Past Tense, Present Tension
Bowler Hat Science from Matthew R Francis
It's premature to wrap up 2023 just yet, but even with a month to go, I can declare it to have been one of the most difficult since becoming a full-time writer. I lost out on thousands of dollars of income between a conference technical snafu and a health crisis.
But it's not just me struggling right now. More publications—including venerable century-plus old cornerstones of science writing like Popular Science and National Geographic—have laid off some or all of their writers, meaning my profession is in danger of ending entirely.
As Sabrina Imbler wrote, the culprits are easy to identify:
It's not news to anyone that many media workers' jobs and livelihoods remain in the hands of capricious, incompetent, and greedy venture capitalists, and that the best-case scenario for shuttered outlets is to later be purchased and revived, if they are so lucky, as a shell of what they once were.
Along those same lines, Buzzfeed eliminated its prize-winning news desk (including the science department), while Gizmodo and the mainstream news organization CNBC cut climate coverage.
As a freelancer, I'm not in danger of being laid off (I'm my own boss, after all). However, the layoffs and fewer existing staff jobs mean the market is flooded with former full-time writers who are now going freelance, all of us competing indirectly for a few remaining publications. The situation is bleak and getting bleaker, as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change-related disasters continue to rage.
As a science writer, of course I believe my profession is vital, but hopefully you don't need convincing. Like journalism as a whole, science journalism is a necessary counterbalance to misinformation and the rise of fascism, both in the United States and elsewhere. When the Nazis rose in Germany in the early 1930s, one of their first targets was the scientific/medical study of gender and sexuality. The attacks on research today include those vital areas, as well as the science underpinning climate change, vaccination, and the fight against eugenics.
Journalism is hardly a perfect field, and I can name colleagues who do a great deal of harm (and whose livelihoods don't seem to be in danger). But if we want anyone to know what's really going on in the world—both scientific and otherwise—we need journalism, we need reliable media, we need the things that we're losing rapidly. And we remaining journalists, who try to be reliable and ethical, need help.
And a Goodbye
Just days after I sent my previous newsletter, Pascal the cat died. He was 16 years old and I knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any easier. Good night, sweet prince.
Bowlerhattishly thine,
Matthew
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