Wordsmiths Must Meet People Where They Are
By: Hunter Freeman
Tags: Writing, BlackLivesMatter, Social Media, Progressive, Perspective

Wordsmiths Must Meet People Where They Are

Mass media and the importance of brevity present wordsmiths with difficult decisions. Word choices will have far reaching effects for social movements. Hunter Freeman Follow Dec 15, 2020 · 7 min read

Image Courtesy of Hunter Freeman

Part of progress is convincing the other camp that change is a’comin’ and there will be a right side of history. Essential to that goal is considering how people will receive a message. English and Rhetoric courses in Humanities programs around the country emphasize tailoring a message to a specific audience. The challenge arises when progressive sentiment is condensed into statements that are only a few words in length. It is difficult to include Aristotle’s Ethos, Pathos and Logos in a phrase that can be just as many words or less. See Obama’s 2008 slogan: “Yes we can!”

Brevity distills the message

If online platforms like Twitter and TikTok are any indication with how the war of ideas will be fought in the future, then brevity is king (or queen). The double-edged sword of modern messaging is that words can reach global distribution. Phrases and slogans can be so far distributed from their source that audiences unfamiliar with a movement begin to engage with them. And in those scenarios, the merits of the movement have to stand on the few words that serve as the umbrella for like ideas.

Consider the term “Global Warming,” two words synonymous with man-made climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” There is decades of research across multiple factors and regions proving the globe is heating up. Now consider the neutral person accessing Twitter from a remote village in Alaska. They scroll past an activist who tweets, “Global Warming is real.” For those with the context, Global Warming makes sense as a term. However, for the passive onlooker, especially one living in a region where temperatures regularly dip below freezing, Global Warming sounds less realistic. In this scenario, granted it’s fictional, the merits of climate change research must stand on a poorly-coined term Global Warming.

Now imagine the same type of situation for something like “Gun Control” in a community where hunting is prominent, a tradition passed down for generations. People born on either side of the year 2000 likely completed high school or college fearing the next mass shooting event would happen on their campus. I know I did. For those uninformed or unwilling to hear the other side of the argument, “gun control” sounds like a government plan to seize power and impose on a constitutional right.

On January 5th, 2016, President Barack Obama delivered a 36-minute speech unveiling new executive actions to reduce gun violence and close loopholes allowing criminals to purchase firearms. To preface his call for action, President Obama remarked, “There’s a ritual about this whole thing that I have to do. I believe in the Second Amendment. It’s there written on the paper. It guarantees a right to bear arms. No matter how many times people try to twist my words around. I taught constitutional law, I know a little bit about this.” President Obama approached the subject with tact and nuance, careful not to call for “gun control” but gun reform.

Following the event, when publications picked up the story, what were the headlines? Time: “Read Barack Obama’s Speech on New Gun Control Measures.” The Atlantic: “Obama’s Emotional Speech on Gun Control.” NPR: “In Live Address, Obama Takes His Plan For Gun Control To The Public.”

Somehow, despite how careful Obama was, the buzzwords that fail to convey the intent of the executive actions are part of the messaging. The key takeaway here is obvious: wordsmiths and professional writers are just as crucial in the relaying of information as the original source. It is essential that writers are equipped to recognize the gap between words and messaging. When brevity takes importance over clarity, professional writers must know the path to take.

Political spin

To be fair, this article cannot account for political spin. As I mentioned, progress is convincing the other camp that an argument is valid and just. Opposition leaders may take an idea like gun reform and play up the term “Gun Control.” Two months after Obama’s gun reform address, Jennifer Baker, director of Public Affairs for a branch of the National Rifle Association stated, “President Obama’s obsession with gun control knows no boundaries.” Infamous right-wing publication Breitbart headlined their coverage of the address, “Tears Of Rage: Obama Cries During Gun Control Speech.”

There will always be someone that will try to take a message out of context or twist the words to cast it in a negative light. Professional writers can’t account for everyone, but when some of the top publications run a headline only a few words different from a controversial platform like Breitbart, shouldn’t we ask ourselves if we can do better?

As these social movements continue to arise, professional writers will not only be arbiters of truth but also arbiters of messaging. There will be times when wordsmiths will have to oppose the wording of a movement they support. There will be times when writers have to sacrifice nuance for brevity. In each of these instances, professional writers and wordsmiths will have to cast a long view of the culture and make uncomfortable decisions about words and the greater good.

#BlackLivesMatter

Rarely do we recognize a phrase’s inception as the start of a movement, but in the world of hashtags and trending feeds, this will become more common. There have been many movements that aimed to improve the treatment of Black communities in the United States: the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement and the list goes on.

With its popularity on social media, Black Lives Matter (BLM) ignited a new flame for social justice and has become the umbrella for like ideas. Phrases like “Hands up, don’t shoot,” or more recently (at the time of writing this), “I Can’t Breathe” have been tacked onto BLM as examples where police have murdered black citizens.

In my limited scope, I can’t yet say how this movement will play out for future generations. It is my hope we will see reforms for policing, an increase in accountability, and a better understanding of our diverse communities at large. However, I can see patterns already at play.

There are countless videos from populated cities and rural communities where chants that “Black Lives Matter” are met with the response, “All Lives Matter.” Demands to “Defund the Police” are dismissed outright. Again, all the context of an important movement stands on three words that, at face value, in communities distant from the issue or for people unwilling to hear it, is difficult to absorb.

It’s a crucial distinction: Black Lives Matter is saying All Lives Matter, but currently black lives are the ones being over-policed and murdered in the streets. I know that. Those protesting police brutality know that. It’s the people outside the scope of the message that need convincing. We should remember the names of the victims and honor them. But what better way to honor them than to bring about change? What better way to bring about change than to tailor our messaging?

President Obama spoke recently to Snapchat series Good Luck America about progressive slogans like “Defund the Police.” He said, “If you believe as I do that you should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it’s not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you could use a snappy slogan like ‘defund the police.’ But you know, you’ve lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.”

To see real systemic change, Black Lives Matter and related messaging will have to find acceptance in cities where Confederate monuments still stand. The message will have to travel to small towns like my high school alma mater, where only one black student was enrolled throughout my four years there. In large part, it will venture to these places through social media and headlines, where brevity is most important. Those messages will benefit from having a wordsmith who understands the missteps of progressive movements thus far. Black Lives Matter. To sensible citizens, of course they do. They should be a focus. But the inescapable caveat in this whole ordeal is that words matter too.

Future movements

This is not a critique of the Black Lives Matter movement or social progressivism. It is, however, an attempt to highlight the shortcomings of progressive messaging. I want to see progress in my lifetime. But I can’t help but wonder if progress would be faster if a wordsmith had stepped in early on for these movements; if Global Warming was always called Climate Change; if Gun Control was always called Gun Reform; if Defund the Polices was always Reform the Police. Would they be harder to dismiss at face value?

All professional writers and wordsmiths joining the ranks after this is published will encounter these messages. A select few will be involved in their creation. If the past and present have taught us anything, professional writers will have to be better than their predecessors at creating brief, impassioned messages that have mass appeal. Wordsmiths will need to weigh how their words can be twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools. Failure to do so will only impede progress and prevent change.