J-Topics
Freelance writers march into war. The cause: increased rates, rights and respect. The enemy: publishers like Transcontinental. Who will retreat first? This week we feature Melissa Wilson's story from the summer issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism...
Looking for sources? Job hunting? Got questions about an editor or publication? Toronto-based freelancer and consultant Kim Pittaway shows how journalists can get the most out of social networking site LinkedIn.Get a musician friend to compose music for free for your audio slideshow or online video: that was one suggestions from multi-media trainer Robb Montgomery of Visualeditors.com at a recent Wordstock seminar. But should creators really be asking other creators to work for free?
Montgomery's sessions were full of pointers on useful tools, devices and techniques frontline reporters and freelancers can use to improve their online multi-media storytelling, but as a freelancer myself, that suggestion that we get pals to work for free (or strangers to contribute music for free in exchange for links to their homepages) was problematic. Because if we expect others to value the creative effort it takes to craft our stories, shouldn't we value the creative efforts of musicians whose music we hope will enhance that storytelling?
My sister Tina Pittaway, a broadcast journalist who also creates podcasts for corporate clients, offered a blunter response to Montgomery: how about budgeting for music if it's so essential to our work?
More than a dozen organizations of Canadian writers "are calling on the thousands of writers they represent to not write for any publications owned by Transcontinental Media, effective immediately," said a press release.
Can a boycott hold up against the pressure of thousands of writers eagerly lined up hoping for a shot of the action -- and willing to risk their own skins to undermine efforts by professional writers to improve everyone's lot? I wouldn't bet on it -- writers are just as naive, uninformed and unprincipled as the general population. There is no "strike" fund for freelance writers. But I still support the boycott, and I ask that you do as well.
What's really needed, imo, are changes to Canada's anti-trust laws to give them teeth -- but that might be even harder to push through than a boycott. Even the most ardent capitalists agree that free markets are no longer "free" when monopolies take over -- and Canadian media is arguably controlled by a collection of mini-monopolies that stifle the free enterprise of competitors, as well as of entrepreneurial writers.
Click "more" to read the full press release. Here is a link to the astonishing number of publications owned by Transcontinental.
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