The lazy journalism guide to writing articles about zombies
Lazy Zombie will eat your brains
Yet another article has been published about the prominance of zombies in popular culture: ‘Zombies emerge when the economy ebbs‘. I was pretty excited when I saw this as I thought it would have something new to say about zombies and linking the undead to the economy.
It refers to a so-called ‘Zombie Index’, stating “when the going gets tough, analysts say, the tough turn to entertainment in which reanimated corpses embody our collective anxiety.” It backs this up with a reference to White Zombie’s release in 1932 during the Great Depression and 1968 (when Night of the Living Dead was released) as an year of economic downturn. Sounds impressive. Unfortunately, this argument is rubbish.
An article from Time from Dec 27 1968 entitled, The economy in 1968: an expansion that would not quit. Hardly a sign of zombies being linked to economic downturn. Also, if memory serves correctly, there weren’t many zombie movies during the 70s recession or during the early 90s.
If anything, zombies have been a cornerstone of horror (mainstream and niche) for years now, with Shaun of the Dead, Dead of the Dead (remake), 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Land of the Dead & Diary of the Dead, not to mention a legion of bad b-movies all made during ‘good’ economic times.
Zombies emerge when the economy ebbs is not a bad article but in essence it says pretty much the same things as Time (Zombies are the new vampires), the Daily Telegraph (Zombies and vampires: why do we love the undead?) and Arizona Republic (Zombies are a rising trend) have each said in the past 10 days or so.
If there are any lazy journalists out there wanting to fill a column with an article about the undead, I suggest you follow this formula.
- Introduce the article by talking about how popular zombies are the moment (you HAVE to mention that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a bestseller and how there World War Z and Zombieland are coming out soon).
- Talk about the history of zombies. Remember there are only six classic films you can refer to so use them wisely: White Zombie, I Walked with a Zombie, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead and 28 Days Later. Don’t bother googling any other zombie films. They probably aren’t important anyway.
- Good idea to get some quotes. They can either be academics (Canada.com), authors (Arizona Republic and Time) or just use that Woody Harrelson quote about thinking a photographer was a zombie (Daily Telegraph)
- Talk about what zombies mean. It is important to trot out the same crap that everyone else says: zombies have been used as a symbol of consumerism in Dawn of the Dead and the Vietnam War in Night of the Living Dead. Remember that they also symbolise the faceless crowd and play on fears of contagion.
- You don’t need to think about a new angle. However, if you’re feeling adventurous, make zombies seem even more current, link them to the economic recession. Don’t worry about little things like facts or doing proper research: it will take far too much effort.
- You might want to make a reference to vampires just for good measure.
Surely I should be happy that mainstream publications are printing articles about zombies. But I’m not: there is so much more they could be saying about zombies that is genuinely new and interesting. What about zombies as social media (Lost Zombies)? What about all the zombie flash mobs? Why’s it always the same consumerism/faceless crowd crap academics and writers have been saying for years now?
Of course, there is always my post about zombies (Help! Zombies are surrounding me!)…