Ted Gioia points out the real challenge to making an impact in the writing and publishing world - not just authors, but journalists, essayists and thinkers in general.
As journalists lose their jobs, more publicists get hired. The result is that there are now seven times as many publicists as journalists. The rise of AI agents will only make this worse, much worse.
The entire media ecosystem is breaking down. Around three-quarters of journalists now block publicists who are (they believe) spamming them. I get so many pitches from PR people that I can’t even begin to deal with them.
I’m fortunate that I’ve found other ways of getting access to useful information—but that’s more a workaround rather than a real solution. In the meantime, all the noise coming from the publicity world isn’t good for anyone. As a result, many deserving musicians, authors and other creatives can’t get any attention, no matter how talented they are.
There are many causes, but the single biggest one is the decline in paid jobs for journalists. And the underlying reason for that is obvious: Google and Facebook stole all the ad revenues that previously supported journalism. Fix that and so many other problems go away End of story.
. . .
[Timothy Chalamet] grasps the reality that culture is now evaluated on cash flow, not creativity. He’s no fool. He works in Hollywood, where you always pay as you go.
Yesterday the New York Times inadvertently called attention to this same hypocrisy.
Times publisher AG Sulzberger bragged that the newspaper now employs 2,300 journalists—twice as many as a decade ago.
That sounds like good news. But I’m left wondering how the numbers of writers can double while the Times’ coverage of opera, ballet, jazz, books, etc. has collapsed during that same period.
Once you dig into the numbers, you see that the Times also scorns these idioms. In their world, ballet and opera have been superseded by word games and cookie recipes.
There's more at the link. Mr. Gioia goes on to link those issues to the parlous state of fiction writing today: you can read about that at the link, if you're a writer.
I find it hard to argue against his points. So much of the writing we read today in news and social media is half-educated, poorly expressed, and reliant upon slang and profanity to convince readers, rather than make well-informed points and persuade them. I suppose that may be why "shock jocks" like Nick Fuentes or Keith Olbermann have so many followers: they entertain rather than inform, and try to rouse emotions rather than discuss issues rationally.
Trouble is, I don't see any solution on the horizon when I look at the state of American education today. We're turning out semi-educated half-wits for the most part. They've never been taught how to think - only what to think; and the news outlets that publish them are telling people to shut up and do as they're told, and not think for themselves. The results are clearly to be seen in our younger politicians.
Not a happy thought.
Peter
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