In this episode, doctoral student and producer Muira McCammon interviews freelance journalist, Zoë Beery, about her recent article in the Columbia Journalism Review,a meditation on the history and future of edit tests. Zoë argues that the contradictions of the edit test are a microcosm of bigger challenges in the world of journalism, such as ongoing workforce precarities and diverging attitudes towards journalists’ rights. Muira, a former freelance journalist herself, also considers the power of unionization and ways in which editors can strive to act more ethically, when hiring new writers.
EXTRAS
- Read Zoë Beery’s original piece, “Edit tests are out of control, say journalists in search of jobs,” in the Columbia Journalism Review.
- Take a Business Insider edit test.
- Check out what some reporters have to say about edit tests on Twitter.
- Get a better sense of the trials and tribulations facing journalists working at digital outlets.
- See firsthand how much hate there is towards edit tests.
- Read some words in The Atlantic about unionizing media outlets.
- Thinking more broadly about the history of media at risk? With some help from Atlas Obscura, journey with us back to the days of JFK’s inauguration, when freezing cold journalists were given a warm haven in the home of Miss Helen Montgomery and her father, Charles Montgomery.
- Peruse this poignant meditation in Lit Hub about what editorial “power” means.
- Reflect on some of the other challenges editors face in their work. Here is Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker’s fiction editor, talking about her more than fifteen years of editing David Foster Wallace and reflecting on how his absence affected her work.
MUSIC
Son Lux: “All the Right Things” (theme)
Tortoise: “Eden 2”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: “Ministry of Alienation”
Floating Points: “Silhouettes (I, II & III)”
坂本慎太郎: “\ーパーカルト誕生”
Khruanbin: “A Fang Kheng Kan – Acoustic”
Khruangbin: “Two Fish and an Elephant” (Outro)
FEEDBACK
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