The Golden Pencil: The Freelance Writer’s Resource

Of News, Democracy, and Clear Thinking

by Anne Wayman on May 25th, 2005

Yesterday, a member of my forum posted a link to Epic 2014, an 8 minutes long multi-media presentation that predicts one future of the news. It blew me away.

I grew up with radio and newspapers, both of which were then locally owned. It was easy to get multiple points of view and the news programs took news more seriously. That is, the emphasis wasn’t on infotainment and creating quarterly profits as it is today.

While the ‘net and blogging create real opportunities for freelance writers to publish news, opinions, views and what-have-you, it’s harder and harder to get a variety of views. With the advent of talk radio, and by self-selecting blogs, we run the risk of both preaching to the choir and only reading/listening to only those who share our view point.

I make it a point to listen to both conservative talk and liberal talk, but if you look at my magazine subscriptions you’ll know I’m a liberal or progressive. (I’ll wear either label proudly.) I wish I knew how to access the various voices of Islam.

We all have our own biases but I believe it behooves us as writers and as citizens of the planet to hear and read widely, to be open to hear the other points of view.

Can you tell I’m still chewing on all of this? Good. I’d like to hear your comments.

Share This

Related Stories

• Media Reform? You Bet! Bill Moyers Tells Us Why
• Are You a Fulltime Freelancer?
• Writers and Customer Service
• Migraines, Writing and Fuzzy Thinking
• 33 New Freelance Writing & Editing Jobs (again)

POSTED IN: Musings From A Freelance Writer