Thursday Things: Apology Nostalgia Edition
31 August 2023. Vol 5 No 35. By Dan McGirt. #212
Welcome to Thursday Things! If you enjoy this edition, please click the heart icon in the header or at the end of the post to let me know.
Last chance to hit the beach! Photo by Lawrence Chismorie on Unsplash
The Apology Beat
Back in 2007 I was trying to figure out blogs — which were still relatively new. In those long ago days social media wasn’t really a thing. Facebook still had fewer members than Myspace. Twitter was barely a year old. The iPhone had just come out.
Blogs — short for “web logs” — and other personal websites were still the predominant mode of online personal expression. Platforms like Blogger, LiveJournal, Typepad, and WordPress were hot. Which is not to say blogs don’t still exist in various forms today, but most of the online action now seems to be on social media platforms — TikTok, the site formerly known as Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, etc.1
In 2007, I was late to the blog party.2 Many blogs functioned like personal online diaries, which is a format I had no interest in whatsoever. But being a writer I was intrigued by the idea of being able to write and publish musings to the world. Yet I wanted my blog to be about something. But not about writing advice, or how to get published, or any of the other things you might imagine a novelist would blog about.
What I finally settled on was covering “the apology beat” — writing about public apologies. The beauty of this topic is that it is always current and topical. There is an endless stream of companies, public officials, celebrities, and others making apologies. Thus was Apology Index born!
For the next two years I sporadically snarked at, dissected, analyzed, and graded various public apologies from around the world. It was fun. But I mainly thought of Apology Index as a learning experiment, a student project through which to figure out blogs, in preparation for eventually launching some bigger, better, and more worthy blog effort.
By 2009 I turned my main creative and publishing efforts toward launching Trove Books and reviving my Jason Cosmo fantasy adventure series.3 Thus Apology Index — or AI, as I called it for short — went by the wayside.
I’ve made a few sporadic posts from time to time in the past decade plus. The last new item was in 2019. I do occasionally muse about reviving AI (though it will probably need a new nickname) and going back to the apology beat.
Such musings were stirred once again this past week by two items that the foregoing has all been a long and winding introduction to. First this from Axios:
Social media algorithms fuel rise in public apologies
There has been a steady stream of public apologies coming from major beer brands, reality TV stars, tone-deaf bosses and even private individuals who go viral during their worst moments.
Why it matters: Social media algorithms fuel negative commentary, which can create a greater need for quick, clear apologies or explanations.
State of play: Social media firestorms can envelop brands and companies quickly, says crisis communications expert Molly McPherson.
"Suddenly they are a search term and a talking point that is shareable. When all of these things happen at once, you have a combustible social media inferno on your hands."
Just as social media eclipsed blogging it has also both accelerated and raised the stakes for public apologies. A recurring theme in my Apology Index commentaries was what I called the weaponization of apologies. I had a whole category for “Apology Demands” which usually involved an activist organization or other unhappy group loudly demanding an apology from company, prominent individual, or other target.
And then, when and if an apology was made, the apology demanders would invariably declare the apology to be insufficient. It often seemed to me that neither the apology demands nor the resulting apologies were sincere. It was all theater.
Social media has only accelerated this dynamic with “online outrage mobs” and “cancel culture” and all the other aspects that I certainly don’t need to explain. All I will say is Apology Index saw it coming.
Embedded in the Axios item was a second apology related item — a link to Public Apology Central:
Public Apology Central is the web’s best source for crisis summaries, transcripts, videos, and audio of public apologies (apologia) from politicians, celebrities, athletes, organizations, religious leaders, media figures, heads of state, and lay citizens. Apologia includes a variety of defensive strategies used by those accused of wrongdoing, including denial (“I didn’t do it), shifting blame (“He did it”), minimization (“It wasn’t that bad”), and mortification (“I’m sorry”). This site deals with all forms of persuasive defense and not simply “apology,” where one takes responsibility for his or her actions.
This site is basically two guys taking on the apology beat!
Dr. Kevin A. Stein is a Professor of Communication at Southern Utah University.
Wm. Bryan Paul is a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he studies political communication.
Public Apology Central — PAC among friends — is doing what I used to do by linking, transcribing, discussing, and categorizing public apologies. As an old hand on the apology beat, I think they’re doing a great job. Their approach is more academic and perhaps a bit drier than the classic Apology Index vibe, which is to be expected. I was going, in part, for entertainment value, whereas the PAC team seems more didactic. But the apology beat is vast and lends itself to a variety of approaches!
I don’t know how long PAC has been at it, but kudos to the authors of Public Apology Central for taking up the torch!
Yes, this has got me musing about the apology beat once more. What do you think, Happy Subscribers? Should Apology Index ride again? Let me know!
Legends say that in the hour of our greatest need, Apology Index will rise again. Source: Apology Index.
Mapping Pooh
Here at Thursday Things we love maps — including maps of places that never were.
As I child I always enjoyed the maps in fantasy novels and other whimsical works — be it Middle Earth, Narnia, the Hyborian Age of Conan, or the environs of Winnie the Pooh.
The maps somehow make fantastic stories more “real” in a way.
We can more easily place events, even fictional events, set in the real world because we, hopefully, have at least some sense of where real places are in relation to other — though real world maps are also helpful and awesome. If I read a story set in New York, even before I get to page one, I already have in my head at least some notion of where New York is and the general layout of the city, even if I don’t personally know every street and neighborhood.
But for fantasy worlds, you don’t have that. You’re going in blind. You don’t know where anything is in relation to anything else. Our brains don’t like disembodied events. We want to be oriented. We want to link events to locations. That’s where the maps help.
The website Laughing Squid points to this video providing A Wistful Tour of Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred-Acre Wood which discusses how the famous maps by E.H. Shepard enhance the experience of reading about Pooh and friends.
The Hundred Acre Wood is always there waiting for your visit.
Thank you for reading!
Please click the hearts, leave a comment, and use the share feature to send this issue to a friend who might enjoy it. See you next Thursday!
Thanks for reading Thursday Things! Subscribe for free to receive new posts directly to your inbox!
Email newsletters on Substack, such as Thursday Things, are certainly in the blog family. If you’re reading this edition on the Thursday Things website rather than in your inbox, it looks and functions much like a blog of yore.
I’m rarely an early adopter, though I did join Facebook when it was still The Facebook.
Available wherever fine ebooks are sold!
Write what makes you happy. If an AI revival will bring you joy, then go for it. Just don't take away my TT!