You wouldn’t
ask a cashier to do their job for free. A nurse wouldn’t be expected to work
for nothing. We simply wouldn't not pay a builder. Or assume that a lawyer will
do their job for nothing. Of course we wouldn't, that would be unfair and disgusting.
Though within
the creative industries, it is something that is expected.
I speak on behalf of
the journalists, writers, musicians, designers, visuals and audio techs out there. For
anybody who is part of the media, essentially. Though for the majority of this
piece, I will be writing from a journalist’s perspective.
Jonathon
Tasini comments “Creative people, especially writers, are a funny breed. We
are the only profession I know of who work for free. No coal miner, nurse,
shipyard worker, accountant, or any other person with bills to pay works for
free. But, that is what writers are often being forced to do. And the
consequences for creativity and democracy are dire.”
The
Guardian reported in 2010 that almost half of the jobs in the creative
media did unpaid work to get into their industry. Continuing
three years later in another report that individual freelancers have become
increasingly concerned about the dramatic drop in payments.
“Add to that the fact that too many magazines
are taking advantage of young journalists by persuading them to work for free. Cash-strapped
publishers are getting away with it because journalism remains hugely
attractive.” And this is a wide spread thought across the creative industries. From the outside looking in, it's a pretty desirable field.
“In the hope of jam tomorrow. There appears to
be a bottomless pit of wannabes for employers to exploit.”
I’ve known
since I was fifteen that I wanted to write about music. From this I started up
a blog and was happy to be given the chance to contribute to local
publications. I’ve sorted files, created databases, transcribed interviews, and
then had to prove myself as a writer. I work as the music editor of a national
publication. I have been published in Music Week, The Guardian and PSNEurope among
others. Though, have never been paid
a penny.
Illustrator and designer, Gordon Reid, writes for Creativebloq:
‘This sort of disregard for hard work and talent needs to be eradicated in our
industry. Creatives in whatever field need to be treated with more respect and
paid accordingly. I mean, you wouldn't nip into Subway and offer to promote the
sandwich on Instagram in exchange for the meal would you? Maybe I'm missing a
trick there.’
The thing
with writing, is that like everything in media and creativity, it’s just sort
of expected by people. We face the wrath of ‘You
study media? What are you going to do with that?!’ and ‘Ha! That’s not a real degree! How easy!’ alongside ‘So, what do you even like, do?’
What do we
do? As creatives we basically control life as everybody in the West knows it. We’re
responsible for social media, for documenting the news, for allowing music to
be heard and films and television to be watched. Going shopping? Well, congrats,
it was our great advertising that led you to even think that you wanted to
become that consumer.
Without us
media creatives, we wouldn’t have the life we have today. Not even close. Though,
because it’s the life that everybody is used to, it is expected to just happen.
We are distracted by this popular culture to the point where it isn’t thought
about how we get it.
As a
journalist/blogger/scribbler of words, I know and recognise this. With the
amount of platforms to release media on and working in such a competitive
industry, at the start of our journeys we are willing and happy to work for
free.
We play
fair. We learn our trades and practice. Practice, practice, practice. We do
this, no matter what the craft in order to become better and be respected
enough to shape careers.
When it
comes to writing UCAS, or building our CVs or actually needing the guidance. In
order to gain experience, I am confident that we are all grateful.
But, how
long can this gratitude last with no other consequence?
Working in
the media involves pressure and stress. It means tight deadlines and fast work
and requires confidence to not crawl in a hole after knockbacks, criticisms and
hateful comments. It means long hours and lack of sleep. You simply can’t turn
your brain off. Proof that the media surrounds us and consumes us.
However,
this work is unpaid. Done in the name of ‘experience’ as ‘a great opportunity’,
a way to ‘widen’ the CV. Therefore, often alongside studying and trying to make
it in these very glamorous industries
we have to work part/full time as well. Which of course, only adds to the
pressure. From being eighteen and over, we all have money responsibilities.
We’re still
always in the mindset that we are still training and practicing. As whenever we
pitch an idea or get offered a new job, we just sort of accept it as an
opportunity.
Nicola Kraus
and Emma McLaughin reported for Salon
on when they started saying ‘no’ to working unpaid. Explaining that it was
because their ‘confidence eroded. That’s the
crime. When you don’t get paid for commissioned work you start doubting your
abilities and that makes it harder to sell the work you have to write on spec
and pretty soon you’re behaving like Willy Loman.’
Really it’s
about time we become more confident with vocalising how we have earned the
respect to be treated as any other employee.
Mary
Hamilton writes ‘work
for free if you want to, but don’t work for nothing’ offering a different
viewpoint:
“If you’re
writing something that might get a thousand views or fewer for a site that
doesn’t do much to jazz up your CV, then it’s worth asking yourself whether
you’d be better off cutting out the middle man and putting it on your own blog.
After all, big media companies don’t own exposure on the net; if anything can
go viral online, it’s worth asking yourself if you’d rather those views went to
your portfolio site rather than someone else’s platform.”
I’ve seen
musicians play gigs, photographers work on campaigns, websites appear for
clients, news reported on, read reviews and listened to radio shows which were
produced for nothing.
Don’t get me
wrong, the opportunities that I and many others have been given are
unbelievable. We’re given a place to project our thoughts and feelings and do
what we love. We get to travel and meet people, there are definite perks and
nothing beats the thrill of sharing a completed job.
What this is
all about is how it’s just expected and how hard it is to break through the
glass ceiling. As essentially, our work does generate a profit for someone,
somewhere. Whether it’s the publication or the venue’s bar, or the client or
even the focus of the media that is reported on. We created the Kardashians!
Writing is
the career that I’ve always wanted. Why can’t I have it after earning it?
Now I really must dash to go and start my evening shift at the restaurant...
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