Nobody reads anything, really?

The headline “Nobody Reads Anything” and the viral impact that the article by Argentine writer Leticia Martín in the newspaper Perfil has had suggest some ideas I would like to present here.

The headline is meant to grab attention, but it is imprecise. Denouncing in her column that she is owed six months of fees without any objections to her publication in the newspaper reveals, either, the complicity of the editor-in-chief/responsible editor, or that, indeed, neither the newspaper's managers read nor know what they publish.

The latter possibility is hard to admit because it would demonstrate a obscene and incompetent disinterest in the work of the professionals who produce the media. On the other hand, the first option (the complicity) could be a gesture of rebellion and/or resistance, as Noelia Ramírez points out in this column in El País.

The Argentine case reminds me of another that has gone viral in recent weeks in the Anglo-Saxon journalism world: the dissemination by several newspapers of a list of books to read in summer: only five of the fifteen works listed actually exist.

It was a syndicated text distributed to various media and created by an artificial intelligence system; a text that no one verified. The two previously mentioned possibilities also apply here: incompetence in reading and editing the text during the necessary checks or that it was also an act of protest or resistance.

We must take care of the reader

Finding a good reader has become a challenging task for those of us dedicated to writing journalism or literature. Most of the audience no longer reads as they did before the surge of mass content on the internet, but good readers still exist. Few, but good.

I consider myself a good reader for over forty years and have encountered many excellent readers throughout my professional and personal life. I dare say that a good reader cannot be fooled with low-quality material, whether it’s a poorly made newspaper or a badly written book.

The good reader values their time for what it is worth, has read a lot, and knows how to distinguish what deserves their attention and what does not.

As a journalist, I am saddened that there are media outlets and writers who do not seek the highest quality in the product they offer every day. The reader is their customer and, as we are seeing, there are fewer and fewer. But that does not mean they will disappear.

It is encouraging that there are journalists and writers willing to rebel. And that there are those willing to pay for quality work. Everything else already smells of mold.