I recall having an online ‘discussion’ with a mainstream journalist a few years back, it was on that strange hybrid corporate/social media platform LinkedIn; this guy was laughing at me for supporting alternative media people, he claimed nobody reads or takes much notice of them, mind you this was prior to 2016, when the world of media changed forever.
You see, prior to 2016 it was de rigueur among the complacent communities of employed journalists to scoff about ‘YouTube’, ‘Blogging’, forums, and web media in general. It was regarded as being a ‘passing fad’, something you did in your spare time until it was time to go to your ‘real job’; there were even quite a few journalists who were dabbling with affiliate marketing and building their own blog, but few of these took the WWW very seriously. 2016 changed all of that.
You might recall a mere 4 years ago, just what was happening, and specifically what took place:
1. Trump was victorious over the Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton for the presidential election, against all of the odds, against all of the polls, pundit opinions, and very much against the covert power groups who underpin what everyone calls ‘The Swamp’, or the ‘Deep State’; even the terms ‘Swamp’ and ‘Deep state’ were regarded, back then, as simply ‘Conspiracy Theories’. Now of course these terms are completely accepted and acknowledged.
2. Brexit was voted for in the U.K. Also against the odds, and against the wishes of the ‘establishment’, powerful alliances had combined to overturn this vote, and discredit it. Nigel Farage was a major driving force of this Brexit project, but he would not have been able to execute on his ideas had not a majority of British voters also not agreed with him!
Now these two major events, despite taking place in separate countries, were both linked to foreign influences it was claimed that ‘Russia’ was behind these outcomes, they were able to influence millions of ‘ordinary citizens’ in both of these countries to select Trump/Brexit through sophisticated media strategies, subliminal influences from memes, advertising, Facebook posts, videos, so the outcomes were not legitimate; these claims have been investigated in considerable detail, costing taxpayers multiple millions of dollars/pounds, but nothing tangible has been produced in both cases which convinces reasonable people.
In fact these claims of foreign interference are laughable, ridiculous, and actually very insulting: intelligence community operatives seem to still believe these claims, or perhaps they cling to them to justify their outrageous behavior. We can’t accept that the voting public made up their own minds and decided that Trump/Brexit were more favorable options; Cambridge Analytica just doesn’t wash! The tedious ineptitude of the Mueller Report was a disgrace.
Anyway, the growth of ‘Citizen Journalism’ is something that has grown out of these events, there has always been a contingent of people who have Blogged, and produced their own content, but the 4 years since Brexit/Trump has seen an explosion of ground-level reporting, podcasts, blogs and so forth.
This can only be a very healthy thing for our Democracies, the voice of the people is what democratic government is all about after all?
Are we constrained by a dominant establishment to only read/listen/watch official publications, or can we exercise our native civil liberties and also consider other voices, points of view: independent analysis?
This has been by growing ambition, to assist people of every stripe to build their own media platform, to be able to be heard.
Now, we have seen the growing dominance of Silicon Valley, the increasing pressures from the mainstream media quarters to silence specific individuals, to even go to the extent of ‘deplatforming’ individual personalities, Alex Jones is an immediate example, but we have seen this happening to a growing number of journalists, writers, pundits, ideas people.
If we are going to claim our World Wide Web is the ‘open media’ platform, then we should encourage greater participation, but we are seeing the opposite taking place.
The World Wide Web does not belong to Google, it does not belong to Rupert Murdoch, or President Trump, it belongs to “WE The People”.
This is why I have been building iWriteBox, not to promote myself, or make myself famous, it is because I have this inner call to assist people to participate with the world of Journalism, media, expression; I know that there are a lot of people out there who are literate, talented, sincere, people who have fire in their belly but do not know how to publish on the web. It is for these people that I am working for.
I don’t know if these people will respond, I am watching, taking notes as I go.
If you are interested with developing your journalism, being a better writer, a more effective communicator, this is what iWriteBox is for.
This also helps me to become better at what I do, so it is a Win-Win situation!
You can express your interest by sending me a message, or by simply signing up as a FREE member.
