I don’t know what the future of journalism is. I know that Snapchat isn’t television. I know that blogs aren’t dead. I know that Twitter isn’t over. I know that people still read print. I know what CPMs publishers want, and I know what CPMs publishers get. I know some, but not all, of the tricks they rely on to nudge those numbers up. I know that brands can sell — really sell. I know that storytelling is a buzzword. I know that not all content is created equal.
I do worry about the constant churn of posts and stories and articles in this industry. I wonder sometimes if anyone understands what the motivation behind all the content is. I worry about young writers with big platforms who don’t get the editing, the support, and the guidance that they need. I do not worry about young readers, who are getting more information, news, and entertainment funnelled at their shiny plastic brains in more creative and unique ways than ever before in human history.
Hmm. Just doing the maths. Midnighter is gay. Catwoman is bi. Constantine is bi. Harley Quinn is bi (with two titles in June). Alan Scott of Earth 2 is gay.
That’s four ongoing DC comic book titles with a lead character who is portrayed as being LGBT. That’s… getting pretty close to representative of the general population isn’t it?
Ignoring the fact that the math is wrong (Midnighter, Catwoman, Constantine, Alan Scott and Harley Quinn make up five characters, not four), this is interesting to me. Wonder if it’ll get picked up anywhere?
Lightning Fields 216 by Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2009, from here.
March 11
Just the other day, I found myself thinking that maybe I should be doing more in terms of audio, instead of just writing everything. I think there was more than a little bit of frustration after a day spent typing for 10 hours in there, when I thought it; the moment of Well, if I’m doing audio, then all I have to do is talk, right? Nonetheless, this week has turned into an unusually audio-heavy one for me; this afternoon, I’ll be doing two different audio things, with one of them potentially opening the door to much more down the line. Now that the possibility is here, I find myself impressively, stupidly, anxious about it. At least when you’re writing, you get the chance to hide behind your words and more carefully consider what you’re saying.
I suspect this is one of those “Be careful what you wish for,” deals. I’ll report back on whether or not I shouldn’t have wished for anything soon enough.