One of the things that has always irked me a little is when people refer to college-age individuals as “kids.” College-age individuals are in fact adults, so referring to them as “kids” seems, well, a little demeaning. I’m not going to get on a soapbox about this; however, it’s interesting to see how this has played out in the early part of my career. As an adult who is still in the college-age range, I don’t always feel like I’m taken seriously – or not as seriously – as some of my older colleagues. Another factor to this is status. From my perspective, the more professionally (or financially) advanced you are, the more seriously your views and opinions are considered.
In my last post I shared advice that my publisher gave me that could help me overcome this issue, which is great. It’s still solid advice that I appreciate. But what if this attitude of not taking younger, lower-level individuals seriously, or not hearing them at all, is actually a much bigger problem?
Erika Fry wrote an article for the Columbia Journalism Review that examines who is writing op-ed articles. What she discovered is that there is very little diversity in the op-ed pages. She writes:
“From my analysis of the past month’s bylines, New York Times readers were treated to the views of forty-one academics (ten at Ivy League institutions), forty writers and journalists, nine presidents and one vice president of an organization or think tank, four current and former political office holders.”
Fry goes on to mention who we are not hearing from in these articles. When discussing the Wall Street Journal, she says: “The Wall Street Journal may be a paper primarily for the business minded, but the business-minded could also benefit from perspective outside its bandwidth, to get a sense of how policies affect people, and perspectives—those of workers and consumers —they should ultimately be interested in.”
I don’t normally post such extensive quotations, but Fry makes valid, thought-provoking arguments that should be considered. Throughout the political nightmare over the past few months, I’ve often spoken with family members and friends about how it’s like political leaders have little common sense, especially in regard to what the situation is really like – they’re seeing numbers, not people. And again, I have found myself thinking that there is something that I just don’t understand, or I’m too young, or too low on the professional ladder, because if I can come up with an idea that could help solve some of our problems – and I know little about politics, mind you – then why are politicians making things so complicated?
The point of all of this is that no matter the situation, everyone has an opinion. The problem is that unless you are of a certain status, it is very difficult to be heard. Some of this may be because those with less education and less power are not as skilled at voicing their opinions in constructive ways. Saying, “This sucks,” without offering any support is not going to get anyone’s attention. At that point, it’s seen as more of a complaint than an opinion.
So how do the individuals who are in the trenches, so to speak, get their voices heard? Politicians are elected to be the voice of the people, so in that sense it’s a little different. But how do politicians know what the people really want if they only listen to opinions from other politicians, the well educated, and business leaders? Because, let’s be honest, politicians make the decisions that earn them the most financial support for their election campaigns and plumbers can’t typically donate thousands of dollars at election time – they’re trying to figure out how to pay for their kid’s braces, winter coats, sports fees and all that.
Fry suggests that maybe more should be done to reach out to these individuals to encourage them to speak out (or write), and I agree. With all of the media resources, print and electronic, there’s no reason for such a lack of diversity in the op-ed pages and beyond. Sure, these people can blog or write letters to newspaper editors, but do decision makers actually read any of them? If those who currently have a voice start treating these groups like they matter – like their opinions matter – maybe we’ll start to see some societal improvement. But we have to start by giving them the opportunity to speak for themselves and listen.
