Word On The Street

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Word On The Street, often referred to as just The Word, is an underground newspaper. Distributed for free in poorer parts of the city such as Forum and the Decay Belt (The Cluster, Fringetown etc.), the newspaper focuses on exposing questionable actions of megacorporations, agencies, politicians and others in positions of power, as well as publishing political content and art with radical anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian messages. It is one of extremely few running media publications that is still print-only, likely because of the privacy risk that would come with regularly publishing such content online plus its impoverished target audience. Of the many similar attempts to oppose megacorporations and criticize current society using underground journalism, WOTS is by far the most successful and longest-running publication of its kind. The countless efforts to shut down or restrict the publication have failed in most cases. The City Security Department has called the newspaper "a worrying source of unrest and disinformation", and IMSurance forces infamously shot and killed 2 trespassers in 2081 on the suspicion of being Word on The Street journalists. They later turned out to be poor teenagers with no known connection to the organization. Both CSD and IMSurance are known to be actively investigating WOTS. Of the many corporations that have been covered by the newspaper, very few have acknowledged the criticism: Norah Ima, PR spokesperson for ATG being one of the few, calling them a "slanderous extremist group, not to be taken seriously by any of our customers".

Structure

Word On The Street is an extremely secretive organization, and exactly who is behind the publication has never been known to the public. Differences in writing style, layout and even quality of the printing paper has led to plausible speculation about both staff and headquarters location being frequently changed around. The Union of Hope is known to help with distributing the newspaper, along with their deliveries of food and necessities to the cities' poorest areas. Whether there is any explicit affiliation between the two is unknown, but the newspaper predates the Union by several decades.

Public Agenda

Aside from the famous "Spread The Word" slogan, Word On The Street describes itself as "the people's magnifying glass, exposing what you have the right to know about the world around you and the people above you" and "for free, for freedom". The newspaper is opposed to capitalism as a system, accusing it of creating an extreme class divide where the majority of people suffer, and has promoted revolution on several occasions. Texts by prominent socialists, anarchists and anti-technology activists have been featured in the paper.