The rise of ghostwriting and the decline of civilisation as we know it
Is the practice of ghostwriting content for corporate executives ethical or insidious?
There was once, I’m told, a golden age of journalism.
It was a time when reputable publications hired honest reporters to write objective articles based on facts.
The reputable publications would pay the journalists fairly and would attribute them clearly with a byline.
Readers learned to trust the publications, the journalists and the articles. They knew they were reading ‘the truth’.
Ah yes, those were the days. The time of Woodward and Bernstein, courageous investigative journalism and impartial analysis.
Where did it all go wrong?
Enter the internet and social media.
Every time you look at a screen nowadays you see another in-depth post published by a company executive promoting their reputation as an ‘expert’.
You, as the reader, can’t know for sure whether the ‘author’ has written the words on the (digital) page or has paid a ghostwriter to research and write the post on their behalf.
You can’t tell whether the topic of the post is something the author understands or is even interested in. You suspect it may be an insidious piece of ‘content marketing’, written by a freelance mercenary wordsmith or content agency, designed to subliminally sell a product or service.
Amy Westervelt, in her vitriolic article Content marketing, Pando Daily and not letting assholes win, suggests that:
"[an] unhealthy system has emerged, in digital media in particular, wherein group think is dictating that every site needs to have 50-odd new stories a day, because … SEO, eyeballs, clicks, ad revenue. Only no one is reading all those stories, advertisers have long since doubted the value of web ads, and publications can’t afford to keep up with the (false) demand for more and more content. That system has opened the door for “guest contributions,” and created this whole new job requirement for business leaders: thought leadership. I’m not going to belabor the points again here, but suffice it to say it’s bullshit and it’s certainly not helping out with the issue of getting journalists paid a living wage to report stories."
What’s really happening?
The situation described above is the nightmare scenario that many believe to be real. Its proponents have decided that the fragmentation of traditional journalism caused by the advent of social media and content marketing is an unfortunate symptom of a larger social malaise.
Society, they suggest, is declining. Honesty is a thing of the past. Personal morality and corporate integrity no longer have meaning.
Ever the contrarian, I tend to view these things a little differently.
There was never a golden age.
Yes, the volume of lies we’re told has increased. However, the volume of factual information available to us is also larger. The internet and social media have made it easier to discover the truth about anything. Not harder.
We just have to be prepared to seek out the truth, and to ignore the conspiracy theorists.
I agree with Westervelt that traditional journalists in traditional media are not faring well. Neither are farriers since the advent of the internal combustion engine.
It’s a sign of the times.
In most cases we no longer need old-fashioned journalists to report and edit stories for us. We can go direct to primary sources.
There’s ghostwriting and then there’s ghostwriting
So where does this leave the positive or negative influence of ghostwriting in social media?
If a ghostwriter has the talent to authentically replicate the attributed author's genuine voice and authentic spoken message, it’s a worthwhile exercise.
Not all people with useful, interesting ideas have the skills to translate their insights into written language that engages and entertains readers. A ghostwriter can help them achieve this outcome.
That’s a good thing.
For more on the benefits and process of ghostwriting, I recommend Laura Vrcek’s article: Why ghostwriting is sexy.
If, on the other hand, an attributed author doesn't understand the substance of a post or article – and still puts his or her name on it just to gain industry kudos – the practice may be problematic.
However, even this is not as ethically challenging as we might think. Sooner or later, in their private or public life, this person will be found out.
The internet is the ultimate transparent democracy. In the face of scrutiny, there’s nowhere to hide.
You may not believe me. Ghostwriting, you may say, is now pervasive. You can’t tell who is writing what.
In fact, how can you even be sure that I wrote this post?
You may never know …
When you need help with ghostwriting, content writing or strategy, please contact me any time.