Digest 12/20/2021

Where does the journalist-as-brand industrial complex leave us? Also, being COVID detectives on social media won't get us out of the pandemic.

IT DOESN’T MATTER WHERE EVERYONE GOT COVID

I’m not sure if you’ve heard from the everyone tweeting about it, but a Covid wave is hitting New York City. Specifically, New York City media, and everyone is attempting to fulfill their journalistic duty of figuring out what and how things went from 0 to 100 (or, more specifically, 18,186). Was it the BuzzFeed holiday party? BuzzFeed’s SPAC party? Art Basel? This extremely specific Insider screening of Elf?

I, too, had initially planned to write a story attempting to outline the spread, but after a week of watching my friends get exposed, test positive, and subsequently rearrange plans to see their families, I don’t really feel like gleefully relishing in something that is actually just sad.

The media industry largely remained shielded from the worst parts of Covid because, as restaurants and stores and events opened back up, many of us could still do our jobs from home. Of course, there are media workers for whom journalism is not their only job. On top of writing stories at the same rate as before disease ravaged the globe, they’re working second jobs that may require them to be in-person, anyways. We’re (still) navigating this pandemic under a capitalist system that expects people to give up personally meaningful activities involving friends and families, while demanding they continue to expose themselves doing work that serves the economy and convenience of others. Heading into a difficult winter shaming people for doing the former only reinforces that system.

There’s a thin line between the attempt to find the source of this media Covid spread (outside the context of effective contact tracing) and implicitly assigning blame to anyone who was part of it. I don’t blame anyone who followed guidelines and got vaccinated for going to a holiday party that, a week ago, seemed totally fine with the information we had at the time. The desire to return to normal life as safely as possible, after a year and a half of being promised we could as long as we followed the rules, isn’t shameful. To have it backfire isn’t the fault of the individual, but the guidelines set by people well above our pay grade that said it was okay to have gatherings of vaccinated people, and those in power whose responsibility it was to create policy around clear warnings of a new variant and did not.

THE PERSONALITY JOURNALISM TRAP

Nieman Lab reported last week that Gen Z expects personality from their journalists. This isn’t surprising, given this generation gets more news from social media than any before, and that journalists and content creators have become increasingly indistinguishable. For instance, not only is Dave Jorgenson the face of The Washington Post’s TikTok account, but he’s now on Cameo next to people like Carmen Electra.

But for some, the pursuit of “journalist personality” isn’t about innovation or opportunity, but necessity. Suzy Exposito, a music reporter at the Los Angeles Times and former Latin music editor at Rolling Stone, tells Study Hall that because her coverage of marginalized communities often wasn’t prioritized by the institutions she worked for, she was forced to take a more “individualized approach” to her journalism.

“I didn’t have a team. I was going to awards, festivals and happy hours, personally networking with managers and publicists,” she says of her time at Rolling Stone.

The success of Exposito’s tactics, however, meant her individualized and front-facing work became expected alongside her writing.

“People started talking to me about ‘my brand’ more than my writing, and it was the most bizarre thing,” she says. “I know, and you can roll your eyes about it, that we’re all products in a capitalist system. But as I was getting mentored less as a writer, and rolled out in front of cameras more —  as a testament to my bosses’ commitments to diversity — I was like ‘Hold the phone. I own my image. I own my voice.’ I started pushing back and not appearing when they wanted me to because I didn’t like where it was going, and getting paid way less than my white peers to do so.”

Increasing accessibility online puts women and marginalized communities, in particular, in a precarious position.

“People send me a lot of disturbing messages and content, sometimes as cries for help,” she says. “I have been cyberstalked. I literally got doxxed for reporting my Marilyn Manson story last month! Due to safety concerns, I made my Instagram private and limited replies on Twitter — only to have total strangers be like ‘Why can’t I share/comment?! You are so mean! You’re a fraud! You just don’t want to be criticized!’ I didn’t sign up for any of this. I just wanted to tell stories.”

Until journalistic organizations can provide satisfactory solutions to the harassment of their employees, pushing for them to be more reachable, more known, more accessible, is reckless. Plus, as Exposito points out, it undermines the whole purpose of journalism.

“Contrary to the opinions of people on Twitter, interviewing someone does not make us friends,” she says. “And I do think reporting requires some level of detachment to report on our subjects responsibly.”

COMINGS AND GOINGS

— Ally Versprille joins Bloomberg Business as a crypto reporter.

— Tammie Teclemariam is leaving her role at Gawker as a contributing writer to join New York Magazine as its diner-at-large.

— Torrey Hart has joined The Athletic as a staff editor.

— Nafeesa Syeed has joined the Los Angeles Times as assistant op-ed editor.

— The Vox Media Fellowship program, now in its second year, welcomes Muizz Akhtar, Miranda Dixon-Luinenberg, Siobhan Siu Bai McDonough, Halley Brown, Victoria Dominguez, and Neel Dhanesha.

— Da’Shaun Harrison is now Scalawag’s editor-at-large.

EVERYTHING ELSE

— Hollywood newsletter The Ankler is expanding. Janice Min, formerly of The Hollywood Reporter, is becoming the co-owner, chief executive, and editor in chief of Ankler Media, alongside co-owner Richard Rushfield, who founded The Ankler itself. While the pair are planning to keep The Ankler on Substack, where subscribers currently pay $10/month for Hollywood news, they plan to introduce additional newsletters, as well as branch out into podcasts and events.

 

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Vox Media              Group Nine

🤝

That’s it, this is the meme, they’re merging

 

— Were you laid off recently? Of course you were. Hillary Frey wants you to share your experience here.

— Both Wirecutter and Vice unions reached contract deals with their respective employers. Among many things, Wirecutter’s victory achieved immediate 18% raises for the lowest paid members of Wirecutter’s unit, which recently went on strike in protest of slow negotiations. Vice’s three-year contract successfully sets a minimum salary of $63,000 in 2024, improves severance pay, and prohibits non-disclosure agreements around sexual harassment complaints.

— Air Mail has successfully raised $17 million dollars in a series B funding round, which Axios reports will fund their expansion into product lines, podcasts, a book imprint and, might I suggest, a little bit for me as a treat.