[Opinion] The Finer Print





The Finer Print
A Chance for Renewal in Private Media

An Op-Ed article
Written by Unmighty Hezekon



(September 18, 2019 - At Home in Europeia) -- So, there are many of you that will see my name, Unmighty Hezekon, and think, "Ah, yes, the former Minister of Communications. The one that did that thing once and then didn't do the thing and told a bunch of people to do stuff and was kinda weird and shouty." And yes, those are all true. I did do those things, speaking vaguely. During my tenure as MinComm, I tried to push people to write. My thought was, the best way to effect this would be by encouraging people to write about the topics and subjects they personally found interesting (or perhaps, even fascinating). And I would like to think I pushed that view. Whether I did is not the point. I would like to think that an article that is produced with someone's personal interest in the subject will be easier to produce for the journalist, and also more interesting for the reader.

Prior to my stint as MinComm, I was a lowkey writer during a very low time of content output for the Europeian Broadcast Center, commonly known as the EBC. It was pretty destitute. I think I was asked to do the Weekly Update three times, and those were the only articles produced during that time, aside from the two articles Astrellan did at the same time. Realistically, we were the only news happening from the EBC at the time.

Now, with the EBC down, you might think that the LethoMonarchy Media Center, which I'll here call the LMMC, would have been thriving in our place. It wasn't. Around that same time, there were a handful of additional pieces that went out, all from different stations. A Lloenflys's Gavel article, a Kraken's Lounge piece; admittedly, it was probably the E-News Network -- the ENN -- that provided the most content in the LMMC for the month of April, with three in the latter part of the month. It was a spring slump for articles across the forum.

There isn't any one thing to blame for this drought, and I'm not here to enumerate the reasons for it. We have moved past that time. Since then, the EBC, for all its issues, has been able to get back on its feet, and is now moving ahead at a fairly decent stride. This is through coordinated efforts to get writers interested in writing their pieces, and for people to stick with the Ministry. I am no longer afraid of the Ministry dying a death.

What about the LMMC? Since April, every subforum in the LMMC has had at least one post: the ENN is steadily producing about two posts a month, most concentrated in May; Mad Rants! had a couple of posts; a couple new subfora popped up since then, as well. One can point out that the LMMC did have a lot of its inactive subfora archived and removed, and that shows its decline. I would point at our history in the EBC and show that decreased activity, even much less, does not mean death. So the LMMC hasn't died either. But neither, I think, has it reached its best. With as many subfora as it has, I would expect at least three or four articles from it per week. That's less than a post a week for each of them. It seems doable.

I must pause here and admit I sound hypocritical to my own ears. When I was told a reasonable post size would be three to four articles a week when I started as MinComm, I was temporarily blanched. I didn't know how I would get that many people to write about . . . anything, really! I was stuck and didn't know where to go. And the EBC didn't necessarily start producing content that quickly at first. We built up to it, and we still fluctuate, something which is to be expected from a completely voluntary service in a completely voluntary game. But, if there's something I learned from the revival of the EBC, it's that you have to have people writing what they want to write about. And, I think, it helps to have a supportive team behind the project, to make sure it doesn't lean over.

How does this apply to the situation at LMMC? The EBC ought to coordinate with the LMMC, find ways to either share writers, or cross-publish stories, or even co-write articles. Some sort of cooperative effort between the two spires of content should help lift the LMMC to its potential. And perhaps when that happens, we will see what the LMMC can do that the EBC can't: a more freeform, Guideless, spontaneous and beautiful collection of content. There aren't the limits imposed upon the LMMC that there are found in the EBC. And that is beneficial for all involved -- there's an expectation for what to find in the EBC, but there is also so much to be found in the LMMC that the EBC could never, never replicate. And that, I think, is what we should strive for.

All in all, we can lift the LMMC to new heights. We can bring it to the entertainment, the educative, the elucidative level that it can be. And I think that is what must be done. For the betterment of Europeia.
 
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Ngl, i see "ah hez, the one role player thats a citzen of europeia that does stuff"
 
Do you have any advice for Europeian writers who may have difficulties reaching an audience? How can writers increase their odds of getting views or responses to a piece?
 
Amazing article Hez, as expected ...

By the way, to add onto Izzy's comment, any private media Europeian writers who don't have perms to post links to their articles in the news channel in Discord can ask me or Pichto to do that for them.
 
Love your work Hez, I can really feel the passion behind this project, with perspectives I really hadn't considered before. It certainly makes for a refreshing read!
 
My dear Hez, I'm happy to read from you! As always, your mixture of seriousness with sillyness captures my interest as a reader. Thank you for this interesting article.
 
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