The who, what and why of Reprobate

Reprobate is an independent blog focused on news, views and reviews distributed over six core categories:

• Articles: long form in depth essays that focus on various socio-economic, political and environmental issues.
• Short cuts: news snippets, interestingness and short insights, covering life, the universe and everything.
• Travel: natural world news, travel essays and photo galleries with special emphasis on sustainability and conservation.
• Worthy: products, people and places that deserve your attention. We try to highlight only those that represent quality and integrity.
• Cinema: film reviews without stars, tomatoes or leprechauns. When we write about a specific film it is because we believe it is worth watching.
• History: a fresh take on historical events and characters that aims to promote insight and perspective.

What’s in a name?
Reprobate – unprincipled, predestined to damnation (according to the Oxford dictionary). Just like agnostics and iconoclasts were branded ‘reprobates’ by religious institutions for not following generally accepted dogma and doctrine, our commitment to quality content that is fearless, independent, informative and enlightening, sets us apart from most other publications.

What’s up with that tagline?
We decided on ‘Independent views for Freethinkers’ as our tagline since it reflects our support for opinions, ideas and discussions based on logic, reason and rational enquiry, independent from religion, authority, governments, dogmas or tradition.

WHO?

That’s an easy one to answer. We are a bunch of ridiculously good looking individuals who have made it their business, nay, mission, to defend humanity against the evils of low quality journalism and greedy media monopolies.

What qualifies us to make such a bold statement?
One of our core philosophies is that flashing an inane resume can never be a substitute for good quality content. Yes, we do have dubious qualifications from dodgy tertiary institutions. Yes, we have worked at senior level for even more dodgy companies across the world. Yes, we have vast combined experience in multiple disciplines, even critically important ones like pub crawling and skinny dipping. Actually some of us are exactly like the Leonard Cohen song about being a boxer, a doctor and a lover. We’ve been there, done that and we’ve got cupboards full of t-shirts. None of which are of any relevance – judge our content and engage / disengage accordingly.

Who we are not:
Ivory tower academics, pseudo-intellectuals, hipster philosophers, captains of industry, spin doctors or political animals. In fact, one of our aims with Reprobate is to light a fuse under aforementioned muppets by offering an alternative to main stream media, that respects its readers’ intelligence and adds value and insight to relevant topics.

WHY?

A perfect storm is brewing. Its main ingredients: media convergence, rampant consumerism, willful ignorance, corporate greed, machiavellian politics and self-congratulatory elitism. Together with increased functional illiteracy, large scale dumbing down and the pursuit of the lowest common denominator they have all played a part in the break down of democratic ideals and institutions worldwide. A spate of revolutions and protest movements have sprung up across the world in response to ever growing inequality, blatant exploitation & repression of certain communities and lack of access to limited resources. In many ways the world today is becoming less free and fair. A process that is set to worsen, unless we (that’s you and me) do something about it.

Reprobate is our not so humble attempt to add a bit of spice to the battle for content integrity in media. We believe that the key to a more equitable and sustainable society lies in access to quality information and education, diversity and transparency in media and access to affordable channels of communication.

That means 

• less government interference in and subterfuge of media freedom
• less de facto media and telecommunication monopolies
• less wannabe elitist publications with insular, sycophantic and incestuous media cultures
• more government investment in education, communication and information infrastructure
• more anti-trust legislation against media convergence
• more engagement by you in support of quality alternative media that does not have its head up its own arse.

OUR VISION

To be your favourite:
PLATFORM for dynamic conversation and constructive dialogue
RESOURCE for independent news, views and reviews
CATALYST for social awareness

HOW?

• Producing quality content
• Focusing on long form comprehensive journalism
• Promoting insight into a wide variety of socio-economic, environmental and political issues
• Facilitating constructive debate and alternative views and solutions
• Supporting quality cinema & literature, and sustainable travel
• Developing multiple platforms for content delivery and discussion

What we ARE about:

• Journalism should be about producing news, not rehashing it.
• Content (writing, audio or video) should be original, creative, entertaining and incorporate solid research.
• Although we are not news aggregators we may from time to time publish outside content if we feel that it has not received enough recognition in main stream media and is aligned with our core values.
• Our content should make a difference and make the reader reflect and engage.
• We support open access to knowledge, analysis and opinion.
• We strive to speak truth to power without fear or favour (aka as our favourite cliché )
• We continuously search for alternative & fresh perspectives on a wide range of subjects.
• We subscribe to an inclusive, interconnected/holistic world view (weltanschauung for the aspiring politicians and diplomats among you).
• Our geographic perspective is global, with special emphasis on South Africa as a microcosm of the wider world.
• We celebrate mirth, the theatre of the absurd, an irreverent attitude and the ability to not take ourselves too seriously. Life is too tedious and dull otherwise.

What we are NOT about:

Whatever crap is trending right now, regurgitation, slick packaging, vacuous social gossip, superfluous technology and applications that detract from actual content. Packaging and marketing campaigns have become disproportionately influential over what media we consume. A process that caters for the lazy, the ignorant and the vapid.

THE ROAD AHEAD:

Our goal is to eventually expand Reprobate across multiple platforms including podcasts, a video channel, short films, documentaries, e-books and printed media. Each platform will have a slightly different approach to the major topics and offer different access and participation options to the public. The core approach is one of collaboration and exploring subject matter from different angles in order to maximise insight and perspective.

WE ARE SOLICITING YOUR SUPPORT:

Producing quality content, editing contributions, new article research, website development and maintenance are all very time consuming. A situation that will intensify with the planned expansion of Reprobate across multiple platforms. Time and energy we could have devoted to our international modelling careers or some other form of twittery. We do not want to follow a commercial model based on ads plastered all over the site. We believe that it not only detracts from the quality of the reader’s experience, but that it also allows too much corporate involvement. As it is there have been instances at well known publications where advertising agencies and advertisers dictated content relevant to their products or services. Scary isn’t it?

We want to retain our independence and integrity at all costs, but we have to pay bills like everyone else. We also believe that a pay wall is not the answer since it promotes exclusivity based on the ability to contribute in stead of being inclusive and accessible to everyone.

So the obvious solution would be to approach like minded people who share our values and would like to support Reprobate as a truly independent platform. The level of support from you, the readers, will also determine the expansion of Reprobate to other platforms, such as podcasts and video, which of course means even more quality content and opportunities to participate.

CONTRIBUTE TO REPROBATE:

 

CONTACT US:

Send your love, hate mail or any queries to:

 

Let us know what we can do better, where we flopped or god forbid what we managed to get right. We thrive on compliments and constructive criticism. Your feedback is valued and crucial to the continued evolution of Reprobate.

Finally, and probably the most important part of this magisterial manifesto of ours, THANK YOU! Thank you for taking the time out to read these ramblings or any of our articles. Thank you for leaving comments, subscribing, following us on social media or sharing our scribbles. Your participation is much appreciated.