In “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Runway” magazine, which Miranda Priestley (Meryl Streep) runs, is facing challenges that have also beset other print media outlets as social media and online platforms become more accessible to readers and consumers. This phenomenon is so familiar to those of us who are in the media industry.
In the real world, the transition from print to websites accelerated during the pandemic lockdowns. This eventually reduced the number of pages in a newspaper’s print edition and cut printing frequency from daily to three times a week or even weekly, prompting this question: Can a newspaper still be called a "daily" if its print edition comes out only three times a week? The answer is yes, because the website is still updated daily.
The transition has also affected us columnists. All opinion columns used to be included in the print edition. These days, I consider myself lucky if I see this column featured in the print edition or even on the paper’s Facebook page. At least the website always has the columns, so feel free to check us out there.
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My writing has also picked up the on-and-off habit of the print edition. Sometimes I can write daily columns; sometimes I write only two columns in a week. My worst fear is writer’s block, which did happen during the pandemic when I stopped writing for six months.
I’ve learned to adjust to the times. Patience, after all, is still a virtue. Perhaps the carnivore diet and the gym workouts have also made me more flexible in dealing with whatever comes my way.
I write columns while traveling from home to wherever and back, unless I can’t stop scrolling through my Facebook news feed.
Have you ever tried avoiding Facebook? Oh. Good luck with that. The only way to stop is to delete or deactivate your Facebook account.
As a columnist, I need all the material I can get, and that includes the legit data I can gather through social media. Operative word: legit.
As for artificial intelligence (AI), highly respected editors are absolutely against using ChatGPT and other AI tools to write pieces and columns. These editors can easily tell if a piece or column was written by AI or by the bylined writer. A columnist, especially, loses his voice or the tone of his column once he or his editor starts using ChatGPT.
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A friend introduced me to ChatGPT years ago when it was still new. That’s how he revealed his secret to writing speeches, and he then told me I didn’t have to write my columns anymore and could simply ask ChatGPT to write for me. Tsk tsk.
I do know there will come a time when AI will be doing everything for us, and the sci-fi movies we’re watching now will finally become reality. Much like how some of the sci-fi movies we watched decades ago are now part of our reality. I mean, city walls with flat TV screens? I saw that in a movie once upon a time. And those flat TV monitors are now in our homes.
