by Elena on April 1, 2010
Have you canceled your magazine subscriptions? Are magazines starting to send you their glossy pages for free? I smell anxiety, but this is no surprise to many people in the publishing world. I seem to rattle on about the subject quite a bit, but as a writer I can’t help but obsess about every article that comes out on the subject.
Yesterday The New York Times featured an article on its front page about The Rising Stars of Gossip Blogs. When people hear gossip writing, many raise their noses in the air, like they once did, or still do, about blogging. But these same haughty nosed people may beg, steal, or borrow to have the type of success some of these gossip bloggers have had. The article’s author Alex Williams comments on the tipping point when bloggers went from people airing their dirty laundry on the web, to people pursuing a real writing career.
The lines between “reporter” and “blogger,” “gossip” and “news” have blurred almost beyond distinction. No longer is blogging something that marginalized editorial wannabes do from home, in a bathrobe, because they haven’t found a “real” job. Blogging now is a career path in its own right, offering visibility, influence and an actual paycheck.
The elusive paycheck, however isn’t what drives many a blogger, especially in this new and shiny blogland where a lot of online magazines and blogs don’t have the money to pay writers for their work. On the other hand, the online landscape is opening up lots of other doors for people to be innovative and create opportunities for themselves. Like a lot of other careers it takes a mix of talent and luck, with the scales tipping to one side more than the other depending on the person.
Although the article focuses on gossip blogs, the same can be said about all types of blogs. Bloggers and blogging sites have changed publishing in ways that makes even The New York Times suffer. Remember when The Times decided that it will start to charge it’s readers? Now they feature on their online frontpage, an article about the very people who have severely cramped traditional media’s style. Isn’t it ironic, in the Alanis Morissette sense of the word, that many of these nontraditional writers/bloggers rise to success without so much as stepping in a newsroom?
Image via: cuttlefish
by Elena on January 25, 2010
Free speech is a human right. It is something that most people don’t even think about as the go about their daily lives. I know I don’t. For the most part we can say whatever we want, in whatever snarky tone we want, and we won’t get in trouble for it. Matters get sticky when you talk constantly about hate or you threaten individuals, the government, or society on some level, but for the most part we won’t get put in jail for saying what’s on our minds. Not everyone is so lucky. There are people around the world who get tossed in jail for doing what I do everyday, blog. I found out about the large number of bloggers in jail (over 60) after reading a post on Polo Bastards. Polo Bastards is an interesting site, unlike the usual travel sites you will find, that writes about parts of the world most people don’t think about visiting.
Yoani Sanchez writes her blog Generation Y from Havana Cuba in an effort to “let me say, in this space, what is forbidden to me in my civic action.” She writes mostly from hotels where internet often costs upwards of $7 an hour. In Cuba only senior officials and foreign residents can contract an internet service, leaving most of the population isolated. The Cuban government filters her blog on the island, however their are greatest risks than silence, where some countries inhibit free speech by using jail time and even torture.
Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman is an Egyptian blogger who was sentenced to 4 years in prison for speaking his mind on his blog. He is charged with. “(1) Spreading data and malicious rumors that disrupt public security; (2) Defaming the President of Egypt; (3) Incitement to overthrow the regime upon hatred and contempt; (4) Incitement to hate Islam and breach of the public peace standards; (5) Highlighting inappropriate aspects that harm the reputation of Egypt and spreading them to the public.” On the Free Kareem website you can find out all the information you need about his case. On the site’s blog you will get up to date information, such as how he has been denied visits from his lawyer for the third time. You will also find pictures, videos, music, and letters in support of Kareem, such as the song written by Ethiopian singer Meklit Hadero.
If you want to get involved or wish to contact Kareem you can do so through the Free Kareem website. In order to keep up Kareem’s spirit’s, the Free Kareem Coalition, a group of young bloggers and college students committed to free speech, appreciates any letter sent to Kareem. You can send a letter directly or through their contact page which they will mail to him. If you decide to write a letter make sure not to write anything that will aggravate prison officials (they read all letters first). It will only make matters worse for him. Did you write to Kareem?
All images via: Free Kareem
