We have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Google out of force not by choice. If I had my druthers, I would completely shut down both my personal accounts and the Ghion Journal pages at these sites given their malicious attempts to censor independent voices and non-corporate journalists. But doing so is akin to self-censorship, these three sites combined have a near oligopoly on the way news is shared and shuttering our footprint at this axis of media would greatly diminish our reach as a media entity.
So we grudgingly continue our presence at Facebook, Twitter and Google even as they are coming up with ever clever and pernicious ways to dwindle our influence. If you need an example of the subtle ways they do this, do a search on Facebook for “Ghion Journal” and you will see that almost all of the publicly available shares are from the Ghion Journal or my personal page with a few shares interspersed from our readers and audience. Our articles are widely shared on Facebook yet they rarely show up when you search for them.
Compare the treatment the Ghion Journal, a small news source that doesn’t pay to advertise on Facebook, gets to the lavish ways corporate media sites are highlighted. Do a search of “CNN” or “Washington Post” and you will see endless shares by endless streams of people. True enough their reach is far greater than that of Ghion Journal. But my contention is not the greater visibility corporate media gets, it’s the uneven playing field created by media corporations that I’m flummoxed over.
You will see one particular Facebook feature that is given to mainstream media that is not afforded to the Ghion Journal and independent journalists. When you do a search of Washington Post for example, you will notice “What People are Saying” pop up in the search. This is something that Facebook does to highlight “acceptable” news and articles and by extension tip the scales in favor of corporate media as they stifle independent journalists. This is akin to Animal Farm where the pigs in that novel came up with a rule which stated that all animals are equal except those who walk on four legs are more equal than others. The rich and powerful are telling the rest of us that they are more equal than the rest of humanity, their Orwellian attack on independent journalism is an attack on freedom itself. Click To Tweet
What social media giants and internet providers are attempting to do is ghettoize the internet where only big money media gets to dictate news and the rest of us are told to kick rocks. This is the most insidious form of censorship that Joseph Stalin would be proud of.
So we are asking our readers to use social media to push back against social media giants. Use #GaggingJournalism to spread awareness of what social media companies are doing to silence dissenting voices and how they are targeting journalists who refuse to peddle corporate propaganda. Stand up for real news and stand against the fake news that is regularly peddled by mainstream media yellow journalists.
We also ask you to sign up to our newsletter, the best way to overcome high tech censorship is by going low tech. Signing to our newsletter will enable us to reach you directly without depending on third party sites. I’m also asking you to click the red bell on the bottom right hand side of this website to get push notifications when new articles are published. Just as important, I ask you to be our champions and enhance our voices. If you like what you are reading here and feel that the Ghion Journal offers a much needed voice in the marketplace of ideas, continue to share our articles and encourage others to do the same.
We also ask you to sign up to new platforms like Minds, Gab, and SteemIt and follow our page on those sites. We do so knowing that the best way to prevent the level of mendacity we are witnessing from social media behemoths and internet providers is to decentralize their power and diversify our choices. The need to decentralize and diversify is that much greater when it comes to news and the ways we are informed as a society.
Corporate censorship and governmental overreach, if not checked, will one day morph from soft fascism to hard totalitarianism. We live in an age where six corporations, as in six people who own those six corporations, already own more than 90% of the news and information we consume as a nation. We must not let a few have a total monopoly on media, protecting independent journalism is in our vital personal security.
It is sad that we have to revert to this level of effort in order to protect our first amendment rights as journalists. I’m presenting this to you not only to protect the viability of the Ghion Journal but to speak up for the rights we all cherish as a nation and the freedoms we all should guard jealously. Stand with us as we stand up for the rights of independent journalists globally. #GaggingJournalism
“Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.” ~ Henry Louis Gates
The Ghion Journal is a reader and viewer funded endeavor. We disavow corporate contributions and depend only on the support of our audience to sustain us. The tip jar is earmarked to go directly to the writer, the link below is customized to directly to the author’s account. We thank you in advance for your kindness.
Check out this Ghion Cast where I discuss the vital role that independent media plays in defending our freedoms and standing up for our collective interests.
Check out the Ghion Cast below where I talk about the Ghion Journal and our mission to reclaim journalism from corporations and deliver it back to the people.
Teodrose Fikre
Originally from Ethiopia with roots to Atse Tewodros II, Teodrose is a former community organizer whose writing was incorporated into Barack Obama's South Carolina primary victory speech in 2008. He pivoted away from politics and decided to stand for collective justice after experiencing the reality of the forgotten masses. His writing defies conventional wisdom and challenges readers to look outside the constraints of labels and ideologies that serve to splinter the people. Teodrose uses his pen to give a voice to the voiceless and to speak truth to power.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!