Twitter and self plagiarism

[Rhody31]

You can click the blog if you want, but here's the nut:
ProJo news columnist writes "Tidbits" column with 29 tidbits; problem is 15 are tweets from the previous two weeks. There is nothing in print that says these are from his twitter feed.
It got me all fired up, so I blogged about with offending tweets.
To me, this is a common sense violation. You can't reproduce old work - regardless of where it's published - without credit somewhere. I tweeted out the link and the paper's Executive Editor replied "plagiarism is a serious and unwarranted allegation. Mark published his own work - just on another platform."

http://ruebsrealm.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/why-write-a-column-when-you-can-just-ctrlc-one-instead/

 

[LongTimeListener]

This is standard practice everywhere -- it isn't plagiarism, it's re-packaging. Your print (or even your Web) audience isn't likely to see your Twitter feed and vice versa.

I think this is a staple of the whole Digital First platform that Jon Paton is selling around the nation.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I have no problem with it.

It's different when it's Jonah Lehrer writing the same thing for two different publications.

This was the columnist's personal Twitter feed, right?

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems OK to me.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I usually tag three or four of my favorite tweets from the past week at the end of my column.

It would fall under the umbrella of repackaging, I suppose. Many of our readers do not "do" Twitter, regardless.

 

[SnarkShark]

Saying this is plagiarism is ****ing ridiculous.

 

[Rhody31]

It's his work feed, yes.
If he's using one-liners from the story with a link, I'm OK with that. But writing tweets then publishing them as original thoughts is wrong. Re-packaging tweets as original content robs the readers who use both platforms.
Just note it. Tell the readers "These are Tweets from his feed." Don't just put them out there and make people think he was sitting at his computer coming up with these.

I mention it in the blog, but the one about his son just leaving was ridiculous because he had left two weeks ago.

 

[Rhody31]

I usually tag three or four of my favorite tweets from the past week at the end of my column.

It would fall under the umbrella of repackaging, I suppose. Many of our readers do not "do" Twitter, regardless.

Do you note they are tweets?

 

[MisterCreosote]

By definition, you cannot plagiarize yourself.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I was reading a columnist the other day and he had two jokes in his column and I thought, "I've heard that joke before but I'm not sure where..." I went back and the same columnist had tweeted out the same comment during the game. I have no problem with that whatsover. It's this decade's version of saying something out loud in the press box and seeing if it gets a laugh.

A lot of comedians have said Twitter is great because they think of a joke, tweet it out and then later than can find a way to work it into their act.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

By definition, you cannot plagiarize yourself.

If you could, Rick Reilly would be Jayson Blair.

 

[LongTimeListener]

It's his work feed, yes.
If he's using one-liners from the story with a link, I'm OK with that. But writing tweets then publishing them as original thoughts is wrong. Re-packaging tweets as original content robs the readers who use both platforms.
Just note it. Tell the readers "These are Tweets from his feed." Don't just put them out there and make people think he was sitting at his computer coming up with these.

I mention it in the blog, but the one about his son just leaving was ridiculous because he had left two weeks ago.

You just plagiarized your opening post. Apologize!

 

[Mizzougrad96]

This is standard practice everywhere -- it isn't plagiarism, it's re-packaging. Your print (or even your Web) audience isn't likely to see your Twitter feed and vice versa.

I think this is a staple of the whole Digital First platform that Jon Paton is selling around the nation.

This.

 

[DeskMonkey1]

So, when a colleague of mine had his Master thesis published as a book*, was he plagiarizing himself? After all, he did move a few things around and cut out the academia stuff that had nothing to do with the actual book?

*a good book, actually, that I only discovered after I went back to school and it was on the reading list for my class.

 

[Rhody31]

It's his work feed, yes.
If he's using one-liners from the story with a link, I'm OK with that. But writing tweets then publishing them as original thoughts is wrong. Re-packaging tweets as original content robs the readers who use both platforms.
Just note it. Tell the readers "These are Tweets from his feed." Don't just put them out there and make people think he was sitting at his computer coming up with these.

I mention it in the blog, but the one about his son just leaving was ridiculous because he had left two weeks ago.

You just plagiarized your opening post. Apologize!

You're not paying to read the crap I spew here.
I pay to read original content in a newspaper. I did not read original content in that column today.

 

[Morris816]

Plagiarism, no. Although some people might find it to be laziness if you put too many of your own tweets together in a column, even if not everyone follows Twitter.

The Reilly example, though, is a pretty extreme one of recycling previous material.

 

[LongTimeListener]

It's his work feed, yes.
If he's using one-liners from the story with a link, I'm OK with that. But writing tweets then publishing them as original thoughts is wrong. Re-packaging tweets as original content robs the readers who use both platforms.
Just note it. Tell the readers "These are Tweets from his feed." Don't just put them out there and make people think he was sitting at his computer coming up with these.

I mention it in the blog, but the one about his son just leaving was ridiculous because he had left two weeks ago.

You just plagiarized your opening post. Apologize!

You're not paying to read the crap I spew here.
I pay to read original content in a newspaper. I did not read original content in that column today.

It was the first time you paid for that content, so newspaper FTW!

This is about as great an offense to journalism as was calling Aaron Hernandez character-deficient.

Your blog post was premature elocution. No need to defend it.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Can you post what the executive editor says in response to your tweet asking "how this isn't plagiarism?"

That should be pretty funny.

 

[Rhody31]

It's his work feed, yes.
If he's using one-liners from the story with a link, I'm OK with that. But writing tweets then publishing them as original thoughts is wrong. Re-packaging tweets as original content robs the readers who use both platforms.
Just note it. Tell the readers "These are Tweets from his feed." Don't just put them out there and make people think he was sitting at his computer coming up with these.

I mention it in the blog, but the one about his son just leaving was ridiculous because he had left two weeks ago.

You just plagiarized your opening post. Apologize!

You're not paying to read the crap I spew here.
I pay to read original content in a newspaper. I did not read original content in that column today.

It was the first time you paid for that content, so newspaper FTW!

This is about as great an offense to journalism as was calling Aaron Hernandez character-deficient.

Your blog post was premature elocution. No need to defend it.

Me? Overreact? GTFO.
Maybe I'm just sensitive because I spent my career following certain rules and ethics and did a damn good job of it and not I'm unemployed.
Meanwhile, this guy just copies old material and gets paid for it.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I can't help you with all that except to say if it has already happened to you, the chance of finding a good career path in journalism is probably very low. No reflection on you, just a reality of the business. Keeping a blog like that and a scorecard of transgressions does not appear to be helping you make that next move while you're young.

But regarding the thread ... not plagiarism.

 

[MisterCreosote]

A lot of people are guilty of nothing more than being hacks.

Get used to it.