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Just slap me in the face...

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Rosie, Dec 23, 2014.

  1. Rosie

    Rosie Active Member

    I probably shouldn't be undone about this, but it just aggravates me to no end.
    My switch from sports to news years ago has me covering murder and mayhem. I work my butt off to cover this stuff, and for our local crimes, have the most complete stories.
    It is so frustrating to then come home, check Facebook for my second session of five minutes on the site for the day, and see my friends - not faceless entities, but people with whom I interact on a weekly if not daily basis - post links to the story (or stories) from a major city television station a hundred miles away which might have one complete paragraph, or another newspaper, again, many miles away.
    We're not a tiny paper, and I just want to scream at them, what the *** do you think I do for a living??!!! Can't you give me some credit here???
    But I don't. Although I should.
    K, rant over.
     
  2. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    It's not unusual for people who worked at my paper to post or tweet links to competitors' stories when we had it too.

    In your place I would post a lnk to your story in the comments and say something like "If you want more information, I have it here."
     
  3. I get why you're upset. But you also have to remember a lot of people just don't understand how media works. They see a story and post it. They're not thinking "my friend works in that city and may have that story". It sucks but that's the game.

    I've used the suggestion Ace gave and it works. I mean some of these people are still posting stories from fake media sites without checking to see if anywhere is reporting it. I can't get but so upset at them.
     
  4. MTM

    MTM Well-Known Member

    I'm annoyed when people post links to the out-of-town TV station stories which are a rehash of what I wrote the previous day.
     
  5. SnarkShark

    SnarkShark Well-Known Member

    Rosie, you need to talk to your web guys to get better SEO. Odds are, your friends are hearing about something and searching for it on Google or another search engine and probably going with whatever pops up first.
     
  6. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    Yeah, what Snark said.
     
  7. joe_schmoe

    joe_schmoe Active Member

    I don't get upset or miffed when my friends do this.
    But when breaking news hit here, we posted in our website, and several coworkers posted links to TV reports on their Facebook page. That irked me and I called out my coworkers (in general, not specifically).
    A couple coworkers got upset I did, but I didn't care. I was like, I'm still trying to keep this business alive (if for no other reason than to keep a paycheck), and if you aren't on board, get the ***** out.
     
    Ace likes this.
  8. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    Not only that, the other stations and sites might be using Facebook ads to target people like your friends.
     
  9. Bradley Guire

    Bradley Guire Well-Known Member

    I agree. Posting links from your own site and not the competiton's seems like it would be one of those common sense things, but I never underestimate the obliviousness of those outside the newsroom.
     
  10. Rosie

    Rosie Active Member

    This. And many times the rehash is very incomplete or just wrong.

    The links are from news organizations that don't normally cover my area. More often than not the links are from stations or newspapers 200 miles away, at minimum, 100 miles away.

    When a major crime happens here, it's THE talk of the town. It's not like people don't know I cover this stuff - Rosie, what REALLY happened with that stabbing?

    I don't know what the answer is - I've always been against posting my own stuff to FB on a regular basis, (it's most likely a cultural thing to my little corner of the world, you just don't toot your own horn.) I guess just seeing another one of those posts set me off and I needed to vent - in a spot where someone else may get what I'm saying.

    Oh well, just keep pluggin' away, I guess.
     
  11. Facebook is still a major driver of traffic for media. If you aren't posting your own work, why would I dig for it even if I'm your friend? Most people aren't going past the 1st page of Google and will take whatever is readily accessible.

    I respect the "don't toot your own horn" pov. I was raised similarly. However, in this day you have to be your own advocate.
     
  12. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Or in the newsroom.
     
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