Don’t hate the media, become the media

Jello Biafra (if you know, you know)

I was recently thinking about where I spend my intellectual capital. For many years I have been a member of the National Press Club in DC. Yes it seemed a little dusty and outdated but I respected (and still do) its venerated history.

But I think media as an industry is on fire and nobody is willing to look for a hose. Recently I attended a talk given by Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for press freedom but I was left with the distinct impression that he isn’t a fan of the 5th estate. I get it — everyone is now yelling into the void.

Scanning the headlines it is hard to miss an emerging bias of accountability siding with where the click bait will be.

Can we film the operation? Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry — The Eagles, Dirty Laundry

The Fifth Estate is a socio-cultural reference to groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated with bloggers, journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media or "social license". Wikipedia

I don’t think you have to be an outlier to belong to the 5th Estate. For clarity, the 4th Estate is the press and news media and their role in shaping political narratives. Often the rivalrous dynamic between simultaneously reporting the news while needing subscriptions and clicks to make bank leads to anything but covering the actual story that needs to be told. The story that should be told…

I have been accepted as a fellow of the RSA (royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce).

This fits.

I found them from listening to Jonathan Towson on the Great Simplification podcast.

I will share more as I become familiar with the Circle and the means of individual collective thought.