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Ah I see we're having the ole 'journalists having their own independent brand... is it bad?' conversation again.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -3 🙁
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Every time some media big brain loops back to this I have to laugh because I worked in college media as a professional and we would always get speakers at classes or conferences lecturing journalism students about how important it was to build your own brand and be on social...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +4 🙂
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And, often with advice and resources from big media companies, I actually taught a regular conference session on **exactly** this topic. Because I thought then it was important and I think now it is important but as time goes on I only think it is more important...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +7 🙂
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As others have already noted, media companies pushed individual reporters to get brands because it helped w/ distribution but what they didn't expect, and why they are suddenly back peddling, is that it gives individual employees leverage in an increasingly competitive job marketPermalink On twitter.com
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Mood +2 🙂
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These individual employees have the leverage that they can use to speak independently, to push to get exposure that leads to promotions that would be denied to them in the old ole-boy-backroom systems. And they have the leverage to speak about potential mistreatment! ...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -2 🙁
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Of course leadership doesn't like it when the system of power in a company fundamentally inverts itself. They don't like being able to do whatever they want with no chance of criticism they can't silence...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -3 🙁
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But it's more than that too. Companies work a particular way in our economic system, they are legally required to extract as much capital as possible to deliver to ownership. Unless you're a non-profit or a B-corp that is just how it works, baseline reality...On twitter.com
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Mood +1 🙂
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Now I actually like my employer a lot, feel I am well treated, and enjoy my work... but the nature of living in the world we live in means I can't forget that my interests (maximizing my own gain) and my employer's interests (maximizing their gain) are somewhat at odds...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +11 🙂
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But that's not a bad thing. Our legal system, our judicial system, all these are adversarial systems. This is also an adversarial system. That's why labor needs tools to be able to hold down their side of the equation. Unions are one of those tools, but in the modern world...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -2 🙁
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Being able to build a platform for yourself and using technology and social media to establish and maintain a voice that you own that can weigh in as heavily as a corporate mouthpiece? That's now possible and it is inevitably useful...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +2 🙂
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If having a "fk-you-fund" is something we advise people to acquire, then isn't it even more valuable to establish a "fk-you-job"? Isn't it just as valuable to have a voice to say why? This is just all of us maximizing our survivability in a neoliberal economic system.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood 0
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So no employer is ever going to be happy w/their employees having independent brands & no employee should be able to justify giving up those brands because the system has been optimized to work better this way. Don't get made at someone because they've figured out the incentives.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +3 🙂
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And by the way I don't think it is an accident that unions in media have started coming back strongly and successfully *at the same time* individual media contributors' brands have become effective stand alone voices. These are two tools in the same box.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +1 🙂
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The main difference is one is individual and one is collaborative. But if you realize that there is no rising tide that lifts only your boat then you, as many have, use the individual tool in service of the collaborative one and that leads to greater chances of success.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +6 🙂
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And if you're an individual getting mad at someone for doing the sort of capitalist judo of maintaining their own brand, you're not really a friend to labor are you? You're just a friend to power. And a supporter of the systems of power...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood 0
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At the end of the day, I don't like the system we live in, but I don't begrudge people (or companies) for operating logically in it! You're not going to solve the problem by attacking individual operators. You're going to fix it by building collectively supported reforms.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -2 🙁