Radio Punk Editorial 4 – February 2021

Radio Punk Editorial 4: Should webzines and fanzines still exist in 2021?

This thought came to us after some considerations that made us think all together at some point. It all began with an observation that might seem trivial, but for us, it actually felt like finding Pandora’s box.

We came across some websites that felt the need to specify, before every article, how long, in minutes, it’ll take to get through it. Aside from a small annoyance at first glance (why should the web dictate my timing?), this observation led us to reflect on writing and reading times on the internet.

The first point, the more straightforward: how do you calculate the reading time for an article? I could potentially be looking for information, meaning I’d scroll the page fast, concentrating on keywords. I might, alternatively, be focusing not just on the article’s content, but on its choice of words and its style of writing as well, picking apart the sound of every term. In this case, my reading time would be much longer than what it might be if we consider the first example.

The second point, analyzing the situation more in-depth: why is it necessary to state the reading time of an article? Is it because we don’t have enough time to spend on reading? Maybe the huge length of an article could discourage us from reading it? For us, considering we spend most of our free time writing these articles, would be really important to know if these things are actually being read. In the social world, the one where we absentmindedly scroll through our home pages, a pic or a title might catch our attention for a second, and then? Do we really click on the link to open a piece of news, a review, or an interview?

Maybe, to fully understand the problem, we should take a step backward: usually on the internet, things aren’t there without a purpose, if the reading time is mentioned is because it’s been observed to be working. Then, why does it work? Are we losing our impulse to read? Is it being noticed that if a website ensures a shorter reading time, people are keener to open it? This takes us straight into another consideration, how to get the attention of a “not so interested” crowd.

It’s well known that nowadays clickbaiting is massive, with its only aim being getting said crowd to click on the link, but how many of them, even when falling for the title, genuinely read more than the first four lines? That could be the reason websites like to anticipate the reader as to say: Wait! It won’t take you longer than 5 minutes, just the time to drink a coffee and you’re done!

You may be thinking “whatever, you’re making this deeper than it is”. Perhaps. Still, we like to analyze these instances because they involve everyone, seeing as we all spend at least some time per day on the internet lately.

It is also true that our attention span drastically diminished, falling victim to the rhythm of digital capitalism and the pace this system sets for us. What if the most obvious answer turns out to also be the right one? Maybe what we’re lacking is time to sit down and read with no rush.

“Jeez, enough with the chitchat. Weren’t we talking about fanzines and webzines?”
See what we mean!? You’re already losing focus. We’re getting there.

To keep on existing on the internet, webzines are “forced” to submit to standards set by digital marketing, with the risk of straying too far from the goal that they set for themselves while starting out. After all, paper-based fanzines are all about informing and spreading the DIY verb, both in the style of them, being in fact self-produced, and in contents, mostly depicting bands, venues, more generally everything underground. With the advent of the web, this style of communication evolved clashing inevitably with the methods of digital capitalism.

This choice has both pros and cons. Through blogs, pages, websites, and such, it’s much simpler to share info related to our sub-culture for free and on a bigger scale. On the other hand, we’re bound to fight with a world that doesn’t belong to us, considering the dynamics of information’s spread are based solely on marketing.

As a matter of fact, while with paper-based fanzines you had to be headfirst into not only the production side of things, but also on everything that concerned distribution, targeting the curious and knowledgeable, now we found ourselves sharing contents on a platform that’s prey to an algorithm, not knowing if we’ll end up on the home page of people that actually follow us, or even care. Furthermore, whoever follows a webzine might be losing the curiosity of actively searching for things, it’s sad but we’re all lazily getting used to reading only what shows up in front of us, “everything immediately” but in the worst way possible (poor Nanni Balestrini).

As we often like to bring up, these new means of communication are to be used critically and consciously. We should all, ourselves very much included, go back to be curious, researching information the old way, read, create, and spread self-productions. Because in the end, the problem isn’t about “today vs yesterday” or “paper vs web”, but it usually falls back to ourselves and our choices. We decide not to read past the title, we scroll absentmindedly our social home pages, we are more and more ok with plastic contents made with no passion. There’s an entire world of fanzines on paper, webzines, blogs, record labels, publishers, and so on just waiting to be discovered and supported.

So, to get back into the main question, which is if it still makes sense to work hard on projects like webzines or fanzines these days, our answer is a resounding yes – if anything we need more – in the end, is up to us how to spend our free time and our lives.

Simply put… TAKE YOUR TIME, READ WITH NO RUSH AND SUPPORT THE DIY CULTURE!

Translated by Teo

Reminder

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