Traveller Journalists
- Thread starter Jame
- Start date
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Jame wrote:
"Thanks for the link, Andrew."
Jame,
A great link and a great site.
"Geez, try and start a discussion..."
Oh, you need a discussion? Well, here we go...
The Third Imperium does not guarantee freedom of the press on the interstellar level. Members worlds may have enshrined press freedoms, to a lesser or greater extent, in their legal codes, but most will not even pay lip service to the ideal. Even the Imperium's primary communications system, the X-boat Network, is more of a command and control asset and not a free speech conduit.
Reporters(1), especially those working outside their home polity, have no protection from arrest or interference. Most will work with a very low profile. There is nothing like our 'Live from anywhere on Earth' coverage, no Dan Rather at Tiannamen(sic) Square or CNN in Baghdad the night the First Gulf War began. Showing up with mini-cams, voice recorders, and notepads to ambush or shame targets into co-operation ala '60 Minutes' will not work. Ripping the lid off the scandal on Alpha World for the Holo-News on Beta will rarely occur, Alpha is at least a week away and may not let Beta's reporters leave with their story.
Most of the news distributed on the interstellar level will be produced by coporate and government PR flacks. Only those 'reporters' who are part of the system can be assured of access to both information and the means of transmission. This doesn't mean that all news will be press releases and Pravda, governments and coporations will have axes to grind too and will 'break' stories that advance their agendas; much like the coporate-controlled news outlets that dominate the West's news markets break stories that advance their agendas (i.e. The New York Times recent suppression of a Gallup poll they paid for in Iraq that contained results at odds with the Time's internal editorial policies, ABC New's squashing of an internal news story critical of ride safety at Disney theme parks because ABC is owned by Disney, and Murdoch's Fox News Group various shenanigans worldwide.)
Because most 'real' reporters will be either PR flacks or 'puff piece' writers (i.e. those folks you've never heard of that pen wonderful reviews of every new film), the PCs will almost certainly deal with 'underground' or 'samzidat' style reporters. These individuals will work somewhat like intelligence agents, gathering data and information on the sly and transporting it to 'safe' houses where it is released via unofficial channels. Think of Mother Jones or the Drudge Report and not CNN, NYT, or even the BBC. Some of these agents will be working within a world and some may be working on an interstellar level, but all keep a very low profile and do not freely admit who they are or what they are doing.
Who ever they are and whatever their job is, they make excellent patrons for your PCs.
Sincerely,
Larsen
1 - As a card carrying curmudgeon, I wince at the usurption of the term 'journalist' by reporters. IMHO, it is just another example of the late 20th century 'title creep' plague that makes garbage collectors into 'sanitation engineers' and bus drivers into 'rapid transit system operators'.
Reporters are not journalists. Pepys and Boswell were journalists, they kept journals. Reporters only report; hopefully fairly and hopefully without injecting too much of themselves into the mix, but reporting is what they do. They are not journalists just as they are not 'media content engineers'.
"Thanks for the link, Andrew."
Jame,
A great link and a great site.
"Geez, try and start a discussion..."
Oh, you need a discussion? Well, here we go...
The Third Imperium does not guarantee freedom of the press on the interstellar level. Members worlds may have enshrined press freedoms, to a lesser or greater extent, in their legal codes, but most will not even pay lip service to the ideal. Even the Imperium's primary communications system, the X-boat Network, is more of a command and control asset and not a free speech conduit.
Reporters(1), especially those working outside their home polity, have no protection from arrest or interference. Most will work with a very low profile. There is nothing like our 'Live from anywhere on Earth' coverage, no Dan Rather at Tiannamen(sic) Square or CNN in Baghdad the night the First Gulf War began. Showing up with mini-cams, voice recorders, and notepads to ambush or shame targets into co-operation ala '60 Minutes' will not work. Ripping the lid off the scandal on Alpha World for the Holo-News on Beta will rarely occur, Alpha is at least a week away and may not let Beta's reporters leave with their story.
Most of the news distributed on the interstellar level will be produced by coporate and government PR flacks. Only those 'reporters' who are part of the system can be assured of access to both information and the means of transmission. This doesn't mean that all news will be press releases and Pravda, governments and coporations will have axes to grind too and will 'break' stories that advance their agendas; much like the coporate-controlled news outlets that dominate the West's news markets break stories that advance their agendas (i.e. The New York Times recent suppression of a Gallup poll they paid for in Iraq that contained results at odds with the Time's internal editorial policies, ABC New's squashing of an internal news story critical of ride safety at Disney theme parks because ABC is owned by Disney, and Murdoch's Fox News Group various shenanigans worldwide.)
Because most 'real' reporters will be either PR flacks or 'puff piece' writers (i.e. those folks you've never heard of that pen wonderful reviews of every new film), the PCs will almost certainly deal with 'underground' or 'samzidat' style reporters. These individuals will work somewhat like intelligence agents, gathering data and information on the sly and transporting it to 'safe' houses where it is released via unofficial channels. Think of Mother Jones or the Drudge Report and not CNN, NYT, or even the BBC. Some of these agents will be working within a world and some may be working on an interstellar level, but all keep a very low profile and do not freely admit who they are or what they are doing.
Who ever they are and whatever their job is, they make excellent patrons for your PCs.
Sincerely,
Larsen
1 - As a card carrying curmudgeon, I wince at the usurption of the term 'journalist' by reporters. IMHO, it is just another example of the late 20th century 'title creep' plague that makes garbage collectors into 'sanitation engineers' and bus drivers into 'rapid transit system operators'.
Reporters are not journalists. Pepys and Boswell were journalists, they kept journals. Reporters only report; hopefully fairly and hopefully without injecting too much of themselves into the mix, but reporting is what they do. They are not journalists just as they are not 'media content engineers'.
Well, there are journalists and journalists. So, at least, desire to be called anything they desire, and others deserve to be called anything we desire.
An example of the former category was Wilfred Burchett. He was the first western journalist into Hiroshima, going there at a period of time when the Japanese weren't exactly thrilled at just having surrendered. His "Atomic Plague - I bring a warning to the world" article was the first public description of the effect of nuclear weapons. Later, during the Korean War, he crossed the front line in order to get the other side of the story rather than just recycling US/UN press releases. Surprise, surprise, he was denounced as a traitor, and, after losing his passport, he was denied a new one by the Australian government. In effect, he was exiled - for seeking the truth. During the Vietnam war, his reports from the north were usually rather more reliable than those of the "approved" press corp.
Being a real journalist comes at a cost. Being a hack and a propagandist for the powerful is a profitable and rewarding career. Frankly if the likes of Burchett want to call themselves journalists, they are welcome to. And if I want to call the other types hacks - well...
Alan B
I have to offer counterpoint to Mr. Whipsnade's comments:
1. There may well be freedom of the press. The Imperium may not gaurantee it, but their may be organizations like TAS, etc. that support it. A government can sometimes be made to at least tacitly allow a thing they don't like by public pressures or pressures of lobbyists, etc.
2. Individual states or blocks of worlds may have freedom of the press gauranteed by local governments.
3. The kinds of restrictions cited above (travel delays, etc) don't mean stories won't get told. it just makes the tactics of the reporters different. They may travel incognito, and the other gov'ts or corps may not know the story is coming until after it is already on the newstands. And the one thing we know is all business in the 3I and elsewhere is driven by the profit motive and 'selling papers' or the equivalent is the profit stream of papers.
4. News may well be reported, much as a lot is reported independently today, through things like the Internet. Public forums, sites, etc. are always welcome *somewhere* and even in places they are not welcome, news gets out.
5. Your depiction of reporters as some form of covert agent may be accurate in many cases. And your comments on corporate media are well taken.
However, with the tech involved, a high tech world will have so many ways to brooch news DESPITE its government or established media, that we'll likely see it get out anyway.
6. No one said being a reporter should be easy. (As a GM, this is even better....)
7. There is no point seven. Had there been a point seven, you would have heard about it from the Ministry of Information. Or perhaps the Ministry of Truth.
Tomb
PS - You remind me of an old Soviet joke: They had two papers - Pravda (Truth) and Izvestya (News). The Russians used to quip that there was no Pravda in Izvestya and no Izvestya in Pravda....
1. There may well be freedom of the press. The Imperium may not gaurantee it, but their may be organizations like TAS, etc. that support it. A government can sometimes be made to at least tacitly allow a thing they don't like by public pressures or pressures of lobbyists, etc.
2. Individual states or blocks of worlds may have freedom of the press gauranteed by local governments.
3. The kinds of restrictions cited above (travel delays, etc) don't mean stories won't get told. it just makes the tactics of the reporters different. They may travel incognito, and the other gov'ts or corps may not know the story is coming until after it is already on the newstands. And the one thing we know is all business in the 3I and elsewhere is driven by the profit motive and 'selling papers' or the equivalent is the profit stream of papers.
4. News may well be reported, much as a lot is reported independently today, through things like the Internet. Public forums, sites, etc. are always welcome *somewhere* and even in places they are not welcome, news gets out.
5. Your depiction of reporters as some form of covert agent may be accurate in many cases. And your comments on corporate media are well taken.
However, with the tech involved, a high tech world will have so many ways to brooch news DESPITE its government or established media, that we'll likely see it get out anyway.
6. No one said being a reporter should be easy. (As a GM, this is even better....)
7. There is no point seven. Had there been a point seven, you would have heard about it from the Ministry of Information. Or perhaps the Ministry of Truth.
Tomb
PS - You remind me of an old Soviet joke: They had two papers - Pravda (Truth) and Izvestya (News). The Russians used to quip that there was no Pravda in Izvestya and no Izvestya in Pravda....
jchurchill
SOC-12
1 - As a card carrying curmudgeon, I wince at the usurption of the term 'journalist' by reporters. IMHO, it is just another example of the late 20th century 'title creep' plague that makes garbage collectors into 'sanitation engineers' and bus drivers into 'rapid transit system operators'.
Reporters are not journalists. Pepys and Boswell were journalists, they kept journals. Reporters only report; hopefully fairly and hopefully without injecting too much of themselves into the mix, but reporting is what they do. They are not journalists just as they are not 'media content engineers'.
================================================
Doctors are "physicians", lawyers [even the lowliest ambulance chasers] are now "attorneys" and the wardens at public schools that were once teachers are "educators"
and the creep goes on.
Reporters are not journalists. Pepys and Boswell were journalists, they kept journals. Reporters only report; hopefully fairly and hopefully without injecting too much of themselves into the mix, but reporting is what they do. They are not journalists just as they are not 'media content engineers'.
================================================
Doctors are "physicians", lawyers [even the lowliest ambulance chasers] are now "attorneys" and the wardens at public schools that were once teachers are "educators"
and the creep goes on.
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