Media Future Is Now

by k.e. harloe

After yet another round of U.S. media layoffs and closings this winter came the familiar calls to donate, to subscribe, and to “protect independent media.” Familiar tips for the newly unemployed came, too; pitch guides, courses, pep talks. And finally came the indignation: What is wrong with these media executives?

Over a decade in media, I've witnessed this routine give way to a realization that the media system itself is failing. More people are asking if journalism has undergone market failure. (It has.) Arguments for public funding, like Hamilton Nolan’s, in a recent newsletter, are on the rise. More media workers are joining unions—in newsrooms, in the film business and even freelance writers. As a proud member of the National Writers Union’s freelancers’ wing, I feel the promise in these developments. But they're not enough. Finding a way forward will take more than unions, research papers or columns—it will take a movement. Those of us concerned with the future of media need to figure out what it means to build movement power, and to win.