies, their own blogs or social networks, etc. For instance, Writer Abroad
may post her pieces that are unacceptable to big media companies on her blog.
Because while Writer Abroad would rather have a million readers than 10,000, she
still thinks it’s more important that some of these topics get out there rather
than having them sit, waiting for eternity, for the slim possibility that they
will ever see the light of day on a corporate-owned publication masquerading as
today’s American newspaper.
