Aren't there a whole range of media jobs that do just this, from blogger, to journalists, youtube hosts, or documentary makers, etc. It may be very difficult/risky to get to an independent financially sustaining position doing this, but it's not an impossible aspiration. I do think the author is downplaying the difficulty to even himself though.
The problem with all media jobs like this is that you are beholden to the media. You aren't self-employed in the sense the author of the piece is using that term; you don't have sole control over what you say, what you investigate, etc.
Even if you're self employed, you're beholden to your customers. With Patreon, you're beholden to your collective patrons. But maybe that was your original point that I misunderstood.
Still, I'd say in many of those jobs you have the self-determination to choose any topic. You just can't guarantee that there won't be any blowback of you pick some topic of controversy.
> maybe that was your original point that I misunderstood.
Sort of. If you're a journalist working for a media company, from the viewpoint of the media company, the value you're producing isn't your content, except indirectly. The direct value you produce is in attracting eyeballs, and hence ad revenue. So if your goal is to produce value with your content and get paid for that, you're not going to achieve that goal working for a media company, except as a lucky side effect.
If you're self-employed and being supported by your readers (say, by Patreon contributions), then you are producing value with your content, directly. That was my understanding of the goal of the author of the article.
> I'd say in many of those jobs you have the self-determination to choose any topic. You just can't guarantee that there won't be any blowback of you pick some topic of controversy.
You can't guarantee no blowback if you pick a controversial topic no matter how you are getting paid. The difference is in how that plays out. If you work for a media company, your future depends on the people running the media company and whether they will support you. If you work for yourself, your future depends on your readers and whether they will support you.
