An idea I have is that there would be many benefits of focusing my
writing and reporting on one issue. That issue may be food. The
following may be the case:
(1)if I focus on reporting and writing about food, I will be less prone to jumping on bandwagons, whether a group of activist , a not-for-profit, a corporation, or a government entity or an individual drives that bandwagon.
I am thinking of this regarding my interest in reporting on ‘big events’ such as the US social forum, the End Mountain Top Removal Week in Washington, the League of American Cyclists Summit in DC, the Camp Out Now event in D.C., and
so on .
Me jumping at those activist-oriented ‘reporting opportunities’–well , how does that differ from me jumping as a reporter when a prominent government and/or corporate official or group holds an event ?
Maybe one way for me to increase my authenticity and to increase my usefulness is to focus on a type of issue to report on, not to be close-minded, but to manage my work. My hunch is that I need depth of understanding on an issue in order to
report on it in a way that has positive civic and community consequences.
Many of my ideas seem interesting to me but to go from there to a point at
which I impact the community and perhaps public policy, my guess is
that I have to focus on an issue. Also, this approach may–all else
being the same– may result in me being more able to make money from at
least some of my reporting.
For some time, my hunch has been that I ought to focus on reporting on food. This doesn’t mean I never report on anything else. Instead it means that I give myself a sense of direction. The food issue may be a good fit for me because it involves
Peak Oil , Climate Change, water quality, soil quality, and social
justice.
Food may be an issue on which politically and culturally diverse people find common ground with one another. I think I will fare better financially and in terms of having a positive impact if my knowledge of ‘the food issue’ is far greater than that of the vast majority of people. If I focus on the ‘food issue’, I could have an in-depth, investigative quality to my reporting. Giving my listeners and readers not-so-easy-to-get-at information combined with labor-intensive analysis is a service that I may be able provide for my listeners and readers. There is no way I can do this with every issue.
Also there is the fact that I make most of my living in the food service industry. Further, it may be the case that I will have a greater positive impact in terms of addressing Peak Oil, Climate Change, soil erosion, social justice if I include, at least to some extent, attention on the pleasures of eating.
This might be a way to have greater harmony between my food service work and my work as a reporter. Further, the food issue is very much a political issue to
report on that has international contexts. Further still, I can go to
USSF as I had planned, but now the change would be that I would focus on reporting on food as an environmental and as social justice issue. Also, the food issue has both science, art, history, as well as a social life component to it.
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