More comfort for the comfortable

I hope that corporate media outfits that carried the story about that government official’s graduation and her life as a ‘working student’ were compensated well for picking up her press release.

Because that was what it was: A press release that she sent herself and that news editors more experience than I am decided to publish as is — or as in the Bulletin, with a few tweaks to make it a feature piece.

I don’t begrudge the official for trying to sell herself* — it’s the age of the personal brand and we all sell ourselves in some way —although I do wonder what all this is for.

Is it laying the ground for an election campaign? Is it to raise her profile in hopes of a higher appointive position? Or is it all, and I am hoping that it is this, just a grand social experiment?

I also wonder whether it was worth it. Media is distrusted enough — at a trust rating of 27% according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University — and publishing puff pieces masquerading as news gives the public even less reason to trust us.

This is just for a minor official at a government department but this story is just the latest in what is becoming an increasingly common —or at least increasingly obvious — industry practice of picking up politicians’ press releases virtually without question.

I understand that there are factors from higher up the food chain that make decisions possible. I am underpaid enough and enough of an outsider to afford to question calls made by those paid to think of the “bigger picture”.

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Maybe it’s just out of goodwill and a genuine desire to promote a certain official.

It will be hard, though, after giving someone free press and, in essence, a free pass for so long to hold them to account later on. We will have been too complicit by then and it would be much easier to just look away.**

The other possibility —and one that is equally terrible — is that the press release, and others like it, were picked up because they were thought to actually be newsworthy.

That the gatekeepers of news actually think that the department official’s story of being a ‘working student’ would be of value to the reader, that her experience would be something relatable or at least aspirational.

By all accounts, the official featured had a privileged student life while an undergraduate and later as a government official taking further studies.

That her boss adjusted work demands to accommodate her academic life is commendable, sure, but is that experience really that different from every other grad student who has had to balance work and studying?

What is the story there? What can we hope to learn from it about ourselves or the world we live in except that people in power have the advantage in everything, even in portraying themselves the way they want?

*I do judge her a little bit

** A possible working solution would be a policy of “if we can’t criticize you, then we will not praise you.” But that will also be problematic in the long run and will still just be a prettied-up free pass.

*** Possibly apropos: We came out this week with a story on influencers and how speaking out on national issues is no longer the death sentence for hoped for endorsements and brand deals as it may once have seemed.

In an increasingly connected world, social issues have become part of the conversation and as audiences and markets mature, having an opinion other than staying positive and spreading good vibes may be good branding (aside from being a responsibility as an adult human).

It’s a long read but, I hope, worth it despite the corny title I gave it: #ChallengeAccepted: Influencers can go beyond 'good vibes' and drive discourse on national issues