All of those things that she’s described as – “Staffers commend her skills and her experience but question whether she has the temperament to lead the paper. At times, they say, her attitude toward editors and reporters leaves everyone feeling demoralized; on other occasions, she can seem disengaged or uncaring.” – can be used to describe most male editors I’ve worked for, and no one complains about that. It’s a one-sided smear article.

I hate the comment that people who leave the industry do so because “they can’t hack it”. Such bullshit. Lots of people – myself included and by the sounds of it, you as well – leave because they realise they don’t need to put up with abuse just to earn a living.

(As an aside … it’s like the industry magically attracts dickheads somehow, isn’t it! Once you get out it’s so wonderful to remember that the ratio of nice, normal people to knobs out in the real world is actually pretty good).

A news organisation isn’t going to make a big deal about it because that means they won’t be able to do it either. I’d just like to see journalists stop and think about their work practices, rather than just assuming that they’re doin’ it right.

When I was starting out and had one of my first jobs writing journalism pieces (which were admittedly fluffy celeb-type stuff) I was instructed to re-write existing articles to the extent that nobody could ‘prove’ they were copied from the original, SEO them and hit publish. We would have got chewed out by the higher-ups for adding a link to the source (seeing as it might send people away from the site). The only time we added source links was when the source was one of the company’s other websites! (I’m cringing pretty bad right now – yes, I’ve done things I’m not proud of in my youth to pay the bills, amazing what a jobs crisis can do to personal integrity!)

I think the only thing that would stop this happening is a few major publications getting burned for plagiarism. But then, it’s tough to prove. As the people doing it know very well.

You know, the pomodoro doesn’t work for me when I’m doing academic writing. Fiction, yes, but there’s something about it that puts me on edge when I’m doing academic stuff.

Congratulations, by the way. How does it feel?

Pomodoros are 25 minutes (some pomodorians do 45 min) of writing, or associated activities (i like coding) interspersed with 5 min of doing something else (put the washing on, make a tea etc) then back to it… There’s an app if you have a smart phone, but a kitchen timer is just as good.

The Pomodorians do call outs with #suaw hashtag, and some days we even do massed virtual pomodoroian fiestas… that include do the washing and the dishes during the breaks (personally I like creative interpretative dance as my pomodorian breaks). Other hash tags to find phd tweeps and writters include #ecrchat #phdchat #acwri

I’m usually around on Sun, Mon and usually one other day during the week (Thurs or Friday), tweet if you want to join in.
See you on the twits!
megan