At the end of a decade, it is popular to look back to the many things that have changed. There are loved ones who have passed on, events that have thrilled or terrified us, and new inventions that made life a bit different. Yet for all of these turning points there is one thing that has not changed that probably should have in the last decade. Our political world is, more or less, about what it was ten years ago. That may not seem remarkable – but it is far more interesting than any of the great changes that swept over the same barren, dry landscape.
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Context
When kids are learning to read, a good teacher gives them as many tools to use. Young readers are taught to sound out words they don’t know, words and concepts are repeated, and stories are put into a form that are familiar and warm. All of these help us even as adults along with one more critical tool – context, a bigger whole than the details that support it. Context comes from the pictures that support the text, either in a kids’ book or a magazine, but it also comes from the text itself. It also happens to be something that is fading from our culture altogether in strange and chilling ways.
New Deal
When I try to explain what I think is required for these hard times, I’ve deliberately steered clear of one important phrase: The New Deal. It’s a tough phrase for a lot of reasons, not just because it’s loaded with meanings that people inherited from their grandparents. The word “deal” does not mean “a new bargain”, the way we might use it today, but a new deal of the cards. The old hand had been played out, the way FDR saw it, and it was time for what he could only call a “new deal”. That strong frame for understanding what he was trying to accomplish is a bit lost – something I’ve started to regard as more of a problem than I first thought.
Impact Journalism
In order to clarify the goals a writer might have when writing on the internet, I’ve separated most prose into two distinct types – writing to inform and writing to convince. The problem with this, naturally, is that there is a lot of grey space between them. Quality writing always has a strong clarity of purpose no matter what the intent is. Active writing should have something for the heart and arm and brain, which is to say appeals to intellect, intuition, and action. The place where these clearly intersect is, more and more, being called “Impact Journalism” – a topic that deserves discussion by itself.
Blank Slate
Is there anything that is truly “objective” in our world? Can a news organization really be “fair and balanced”? These may seem like noble ideals for reporting on the world around us, but if the standards are often a bit out of reach for most mortals it’s probably better to try for a more human approach. That’s what I’m going to suggest works best for internet based reporting of any kind.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 