Sunday 30 March 2014

thepressedworld, or the game of language

Rude, selfish, egoistic, braggart, arrogant, prig, and the list could going on. Journalists have at least one of the features just listed, and in many cases the have all. Pressmen are not that kind of men is possible to trust: for their nature they have no respect for no one, except for themselves. Using these words it could be thought journalists are close to be monster, which is not totally untrue. They feel love, but just for themselves. And it's not a case if there's a huge number of divorces among the pressmen, if they spend their life in thinking exclusively to their profession missing what is really important in life. The world of the press is a box full of this kind of stories, made by men considered as gods only by themselves. «I'm a journalist», says every pressman, and in saying it he shows all his pride to be something special. Because journalists are special. That's the opinion they have for the category they belong, ignoring the have no power any more.

Nowadays media still can influence politics, society, debates and even culture, but journalists are endangered in several countries around the world (let's think about all those states where fundamental freedoms are banned) while in the so called "democracies" they have to respect the game of silence imposed by editors and "investors". Since newspapers as well as all the other media receive money by the States and by private companies, is not possible to be critic and/or write anything bad about them. It's a question of politeness, to be politically correct. ThePressedworld want to be a blog dedicated both to journalism and to journalists, a blog dedicated to the world of the press in general, or - if you prefer - the to press world. This blog, under its new formula, wants to offer a mixed of articles, personal views on the main current events as well as personal explanation on what journalism and journalists are about. The name of this blog is the result of a word game, involving the terms press, world, and their graphical and sound combination.

The press world is not only the world of the press, the sum of the journalists living - and of course working - there, but is a professional sector under a huge and constant pressure: internet and new media are transforming and reshaping the way to make journalism. That, together with the crisis, is rewriting the life of hundreds of thousands of press workers in Europe and in the rest of the world. Press is pressed by market, by crisis, by control (where censorship is strong). Here we have the explanation of the name pressedworld. A sector - the one of information - put under pressure, making journalists pressed by society and labour market in their turn, forcing them to work most of the time in very stressful and approximate way: the low quality of press reports due to the pressed system, together with the low human profile of journalists, make the media a reality to which escape from. In the word game logic of this blog the use of the form of the verb in the past participle had to be marked, in order to keep together but in a separate way press and world. The graphic synthesis is given by the expression pressedworld.

In the word game logic of this blog the use of the article the was compulsory. In spoken language the expression the pressed world sounds as depressed world, that's the reason why of putting the article before the name of the blog. In reading it readers will can have both expressions ("the pressed world" and "depressed world"), remembering we live in a society that reasons to be depressed are a lot, especially in time of crisis.

The subtitle is the result of another word game. Maydaily blog refers to the "daily" nature of newspapers and the at the same time to huge problems which impose to send SOS messages ("mayday" is the term used in telecommunications to inform about troubles). "Maydaily" wants to recall the problems journalism is experiencing both in terms of external pressures and in terms of internal dysfunctions, with arrogant pressmen sure to be and writing right showing the opposite. So the expression "maydaily blog" wants to recall in sound the expression "my daily blog", with the adjective "my" referred both to writer and to readers.

There are some section of this blog thought, again, as word games. One of these is blogbook. In English "logbook" means "diary", "register", that personal book where personal notes are written. "Blogbook" is nothing but my personal diary contained in the blog, and the name of this section contains the ideas (and the words) of blog, of diary, of connection (log as log-in).

Another word game in style section is pressmen. "Pressmen" is a term of the English language used especially in the United Kingdom instead of "journalist". It is not a neologism created by games, but is a term whose sound recall - in the spoken language - the human category of "yes men". Yes men are all those persons ready to not argue in any case, always ready to do what is ordered by directors, editors and chiefs in general. "Pressmen" as "yes men" is the way to indicate all those journalists who believe to be what they are not, who believe - in an aware status or not it doesn't matter - to have freedoms and powers they have not. "Pressmen" as "yes men" is because today journalists have not the possibility to negotiate position, wage, engagements, rights. In such a situation they are obliged - or pressed - to can just say "yes". "Pressemen" are finally all those who make career just being obedient rather than for professional skills.

Finally we find Senseless land, another word game to refer to Italy, a country where a lot of incredible things can happen. Senseless land is replacing the Mad in Italy section present in previous version of this blog, before the launch of the thepressedworld. Mad in Italy was the dark side of the made in Italy, and Senseless land is there to report all the non-sense made in Italy.

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