Feedback: Call for Submissions – Official Launch Issue

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

The internet, primarily through blogs, has brought about a communications revolution. Yet the traditional media has maintained their position as information gatekeepers, and they won’t let you hear us.

We can’t bring about change when the media ignores us. We can’t rely on politicians to fix things for us. So we’re through playing nice. We’re done begging for attention. We’re bypassing the media and coming direct to you.

We can solve our problems if we work together. We can make things better when all of us try. All we’re asking for is your help. So we can generate a little Feedback.

Welcome to the first call for article submissions for Feedback!

If you already have an idea of what this is all about and want to get started writing, scroll down to our Guidelines section.  And don’t forget to subscribe for the weekly release if you haven’t done so already.  Just send an email to feedback.news.report{at}gmail.com with “subscribe” in the subject line.

If this is all new to you, or you just feel like refreshing your memory, start from the beginning and work your way through.  It’s not as long as it looks.  You can also check out our latest issue online.

Feedback is a weekly four page newsletter written by us for the people.  By “us,” I don’t mean just those few of us who are putting the newsletter together.  I’m talking about all of us.  If you ever wanted people to hear what you have to say, you’re already part of this project.  Bet you didn’t realize that, did you?  You can help as much or as little as you like, including not at all.

We already have three people working on this project to ensure our goals and standards are met.  Pfiore is our editor; VictoryCoffee is our designer and layout artist; I am the nominal project lead.  I also want to include buhdydharma, who’s allowing us to use his blog, docudharma, as our online home.

Like we say in our mission statement, which you can read in the quote box at the top of this diary, we recognize that the internet has become one of the major, if not primary, methods of communication.  Blogs are perhaps the most popular format.  Despite this, the traditional media outlets have managed to maintain a stranglehold on information distribution.  We could talk about how they have accomplished this, but that is not the issue we’re addressing here.  The fact is, most people still receive the vast majority of their information through the traditional media.  All you have to do is compare the daily viewership/readership numbers for the major news networks and newspapers and compare them to the daily readership of the largest blogs.  I rest my case.  This gives the media an inordinate amount of control over the conversation people are having.  Unless you have the resources to gain media access, you don’t have any influence over that conversation.

So if you ever wondered why people seem to act irrationally, this is it.  Because the media has made the conversation irrational to begin with.  When the nuts are shouting through the PA system, it’s hard for the sane to get a word in edge-wise.

No more.

Feedback is about reclaiming the conversation.  We’re through waiting for the media to regain their sanity.  As bloggers and blog readers, we’ve already begun that process.  Now it’s time to start reaching out to a larger audience.  It’s time to let them know the adults are retaking control, and they can join us in that effort.  By working together, we can do all of that.

Since we lack the resources to be heard through the traditional media sources, we obviously have to rely upon those methods our limited funds, time, and manpower permit.  While blogging is a fine method, it fails in one important aspect: it doesn’t reach out to the audience we need to communicate with.  That is why we’ve chosen to publish a newsletter.

Needless to say, blogging does not transfer well to a paper format.  This makes the style of writing typically found in blogs less than ideal for how we intend to communicate with our audience.  It means that if you want to get people outside the blogs to listen to us, we’re going to have to be willing to write for them within the confines of the format.  It’s not difficult.  It’s just different.

The nature of the writing must be to communicate the information we have and motivate people to take action.  It takes both.  Just informing people isn’t enough.  We need people to see that they can do something, and we need to provide the motivation to take that action.  Motivation is energy, and without an outlet for the energy, they’ll continue to feel hopeless and powerless, and they’ll take it out on those around them.  This does no one any good.  Besides, the benefits for providing that outlet are enormous for all of us.  We get more people helping us make things better, and readers begin to realize they have power.  However, we must remember to keep the actions simple, at least in the beginning.  We are dealing with atrophied muscles.  Even signing a petition can feel like a monumental task in the state people are in right now.

Communicating with people means we have to speak to them at their level; on their time.  They are not the ones seeking us out.  We are the ones demanding their attention.  The very least we can do is keep what we have to say short and to the point.  This will necessarily be a different style of writing than what many bloggers here have become used to, but it is essential in order to communicate with a larger audience.  It also happens to be necessary due to the limited space available in a paper publication.  While we may be able to run longer articles from time to time, the majority of them will need to remain short.

We have a set of guidelines, which you’ll find below, to help you write for our mutual audience.  While those guidelines may seem constrictive, they are meant to facilitate your writing, not impede it.  This will help all of us communicate better with our audience.

We also need to get our publication out to people.  This is where many of you can help, even if you don’t think you can write for us.  We ask that you subscribe to receive Feedback by sending an email with “subscribe” in the subject line to feedback.news.report{at}gmail.com.  Every Monday, we’ll send you the latest issue as a pdf file.  This allows us to maintain a consistent layout, so it should look the same no matter who prints it.  From there, we ask you to print it out and distribute in your area.  In fact, the only requirement we have for subscribers is your promise to distribute.  Obviously we can’t enforce it, but we hope you’ll honor our request.  We’re not asking for donations at this time, though if you are so inclined, head over to docudharma.com (if you’re not already there) and click the donation button.  I assure you, you’ll make someone’s day a little bit brighter.

Distribution can be done in whatever way you think is best in your area and suits your temperament and budget.  We’re not picky.  There are some people who take dozens of copies to hand out to anyone who’s willing.  Others of us are more subtle, replacing newspapers lying around in buses or placing copies in workplace break rooms.  We encourage you to be creative, but please be aware of the laws and regulations in your area.  We do not advocate breaking the law.

We publish every Monday morning.  If you subscribe, the issue should be in your mailbox when you wake up.  It will also be available online at docudharma.com that same day, though likely after the print version.

And that’s about all there is to it.  Pretty simple, really.  As promised, here are our guidelines, with apologies for some of the more nitpicky ones.

Guidelines:

The following are every-day guidelines.  You can use these guidelines to submit articles at any time.  The earlier, the better.

We may, from time to time, decide to run a special issue.  In those cases, I will note any special guidelines under the “Special” heading at the end of this Guidelines section.

General:

The deadline for submissions for a given issue is Saturday.  Any article submitted after Saturday will be considered for the following week’s issue, not the upcoming issue.  I’m willing to grant some leeway, but please don’t abuse it.

You may submit as many articles as you like.

You maintain the copyright to any and all articles you write and may request we remove them from consideration at any time before publication.  However, once published, we do not have the capability to remove the articles from circulation.

We do not ask for any “exclusivity rights.”  You’re free to post and submit your articles elsewhere so long as doing so won’t prevent us from continuing to consider or use your articles in Feedback.

Articles must be about issues, not people (i.e. candidates).  You may highlight people who support or oppose an issue, and if the issue is about a person, that too is okay.

We may contact you to ask you to edit or re-write a portion of your article.  Please do not take it personally.  We will almost certainly tell you why we’re asking.  If you cannot edit or simply refuse to edit as requested, we may choose to use someone else’s article instead.  If you do not have the edits back to us by our publication deadline (Sunday evening, give or take a few hours), we may choose to use someone else’s article instead.

We may perform minor edits to your article without contacting you.  These edits will be either for the sake of clarification, in which case we will be sure to note them appropriately, or to help fit within the confines of our format.  They should not adversely affect the content or point of your article.

If we don’t use your submission, that does not necessarily mean we didn’t like what you wrote.  It more likely means that either we were running a special issue which your article didn’t fit into, or we received another submission which we believe was better.  Therefore, we may not contact you if we choose not to run your article.  (We recognize that “better” can be a purely subjective decision at times.)

Technical:

Please send all submissions to feedback.news.report{at}gmail.com and include “submission: ” in the subject line followed by the title of the article you are submitting.

In the message body, please use plain text and use the following format:

A Short Title

URL (if it’s online)

Name you want us to use in the by-line

Article text unless it’s the same as from the URL you provided.  Article text you submit here will always take precedence, including any formatting.

List of URLs as noted in the formatting conventions below.

Article length should be between 200-350 words.

We are also looking for short news summaries, which should be approximately 120 words each.  Please put “news summary” after the title in the message body.

Grammar and punctuation should be consistent with the style of writing you use in your article.  If it’s hard to read, it’s either inconsistent or poorly written.

Proof-read at least once before submitting.  This means that, at a bare minimum, re-read what you’ve written to make sure it says what you think it says, then run it through your spell checker.  We’ll help as much as we can, but our time is limited.  If we’re having a bad week or are otherwise pressed for time, we’re more likely to choose articles that are already well written.

Please use the following conventions to indicate what formatting, including links, you want within your article.

• Use slashes before and after text you want in italics.  /Like this./
  

• Use asterisks before and after text you want in bold.  *Like this.*
  

• Use braces before and after text you want to be block-quoted.  {Like this.}
  

• Use underscores before and after the text you want underlined.  _Like this._
  

• Use chevrons before and after the text you want to contain a link. <Like this.>  The full URLs must be placed at the end of the article and in the order in which they are to be used.  Do not use tinyurl or other link shrinkers.
  

• Please try to avoid using bold unless it’s for something that absolutely requires attention.
  

• Do not underline except as appropriate for any sources you may cite.
  

• Do not use all caps unless you are quoting someone else’s use of all caps.
  

• Do not use colored text.  This is a black and white publication.
  

• Please try not to use more than one method of formatting for any set of text.
  

• If you don’t know how to make the em dash symbol, use a double-hyphen instead.  We’ll insert the correct character.
  

• Be sparing in your formatting.  When in doubt, don’t.
  

• Please do not use any other formatting.

http://a.link.gos/likethis.html

One more formatting note that deserves special attention.  Only use brackets when providing explanatory or missing material within a quote.  See this wikipedia article for examples.  If we need to edit your article without contacting you, we will use brackets as appropriate to indicate our edits.

If you have posted your submission online, you may ignore the first five formatting conventions listed above as they obviously do not apply to you.  If you wish to make any changes to your online version so that it conforms to the rest of our guidelines, please submit the full text using our formatting conventions so that you can blame us when we inevitably screw it up.

You may submit other people’s work, however, we will not consider it unless we have a means of contacting the individual to receive approval.  In this case, we need the title of the piece, the url, the author’s name, and how to contact him or her.  Having said that, we prefer original articles, and if they’re written specifically with Feedback in mind, that’s even better.

Do we need to remind you not to submit other people’s work as your own?  Good.  Didn’t think so.

Style:

As long as your grammar and spelling are consistent with your style, this is very open.  Readability is what we’re looking for.  If you can convey your ideas in a way that is easy to comprehend and retain, then you’ve done your job.  But don’t shy away from using “big words.”  We’re not pandering to preschoolers.  To put this another way, how you say what you say is just as important as what you are saying in the first place.  See the links in the Resources heading below for online resources to help you do that.

That said, there are three things in particular we’re looking for:

• What’s the issue you’re talking about?  Keep it simple and describe it as best you can given the space limitations.
  

• How does the issue you’re writing about affect the reader?  Be specific.  Provide an example if necessary.
  

• Provide a simple action for readers to take on the issue.  It may seem like a small thing, but it’s extremely important.  This may be the catalyst that gets people doing more.

The following points are suggestions for how to achieve the above:

• Stick to a single point.  Ideally, you should be able to state it in a single sentence.  The rest of your article should be used to back it up.
  

• Be biased toward facts and the truth you believe those facts reveal.
  

• Include your sources so readers can follow up on their own time.
  

• Be passionate, not emotional.  We want to motivate, not induce sympathy.
  

• Be positive.  This does not mean “happy.”  It means talking about ways to lift us up, not tear us down.

News summaries only need to summarize one or more related news reports.  You don’t need to follow any of the points above to do this.

Also remember that our primary audience will be reading the print version of your article.  They won’t be able to follow any links until they go to our online version.  This means you need to be explicit when citing link references.  We will of course make readers aware that there is further information available to them, however, the article should be able to stand on it’s own without needing to follow your links.

There are a few things we would like you to avoid:

• Profanity should be used sparingly, if at all.  Err on the side of none.  I highly recommend using a thesaurus to help you find the words you’re looking for.  (I’ve linked to one under the Resources heading.)  Do not use “hard” profanity, such as fuck, shit, etc.
  

• Be extremely careful about “calling names.”  We are not out to alienate readers, but at the same time, calling someone or a group by a name other than what they are formally called can help to get a point across like nothing else.  i.e. McBush.  When in doubt, don’t.
  

• Do not use acronyms or abbreviations without explaining what they stand for and/or mean.  Not everyone knows that FISA stands for Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Resources:

Online Dictionary

Online Thesaurus

Polemic on Wikipedia  It’s what we’re writing, here, though without using distortions, lies, or other misrepresentations common to many polemics.  When done right, a polemic is more akin to analysis via rhetoric.  While we are after the truth, we are also out to persuade, and it’s a fine line we walk to maintain that balance without falling into the abyss.

Polemic Theology: How to Deal with Those Who Differ from Us  Yes, it’s geared toward religious polemics, but the general advice is good for all sorts.  Highly recommended, even if I disagree with a minor point or two.

Argument, Rhetoric, and Writing (in brief)  A nice, short intro to rhetoric.

A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices  Some tools you may find useful in your writings.

Style  Although this is geared toward academic papers, there’s a lot of information from this link that you should find useful.

Lynch’s Guide to Grammar and Style  Likely tons of things here even I don’t know.

Strunk’s Elements of Style  A classic reference guide for a more formal time.  Still quite useful.

Special

These initial submissions will be for our official launch issue.  We hope you’ll help us start it off right!