As a content creator for Odyssey, I find interest in reading other creators’ articles to see different viewpoints, opinions, etc., so when a member of my Odyssey team shared an article with us to find out what we thought, I was interested in reading. The article is titled ‘Why Odyssey is Unethical,’ written by David Winfield Gustin. The main gist of the article is his belief that Odyssey is a money-hungry business that uses the younger generation for content without benefiting the creators. While I respect his honesty and guts for putting out such a bold statement, I can’t help but have a bit of a problem with it.
Let’s start with his claim that Odyssey is creating an “ethical dilemma” in the way it earns profits. As explained in Gustin’s article, Odyssey’s main income comes from advertisements, so where is the problem? There isn’t one. Odyssey is a business. Businesses make money. Without advertisements, how else would this platform be making money? Gustin seems to find it unfair that creators aren’t being paid larger amounts for their articles becoming successful, but businesses that are paying to be advertised on the website aren’t paying us creators, they are paying Odyssey--therefore we have no reason to expect that money. There is already a weekly incentive for getting the most shares, and that isn’t even necessary. Odyssey is in no way shape or form obligated to pay us creators for writing on this platform, so to claim that we deserve more money is absolutely unfair.
Now to address Gustin’s statements regarding his idea that Odyssey is taking advantage of the millennial generation. He states “The Odyssey Online took heavy advantage of the self-driven, ambitious millennial generation when it launched in June 2014, calling for content creators all over the country…”, but I struggle to see how advantage is being taken when the content creators being called for, in June of 2014, are content creators that willingly applied to write for Odyssey. This platform doesn’t go hunting for young people to become creators or terrorize neighborhoods for members of the younger generation, like Gustin makes it seem. Interested and motivated young adults have to apply to become a creator for Odyssey making it entirely their choice whether or not they choose to write on this platform; Odyssey isn’t forcing anyone into joining this community. I find it unfair to write such claims about a website that you write for let alone write such claims about a website that publishes your work week after week.
As young adults, and most of us students, we are lucky to have a platform in which to share our writing. We are quite fortunate that all we have to do is write, which is something I would assume all of us creators enjoy, and that’s it. We have people that edit for us and publish for us, how incredible is that? On top of all of this we have a place that is visited by millions of web-users, and is publishing our work to in turn be shared with the rest of the world. That’s almost unbelievable. It saddens me to think that a creator for Odyssey isn’t grateful for the opportunity we have with this platform. There is no other opportunity like this, and to take it for granted is just mind-blowing. If you don’t like the fact that you’re not getting paid more for willingly writing weekly articles for a platform that is publishing your work for free, then maybe you should reconsider your decision to write for Odyssey and start your own blog or something.
So David, after reading your article and getting an idea of your viewpoint on Odyssey, I guess my question for you is: if it’s so unbelievably unethical, why are you still writing for it?
