Tag Archive: Social media


YELLOWFACE by Rebecca F. Yaung (Harper Collins, 2023)

In the afterword to this bestseller, Rebecca F. Yaung says her novel as “a horror story about loneliness in a fiercely competitive industry.” However, If she meant it to be a cautionary tale, she has failed.

The corrosive consequences of one woman’s desperate pursuit of wealth and recognition are vividly described but not presented as irredeemably evil or wholly negative. Yaung pulls off the quietly subversive trick of gently inviting the reader to empathise with selfish and morally dubious behaviour.

Continue reading

MAKING TIME FOR OCCUPY

On the face of it journalists for Time magazine are unlikely bedfellows with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. After all, isn’t one of the beefs of the protesters that the media are part of the problem rather than the cure.

There were widespread and credible accusations of the original demonstrations in New York being ignored by mainstream outlets.

Even when Occupy events are reported, a typical refrain is that those taking part are the usual band of student hotheads and anarcho-punks who are biting the hands that feed them; a kind of knee-jerk reactionary line that gives a lie to the notion of a free press and impartial journalism. Continue reading