DavesWorldInfo

I think it would be a great benefit to everyone, public and those involved in the process and even the media as a whole, if the media stopped ignoring, or not talking specifically about, how much lobbying money is invested into the processes that govern this country.

What I mean is; every story about major issues should include a section that talks, in specifics, about how much money is being injected into the process. When various special interests open their checkbooks, media should track that money as best they can and talk about it. In detail. Not generalities.

"The X, Y, and Z special interests have been heavily opposing this bill..." is forgettable. "X, Y, and Z have spent tens of millions of dollars in the last ten days hosting fundraisers, buying advertising, making donations, etc... to oppose this issue" is specific and makes people specifically think about how their voice is being overridden by money.

"Everyone knows" special interests put their fingers on the scale. That's a generality. The media should make it a specific issue, and attach it to every story. Stop letting the interests hide in the background noise and call them out, constantly. If nothing else, it might make them divert some of their scale altering funds into protecting their own images.

Now, obviously I know the interests don't copy their expenditures to you or anyone else. But you can make estimates. Public records, campaign donations, hotel and catering expenses, how many ads in which markets/time slots at how much average cost, etc... Yes it requires some work. But media is supposed to be doing that kind of work, tracking information and sorting it for the public.

For authors working alone (who can't afford to hire you guys), what suggestions would you have for things to avoid when creating alien or fictional names or words?

For example, in Reamde by Neil Stephenson, there's a passage where a linguist character scoffs at a writer character who's used the classic "stick in apostrophes to make a string of letters look more 'alien' to readers", explaining the apostrophes are supposed to represent contracted out letters or phonemes.