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Poll: Running feature stories submitted by SIDs

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by BillySixty, Apr 24, 2016.

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Would you run a feature story submitted by a college's media relations department?

  1. Yes, both from schools both inside and outside of our coverage area (for local grads)

    6 vote(s)
    14.3%
  2. Only from a school outside of our coverage area (for local grads)

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  3. Probably, but it would depend on the quality of the story

    9 vote(s)
    21.4%
  4. Never

    27 vote(s)
    64.3%
  1. daytonadan1983

    daytonadan1983 Well-Known Member

    You're not my type.
     
    Batman likes this.
  2. DeskMonkey1

    DeskMonkey1 Active Member

    To my recollection, I have (under orders from the SE) ran a feature when someone died on two occasions.
     
  3. Old Time Hockey

    Old Time Hockey Active Member

    I had to do a little Googling, but I found it. Probably the all-time example of SID spin:

    Strong Pitching By GW Not Enough In 2-0 Loss To No. 1 Virginia
     
  4. Doc Holliday

    Doc Holliday Well-Known Member

  5. BillySixty

    BillySixty Member

    I appreciate all the comments.

    It's funny to me that some of you would run gamers from SIDs and not features. I think gamers tend to show SID bias way more than features. Most of the time, there's only one way to play a typical "Hey, this guy/gal is doing some good things" while gamers have two sides and the SID will always, as he/she should, take the side of their school.
     
  6. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    This discussion is fascinating to me. I work in a fairly large market, and our local schools' SIDs can barely produce a gamer that can be re-written into a few publishable grafs. A feature might take me 3 days to put into working order. But as others have said, if it's a good story without bias, I'd certainly give it some thought.
     
  7. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Speaking of poorly-written SID game stories, I saw this one a while back and it about made me want to run face first into an oncoming 18-wheeler. Thankfully the box score was attached and all I needed to write was a couple of paragraphs on the game.
    And, to be fair, I think it was written by a stringer or student and not the SID themselves.

    Delta Devils’ Season Ends with a Heartbreaking Loss to Jackson State
     
  8. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    Gah! Who won ... Oh, there it is. Awesome in the worst way!
     
  9. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    Damn. Lol
     
  10. Flip Wilson

    Flip Wilson Well-Known Member

    This line pretty much made that story.

     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    To give credit, I have seen some good work done by SIDs on obits of prominent former athletes. We have used the SID department to help confirm reports that a former athlete died. They have access to a lot of former athletes and sometimes put together nice, quote-filled obits and maybe photos you don't have.

    I don't have a problem leaning heavily on these.

    As for gamers, I think most larger papers use information submitted by schools and edit heavily for their format or maybe just pull out a few sentences.

    I just wish on things like tournaments or track/cross country meets, when the SID department puts together a story on how their school did, they would include the agate of the top team finishers and top individuals so you can better check to see if anything was missed or should be highlighted.

    Also, you may have a local kid at an out-of-state college who did well. But it seems that most of the time, school websites do not include the agate with the writeups, unless they were the host. And it can be a bear to find this stuff online.
     
  12. daytonadan1983

    daytonadan1983 Well-Known Member

    Well, I was expecting the SID contempt/disdain to rear its head eventually....

    1) That GW perfect game clusterfrak was a watershed moment for our office. We printed it out and took it to our baseball and softball coaches.
    Baseball coach: "This disrespects the game and the pitcher. It's our [expletive] job to hit the [expletive] ball and if we can't, the post-game article is the least of our concerns."
    Softball coach: "If you had to sit through that, you're entitled to write whatever you want....

    Ever since then, if we get no-hit, it's in the opening paragraph.

    2) I would not submit an article written by a student to the media. Bluntly, student writing isn't what it used to be when I was in school, and I blame Instagram and Stephen A. Smith. I told one class "I don't care what you think about Kobe vs. LeBron, can you crank out 135 words on Magic-Sixers at the buzzer and then 400- and 600- word write thrus within an hour? Welcome to the entry level."

    3) Again, I completely respect it if you don't want to use our features. Just remember, my bottom line is getting the most coverage for my players. If you need help, let me know. But I, and your probably do as well, pine for the day when the local shop has a gamer, a sidebar, a column, notes and stats the day after football instead of one 15-inch gamer written by someone marginally familiar with the program, along with mid-week notes and player profiles. We're trying to do that on our side on all our formats now.

    4) Speaking of features, what do you all think of this one?@BCUGridIron's Williams Draft Day Was Low Key - B-CUAthletics.com - The Official Web Site of Bethune-Cookman Athletics. It's our draft day piece. Since we have no one who will be drafted, I did this piece on one of our coaches' draft day experience. He went on to coach our two NFL All Pros.
     
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