Newspaper reporters used to keep an eye on the clock, watching as the time of their daily story deadline approached.
Now those same reporters are on deadline every minute. They're told to Tweet, and post to Facebook and other social media sites frequently as the story developes, and the editors don't mean twice a day.
With the increased speed of getting a story out comes new pressure regarding word selection.
Tha's one of the factors that resulted in The Los Angeles Times Assistant Managing Editor to question their reporter's description of what allegedly happened in the shower between the Penn State coach and the ten year old boy. Why did their reporters not call it rape?
I recall a co-worker back in radio-days questioning my use of "miracle" in a story describing the Birmingham area coroner who had survived been hit by lightening. "All the miracles have already happened" he informed me. While he worked in radio, his full time job was preaching.
Ironically, a similar story just occurred last week. The Dothan Eagle reports the Henry County Coroner survived a head-on collision between his motorcycle and a car...a car that then even backed over him! And it happened on Church Street, no less.
Just don't call it a miracle.
(Photo Credit: Jim Reed Books, Birmingham)
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this site.]
Now those same reporters are on deadline every minute. They're told to Tweet, and post to Facebook and other social media sites frequently as the story developes, and the editors don't mean twice a day.
With the increased speed of getting a story out comes new pressure regarding word selection.
I recall a co-worker back in radio-days questioning my use of "miracle" in a story describing the Birmingham area coroner who had survived been hit by lightening. "All the miracles have already happened" he informed me. While he worked in radio, his full time job was preaching.
Ironically, a similar story just occurred last week. The Dothan Eagle reports the Henry County Coroner survived a head-on collision between his motorcycle and a car...a car that then even backed over him! And it happened on Church Street, no less.
Just don't call it a miracle.
(Photo Credit: Jim Reed Books, Birmingham)
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this site.]
No comments:
Post a Comment