Study Hall Digest 4/1/2019

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs(@allegraehobbs)

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

A New Union for Freelance Media Workers!

Industrial Workers of the World this past week announced the launch of its Freelance Journalists Union, which will work to organize freelancers to fight for better working conditions.

One bright spot amidst all the recent destruction in the media industry has been the surge in organizing efforts, with digital media shops — even those historically hampered by anti-union bosses, like BuzzFeed — forming unions. But given the mass layoffs the media workforce is increasingly freelance, and media freelancers often have to fight for the money they’re owed. They’re also difficult to organize because they’re scattered, all working as independent contractors for different employers.

But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been attempts. The Freelancers Union provides health insurance options and in 2017 successfully fought for the passage of the Freelance Isn’t Free Act, which gives workers legal recourse when not paid within 30 days. The National Writers Union fought on behalf of writers who were owed by Ebony and in 2018 reached a settlement with the magazine. WGAE is coordinating another freelancer solidarity project (the Freelance Journalists Union is in talks with them as well).

The Freelance Journalists Union, according to an IWW representative and an organizer, is different both in that it is exclusively for freelance journalists and will focus on putting pressure on employers through collective action rather than legal proceeds. “The IWW is uniquely positioned to unionize freelance workers, who do not traditionally fall under the bargaining unit model used by most unions, because our organizing model focuses on empowering workers to find immediate relief for the issues they face on the job through collective action and solidarity rather than prioritizing NLRB elections, bargaining unit contracts and third-party negotiations,” wrote an IWW spokesperson in a statement. In short: Prioritizing immediate results through informal channels.

In fact, the impetus for the launch of the Freelance Journalists Union was Study Hall’s collective action against The Outline when Josh Topolsky fired all the staff writers to pivot to a freelance model (did you hear The Outline just got sold to Bustle???). “I think it really demonstrated people are willing to put the work in and take people to task when they are treating even staffers poorly,” said an organizer with the union, a freelance journalist who is also a member of Study Hall (and asked not to be named). “The fact freelancers had such solidarity really showed us that the time is now.” It remains to be seen how the various efforts to organize freelancers will all fit together.

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About The Correspondent Bailing on the US

High-minded Dutch news organization De Correspondent talked big talk about launching an English-language version of the site, THE Correspondent, which was based in New York and seemed to emphasize US coverage. So the company drew a lot of ire when it announced it would remain based in Amsterdam, with subscribers saying they felt misled by the fundraising campaign language (the campaign raised some $2.6 million). Editor in Chief Rob Wijnberg insisted in a messily defensive interview with Nieman Lab that the confusion was due to the media’s misinterpretation (aren’t you also the media, dude?) and that they never really planned on a permanent New York office (as has been pointed out, a job posting indicates otherwise).

But dispatches to members leading up to the launch do emphasize a US newsroom and an antidote to the chaos of US news. Jay Rosen, an NYU professor and ambassador for the site, wrote a post explaining that in the minds of The Correspondent’s leaders, a New York newsroom had not been formally announced, and so when what was in their minds a tentative idea got scrapped due to financial concerns they didn’t feel it merited an announcement. They still managed to exhaustively explain their decision in a Medium postthat broke the news.

It’s difficult at a glance not to see this as a cynical ploy to siphon donations from US-based members with grandiose promises. Half the campaign money is from US sources. Even if this was an honest misunderstanding, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in their ability to “unbreak the news” using the values of uhhhh transparency. They seem to be processing refunds for US members who felt misled, however, which is a sign of willingness to correct course. It remains to be seen, as they prepare to begin coverage in September, whether they’ll stick the landing on the now-mandatory redemption tour.

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Does Bryan Goldberg Own Me? Unclear

In the future, every digital media company will be owned by some asshole named Bryan. One asshole named Bryan in particular, actually — Bustle founder Bryan Goldberg, who has now bought The Outline. Goldberg, of course, already torched Mic in a union-busting move and made an irredeemable fucking mess of re-launching Gawker (quick recap: hired a bigot whose workplace bigotry drove the only two staffers lending the operation credibility to leave and then refused to fire said bigot). But he seems to have money to burn and a passion for swallowing once-beloved but beleaguered media sites against literally everyone’s wishes.

It seems Topolsky’s aspiration to build a scalable, trustworthy media business outside the duopoly of Facebook and Google hasn’t gone as planned, and now he’s handing the reins to a guy who shamelessly caters to Google and Facebook. Goldberg seems to tout The Outline’s ad tech most of all. I guess that’s fine because they still don’t have any writers lol. Topolsky’s company was supposed to be somehow like Monocle — aspirationally High-Brow/Brilliant. Now it’s more spare parts.

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Facebook Makes the Bold Move of Deplatforming White Nationalists

Facebook, in the wake of the Christchurch attack that was live streamed on the platform, has taken a significant step towards de-platforming white nationalists. It will ban contentexplicitly condoning white nationalism and white separatism, whereas before it had only banned content in favor of white supremacy. The platform’s counterterrorism director told Motherboard they had determined there is simply too much overlap among these ideologies (you think??) so the safest thing is to ban it all. Advocacy groups have been pushing Facebook to come to this realization, but Facebook had previously ignored experts’ warnings, arguing that expressions of white nationalist sentiment were not necessarily racist.

But better late than never, right? The problem that remains, of course, is that this new policy doesn’t account for implicit or more subtle promotion of white nationalism or separatism. Facebook struggles to enforce standards within these gray areas for its 2 billion users.

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LONGREAD OF THE WEEK: The New York Times took a look at the phenomenon of “captionfluencers,” Instagram influencers who post lengthy, vulnerable captions to accompany their photos. The piece also notes how users take to Instagram’s Stories feature to spill their guts — the ephemeral nature of the 24-hour posts likely lends itself to this use. Instagram is the new Livejournal.

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EVERYTHING ELSE:

— Anne Helen Petersen is writing a book called “I Can’t Even” about millennial burnout, an expansion of her viral BuzzFeed essay on the same topic. The book seems to be a rebuke to the boomer misconception that millennials are whiny entitled crybabies (“We’re not children; we’re grown-ass adults,” declares Petersen’s book proposal, which was seen by study Hall) and attempts to rectify the aspects of the essay that sparked controversy. For example, the book will account for how variables such as disability, race, and immigration status inform the experience of burnout (this was criticized as a blind spot in Peterson’s essay, which seemed to only account for the white middle-class experience). The proposal also tips its hat to Malcom Harris’ “Kids These Days,” which treads similar territory. Instead of tackling the difficulty of mailing stuff or the college application process, however, Harris goes straight to the real problem: capitalism.

— Taylor Lorenz at the Atlantic documents the nemesis phenomenon, wherein we apparently choose someone to kind of hate for motivational purposes? I hope this doesn’t sound superior (genuinely, do whatever works for you!) but I really, truly do not have the emotional energy.

— VICE will pay out roughly $1.9 million to 675 female employees who had alleged pay discrimination after reaching a settlement. 675!!! And surely that’s not all the women who have been screwed over by VICE in some way…

— Glossier has hired Leah Chernikoff, Elle’s longtime digital director, as its first head of content. I already joyfully hand over my money to the skincare giant for the privilege of smearing my face in glossy goop and glitter (the lidstar makes my eyes burn but I keep using it??? That marketing WORKS) so I can’t wait to be even further swayed by their content.

— Ian Buruma got fired for being bad at his job and has some thoughts 🙁 The Financial Times, days after publishing those thoughts, reached its 1 million readership milestone. Very cool.

— CHRIS EVANS is launching a politics website with the goal of creating “informed, responsible, and empathetic citizens.” Thank you Captain America!!!!

— And finally, the most important media news of the week:

https://twitter.com/NYT_first_said/status/1111265789225635840