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Wizard Ferret · 02-03-2022, 06:09 PM

Those of us following this round of cabinet elections know the Ministry of Media is in dire straits, in the absence of any competition for Belschaft it appears to be heading towards its end. Who better to rescue it in its time of need than a Wizard Ferret?

Admittedly this campaign will be unconventional. I have only recently become actively engaged in the region and as such I do not have anything to point to that I have contributed to TSP beyond updating with SPSF. By necessity the opening component of this campaign will function as an introduction of myself and my contributions in NS that I believe indicate I can do the job of Minister of Media in the way people have expressed they want it done; namely as someone dedicated to running an actual newspaper that does more than publish occasional op eds and interviews.

Who I Am

Wizard Ferret was founded in the middle of last month, it is however not my original nation on NS. When I joined in 2019 (of course still a baby nation to most in this region) it was as Dome Artan. For the year I spent on NS subsequent to that I was heavily involved in one of our allied UCRs: The Union of Democratic States. Here I was alternatively a Senator, Vice President, Deputy Minister of multiple ministries and most importantly WA Delegate.

My initiatives in these roles are all I have to demonstrate the kind of individual I am, and believe can be in the Minister of Media role. My time as WA Delegate for UDS saw that regions most successful period of endotarting, influence gain and Delegate endorsements. I admit before anyone points it out, the Drew wave coincides with the start of that time but the impact of my programs outlasted the crashing of said wave. Those programs took the form of a manual version of TSP’s SWAN and it was actually my interest in SWAN that first got me involved in TSP as a diplomat. What I lacked in coding knowledge I made up for in commitment, I published three dispatches a week to meet my goals of increasing Delegate endorsements and increasing the Union’s average influence and endorsement rate. These consisted of a dispatch reminding those in the WA to endorse the delegate, a dispatch to award those who had endorsed significant portions of the region and a dispatch to keep track of our WA stats and goals. I also manually sent out lists of unendorsed WA nations by telegram to each WA nation and kept an updated dispatch of the region’s WA members that I would direct people to endotart off of. The impacts of this effort are easily determined. The UDS gained almost one million influence in my 182 days as Delegate, current Union influence is around two million. In a region that is over six years old my programs over a period of half a year (April-October 2020) contributed half the region’s total ever influence (see graph below). Additionally, and my personal pride, was the average endorsements in the region which reached as high as 17 per nation putting us in the top ten NS wide. For context this would be the 5^th most in NS today.

That’s a lot of information that probably only makes you go, “well that’s nice and all Wizard Ferret but it doesn’t mean anything to us”, and fair enough. What it does demonstrate though is the level of commitment I can put into NS when I want to accomplish something and I want to try to put that effort towards the Ministry of Media.

I acknowledge this approach leads to significant burnout, my first go round on NS ended with my sudden withdrawal because I was exhausted. I am confident this can be avoided again because of my belief that TSP will be able to provide more support than UDS. I love the UDS, it’s still my home on NS and I hope saying that doesn’t discourage any voters but I refuse to deny it, the region is however a UCR with logically far less capable people to help out than a region like TSP. I also trust that whoever is elected PM will be more than able to support the Ministry of Media. With that said I do not expect burnout to be an issue.

Why I Am Running

I’ve already referenced Belschaft’s campaign here and that is the prime motivator for why so soon after becoming actively involved in TSP I am campaigning in a Cabinet election. It’s not that I am diametrically opposed to their statements but instead that I wish the voters have an actual choice for the future of the Ministry of Media. I know what happens when someone runs against RON, they are almost inevitably elected often times without full knowledge of what they stand for. I don’t agree for that reason that if Belschaft is elected running only against RON it is the referendum on the Ministry that it has been made out to be. Instead by also declaring my candidacy I enable the region to have actual options for the Ministry, if I am defeated it is a much clearer sign we as TSPers are for the Ministry’s abolishment than if Belschaft defeats RON alone.

However I wouldn’t have committed as many words as I already have if I intended to only be an AGAINST vote in regards to abolishment. I am genuinely excited to have the chance to create and run a newspaper. I enjoy writing and here I’ll again reference my UDS past. I only wrote one article there (which I can link if interested), the time spent on WA dispatches prevented much else, but the opportunity to write creatively and engage on a different level in the government RP that NS essentially is, was tremendous fun and motivated me to come to this decision.

The Actual Campaign

We’re finally here! The introductory component is complete, I hope I’ve answered the Who and Why effectively but please feel free to engage with me on those topics as well. Now begins the What. Immediately I must concede I do not know how the Ministry currently operates, I am not in the Ministry channel, I only know what the Charter lays out, what the Minister’s office in the Cabinet forum says and what I’ve read on the discord these last couple days about people’s thoughts on the Ministry. With that said if my plans seem out of step with expectations for the Ministry that is the reason.

Becoming a Newspaper

The Ministry currently appears to release content when someone feels like writing something. This isn’t how a newspaper works and based on my understanding there is general agreement that The Southern Journal was intended to mimic TRT and NST in its scope and styling. Part of this is in fostering a newspaper culture which I discuss below. The other part is in having set ideas to cover in issues of TSJ, along with the fact there should be issues! TSJ should not continue to release independent one off articles, in this regard Belschaft is absolutely right. If that’s all The Ministry is going to do, why have one? Independent citizens can release one off articles, they don’t need a Ministry for that. What they do need a Ministry for is for collating everything into one publication that by virtue of covering multiple topics makes it worth reading and engaging with. On that note the topics covered by The Southern Journal should cover everything the region does. I have in mind specifically the roleplay, I understand it might not be the most interesting to some readers but as a Ministry paper it must cover all the events of the region and similarly to how I’ve seen Culture comments about the roleplay’s regional involvement, TSJ commitment to covering it will help make it seem more part of the community and less an offshoot.

A New Ministry Culture

Not a new Ministry of Culture but a new focus on engagement in this Ministry. People want to see an actual newspaper published by The Southern Journal so why not incorporate that idea into the Ministry? I want to develop the Ministry subculture to mimic a newspaper writing room. The Ministry of Defence has its soldiers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has its ambassadors. They have been formatted in an interesting way that isn’t constrained to just existing as a ministry. The Ministry of Media should do likewise. How is this accomplished? Currently I am not really certain, without actually taking in the hidden Ministry channels and forums I can’t say what needs changing. Ideally there would be correspondents to specific topics in NS just like how you have a politics writer, a foreign affairs writer, a book reviewer in a real life newspaper or magazine. Would pigeonholing people into what they can write about be detrimental or is there even the staff to cover different aspects of NS, I can’t say but I think its worth an effort to make the ministry more engaging to its staff.

Recruitment

Again I don’t know the staffing situation of the Ministry. I do know however that relying on independent applications on an offsite forum will certainly cut down the amount of people that will apply for this or any Ministry. For a ministry like FA or Defence that require more of an understanding of what NS is at a base level this is actually helpful, but for the Ministry of Media I don’t think relying only on these applications is the way to success. There are hundreds of posts on the RMB a day, there are plenty of active people onsite that will never migrate offsite. Recruiting from amongst them will enable both more writers and a different take on NS and the region to get its place in the sun. Similar to my previous comments about the roleplay community, people onsite are also part of TSP and appealing to them is just as important as appealing to those of us on Discord.

Outside TSP

Despite what I’ve written about appealing to all groups in the region, the Ministry should not be limited to publishing only for the region. From what I am aware NST and TRT are in downswings of inactivity. When I returned to NS and rejoined the UDS server I thought they had unsubscribed from the NST announcements channel because the most recent article was months ago. This could potentially allow TSJ to step into the interregional news niche. Not only will publishing on other region happenings be more representative of the newspaper ideal I hope to create but it also could open the eyes of groups at home to the wider world of NS. For most of us on the Discord we see the important regional events in real time, “oh there’s an election in TNP of course we know about it half of us are in their Discord as well”. The vast majority of our population however is not as involved and having interregional news could potentially engage some of them in the NS that we try to spread, the NS that isn’t just a nation simulator with chat feature but one that is a uniquely vibrant political simulator.

Interviews

I admit, and no disrespect is intended, I am not a fan of current interview formats. Now I understand why they typically (and I mean for TSP and UDS, the regions where I am involved in and see published interviews) follow a list of set questions and that is all. After all we are all people with lives that exist outside of a multiple decade old browser game and doing an interview the way I see it, conversationally where the published article isn’t just a straight deposit of a chat log, takes both more time and more importantly coordination to find the time in equally busy lives. That said I want to make an effort to publish more meaningful interviews. After all, as I’m sure most or all of us can agree, NS is really only fun because of the people we meet through it. I know I didn’t return from a year absence because I was so excited to answer issues. Interviews are the best way to get that human element across in a newspaper and when done with interesting subjects can be the best part of any release. With that in mind I would try to interview people outside the region, not because you all aren’t interesting, I’m personally fascinated by some of the stories you would be able to tell but because most people in the region know each other and would likely have heard the interview content before. Interviewing figures in other regions (who I admit due to NS’ nature some people would already know very well) has a better chance of resulting in an interview that is interesting and not just repeated facts we've all heard before.

Conclusion

Ok so that was a lot of text and not formatted particularly interestingly either, I apologize. What I hope it demonstrates is: I am not just someone seeking a resume bullet point as I’ve seen the Ministry of Media mentioned as being such; I am someone eager to try and make the Ministry of Media into something everyone agrees is important; and that I am someone that isn’t just writing a text wall one time and won’t back it up with activity, please see my section on my time in UDS.

I understand that if I am elected it will be not on my merits, which are unproven in the region, but in your belief in the merits of the Ministry of Media. I will work to ensure that belief is repaid.

A Final Note

RL I am a student in my last year of University, time commitments will not be a problem for me barring usual exam periods and the short transition period I have to working full time come May.

Conflict of Interest Declaration

In TSP I am a legislator, ambassador to The League and recently promoted soldier in the SPSF.
In UDS the only other region I am involved in I am a citizen, Deputy Minister of Defence and a Colonel in the UDSAF.
There is not likely to be any conflict of interest as UDSAF and SPSF are committed defender allies.
If time commitments become an issue I will resign my positions in the UDS and UDSAF.

(This post was last modified: 02-04-2022, 03:16 AM by Wizard Ferret.)