The Illusion of Unity – When “Movement” Becomes Message Control

Posted bystenoimperiumPosted inCourt Reporting, Judicial Ethics Watch, SITCTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 
Editor’s Note:
This article examines the messaging, branding, and public positioning of Steno in the City™ as reflected in its own promotional materials. It is an opinion-based analysis of rhetorical strategies and community dynamics within the stenographic profession. The purpose of this piece is to encourage critical thinking, transparency, and healthy dialogue—not to allege wrongdoing or to cast judgment on any individual. All observations herein relate solely to publicly available communications and are offered as commentary.

When professional gatherings in the court reporting world first began taking on the tone of rallies and celebrations, rather than continuing education seminars, many reporters welcomed the break in monotony. After years of legislative battles, agency consolidation, anti-steno lobbying, and the creeping spread of digital recording and automatic speech recognition, the idea of “fearless growth” offered a moment of collective exhale.

But in the fifth year of the Fearless Stenographers Conference hosted by Steno in the City™—now rebranded under slogans like “STENO United”—a deeper question emerges: When does empowerment become branding, and when does branding become a shield against accountability?

This is not a critique of conferences. The profession needs spaces to gather, learn, and reconnect. It needs joy. It needs community. It needs pride.
What it does not need is the elevation of one organization’s imagery, language, and mythology into the singular lens through which the steno community is expected to see itself.

Below is a closer look at how inspiration can be used not only to energize a community—but also to insulate the people who claim to lead it.

I. The Festivalization of Advocacy

The Fearless Stenographers Conference began as a grassroots-styled event that promised something the profession deeply craved: solidarity and survival in the face of existential challenges. But each year, the tone has shifted away from substantive advocacy toward spectacle, aesthetic branding, and marketable emotion.

The latest promotional materials read less like a professional conference announcement and more like a luxury lifestyle summit:

  • “A Legacy in Motion”
  • “Fearless Evolution Black Tie Affair”
  • “Steno Legends”
  • “An unforgettable STENO XPERIENCE”

The imagery is aspirational, celebratory, cinematic. But behind the glittering façade lies a crucial absence: details about policy, reform, accountability, or measurable impact on the profession.

Advocacy becomes performance.
Performance becomes identity.
Identity becomes product.

And the profession—struggling with shortages, legislative threats, and agency overreach—gets reduced to a curated vibe.

This is the festivalization of advocacy: the transformation of professional urgency into an entertainment-driven event cycle, where difficult truths are replaced by downloadable inspiration.

II. When Inspiration Becomes Insulation

Every movement uses uplifting language. The difference is whether the language invites scrutiny or deflects it.

Steno in the City™ repeatedly frames itself as:

  • “the place where everyone feels seen and heard”
  • “the movement that unites us”
  • “a legacy empowering the profession”

But declarations of safety and inclusion can become rhetorical weapons when deployed without transparency.

The more an organization declares itself a refuge, the harder it becomes for anyone to question its leadership, finances, internal practices, or claims of influence. Criticism of the group begins to read—intentionally or not—as criticism of the community itself.

This is a known pattern in branding psychology:
Emotional uplift creates a protective shell.
Within that shell, leaders become unchallengeable, not because they are flawless, but because they have wrapped themselves in the language of empowerment.

Inspiration, when unchecked, stops being fuel.
It becomes insulation.

III. The Risk of Centralized Identity

Perhaps the most concerning rhetorical shift is the elevation of “STENO United” as the implied umbrella identity for the profession. The language suggests a unification not built around institutions, ethics, or democratic input—but around a single brand.

One brand ≠ one profession.

Court reporting is sustained by thousands of independent reporters, educators, officials, freelancers, small firms, captioners, students, and legislators. No single organization—certainly not a private entity—can rightfully claim to be the gathering place, the movement, or the heart of the field.

Yet the promotional framing positions the Fearless Stenographers Conference as precisely that:

“The place where everyone feels welcomed. The gathering place for unity, collaboration, and legacy.”

This language may seem harmless, even heartwarming. But the underlying implication is powerful:
Real unity looks like alignment with us.

And that is where branding crosses the line from celebration into narrative control.

IV. The Silencing of Professional Dissent

In the current messaging ecosystem around Steno in the City™, critical voices are not engaged—they are marginalized. Questions about governance are dismissed as negativity. Requests for transparency are reframed as attacks. Concerns about ethical leadership become “haters,” “jealousy,” or “toxicity.”

“Unity rhetoric” is a known sociological phenomenon. It creates a perceived moral obligation to stay silent in the name of harmony:

  • If you speak up, you’re breaking unity.
  • If you question leadership, you’re harming the movement.
  • If you ask for accountability, you’re destroying the community’s spirit.

This is how dissent is suppressed without ever being censored outright.

The message becomes clear:
There is room for everyone—unless you challenge the narrative.

That is not unity.
That is control.

V. A Call for Distributed Leadership

The solution is not to end conferences, celebrations, or community events. Those things matter, and they matter deeply. But the profession needs distributed leadership, not a singular branded empire claiming to embody the heart and voice of stenography.

True empowerment requires:

  • Transparency
  • Multiple voices
  • Ethical consistency
  • Accountability
  • Open dialogue
  • Respect for dissent
  • A diversity of organizations and educators
  • A profession that is bigger than any one movement, personality, or brand

Court reporters do not need to be “united” under a single slogan.
They need to be strengthened by a profession where leadership is earned—not curated.

Steno’s future will not be secured by black-tie galas or stylized messaging.
It will be secured by the daily grind of real advocacy, honest conversations about the challenges we face, transparent leadership, and the refusal to replace substance with spectacle.

The profession deserves celebration—yes.
But it also deserves truth.
It deserves accountability.
It deserves leadership that does not fear scrutiny.
It deserves unity built on ethics, not branding.

Because the real story of court reporting has never been about a single movement.
It has always been about the thousands of reporters who carry this profession on their backs every day—fearless not because a conference told them to be, but because survival has always required it.

StenoImperium
Court Reporting. Unfiltered. Unafraid.

Disclaimer

Clarifying Disclaimer:
The reflections and critiques expressed in this article represent the author’s personal interpretations of public-facing statements, branding language, and advocacy narratives. No statements in this article should be read as factual assertions about the internal operations, intentions, or conduct of Steno in the City™ or any of its organizers. Where concerns are raised, they are presented as subjective viewpoints grounded in the author’s experience within the profession.

Legal Disclaimer:
This article is intended for informational and editorial purposes only. It does not purport to make claims of illegal, unethical, or improper behavior by any individual or organization. The analysis provided constitutes protected opinion under the First Amendment and is based solely on publicly disseminated materials. Readers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions and to engage in constructive discussion. Nothing in this article should be interpreted as legal advice.

“This article includes analysis and commentary based on observed events, public records, and legal statutes.”

The content of this post is intended for informational and discussion purposes only. All opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are based on publicly available information, industry standards, and good-faith concerns about nonprofit governance and professional ethics. No part of this article is intended to defame, accuse, or misrepresent any individual or organization. Readers are encouraged to verify facts independently and to engage constructively in dialogue about leadership, transparency, and accountability in the court reporting profession.

  • The content on this blog represents the personal opinions, observations, and commentary of the author. It is intended for editorial and journalistic purposes and is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
  • Nothing here constitutes legal advice. Readers are encouraged to review the facts and form independent conclusions.

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Published by stenoimperium

We exist to facilitate the fortifying of the Stenography profession and ensure its survival for the next hundred years! As court reporters, we've handed the relationship role with our customers, or attorneys, over to the agencies and their sales reps.  This has done a lot of damage to our industry.  It has taken away our ability to have those relationships, the ability to be humanized and valued.  We've become a replaceable commodity. Merely saying we are the “Gold Standard” tells them that we’re the best, but there are alternatives.  Who we are though, is much, much more powerful than that!  We are the Responsible Charge.  “Responsible Charge” means responsibility for the direction, control, supervision, and possession of stenographic & transcription work, as the case may be, to assure that the work product has been critically examined and evaluated for compliance with appropriate professional standards by a licensee in the profession, and by sealing and signing the documents, the professional stenographer accepts responsibility for the stenographic or transcription work, respectively, represented by the documents and that applicable stenographic and professional standards have been met.  This designation exists in other professions, such as engineering, land surveying, public water works, landscape architects, land surveyors, fire preventionists, geologists, architects, and more.  In the case of professional engineers, the engineering association adopted a Responsible Charge position statement that says, “A professional engineer is only considered to be in responsible charge of an engineering work if the professional engineer makes independent professional decisions regarding the engineering work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional engineer’s physical presence at the location where the engineering work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the engineering work.” If we were to adopt a Responsible Charge position statement for our industry, we could start with a draft that looks something like this: "A professional court reporter, or stenographer, is only considered to be in responsible charge of court reporting work if the professional court reporter makes independent professional decisions regarding the court reporting work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional court reporter’s physical presence at the location where the court reporting work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the court reporting work.” Shared purpose The cornerstone of a strategic narrative is a shared purpose. This shared purpose is the outcome that you and your customer are working toward together. It’s more than a value proposition of what you deliver to them. Or a mission of what you do for the world. It’s the journey that you are on with them. By having a shared purpose, the relationship shifts from consumer to co-creator. In court reporting, our mission is “to bring justice to every litigant in the U.S.”  That purpose is shared by all involved in the litigation process – judges, attorneys, everyone.  Who we are is the Responsible Charge.  How we do that is by Protecting the Record.

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