Name the ideology
Forgive me (thank me?) for keeping this short. I've been under the weather this past week. That's saying a lot here in Detroit, where the snow and ice have arrived with a vengeance. Cough drop wrappers are everywhere.
Something giving me energy even now is that hundreds of people have signed the News Futures charter since last week. If the charter doesn't describe the kind of news future you're looking for, I encourage you to write your own. Perhaps even share it. I'd love to see it.
Building something new as President Donald Trump and private citizens working under questionable legal authority, take a wrecking ball to longstanding institutions, feels incongruous at best. It can feel irrelevant at worst, but it isn't. It takes necessary discipline to build during decline. Reaction is an overdeveloped muscle for most reporters and editors. I too, self soothe though crisis response. The media helped create Donald Trump, and now he is creating as many crises as possible.
Roman Anin is a Russian investigative reporter and the editor of istories who is living in exile right now. I heard him say that many of Vladimir Putin's critics did everyone a disservice by saying for years that Putin operated primarily from self-interest and without an ideology. In his opinion, that view created a permission structure for Putin's actions. It seems national news is creating a similar dynamic for President Trump.
I'm no political scientist, but it is clear to me that Trump is working steadily to create a patronage system where there was once a democracy. Thousands of people are losing their jobs right now because they do not have enough economic power to fully participate in a patronage system.
In this environment, building something to aggressively democratize high-quality information that equips communities is both a tactic, a solution, and ideological.
Many people who help lead news and resource news organizations will be gathering in Miami this week for the Knight Media Forum. I will not be there. I don't love big conferences in general, and I've always had a hard time with KMF in particular. It feels like being stuck in a multi-day collective action problem. The people who show up to KMF are powerful and resourced and smart. But it has always felt to me that the vibes are that this collective power is unwelcome, and should be diffused rather than harnessed. I hope this year is different.
Right now, I'm reading Relationality by David Jay. Thanks to Jennifer Brandel for the recommendation. It's a guidebook for moving away from transactional relationships. It is meant largely to help in personal relationships, but I'm seeing what I can apply to the relationship between news and community. What are you reading that's getting you through this week? Let me know. Take care of yourself and don't get sick!
