Newspaper sites’ unpaid bloggers may be more trouble than they are worth
Posted by Evan Fell on December 10, 2007 at 12:03 PM
User-generated content is described by SFWeekly.com’s Matt Smith as “getting people to write for free.” UGC blogs, which are usually not edited, could cause more problems for newspapers than they are worth.
Smith says, “newspapers are also attempting to pave their way to Easy Street with free labor.” Many sites feature a good number of blogs, all written by people who are not on the payroll.
For example, the Web site for billionaire Philip Anschutz' experiment in free dailies, the examiner.com features 40 blogs, one being "Around San Francisco" by Sharon Gray.
"Photographer, author, poet, award-winning artist, designer, and socialite Sharon Gray reports on San Francisco savvy lifestyles, the social set, neighborhoods, top getaways, sports, whales, environmental issues," reads Gray’s online bio. Smith recently reported to the site that Gray’s column appeared to have work from other news sources, pasted verbatim and without attribution.
"They're blogs. They don't get edited," explained Examiner executive editor Jim Pimentel. "We don't give any direction to people on what to write in their blogs. And that's standard operating procedure." The site, however, can remove blogs, and as of last week, most of Gray’s columns were gone. By Friday, "Around San Francisco" was no longer in the list of blogs on examiner.com.
“But rather than being a profits panacea for the Examiner, Gray's unsupervised, unpaid efforts may actually provide a glimmer of hope to us paid news hacks by showing that free isn't always a bargain”, says Smith. He goes on to say, “I see no reason a newspaper's Web content should be inferior, as a matter of company policy, from what appears in print.”
Robert Gunnison, director of school affairs at the U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism agrees with Smith that the same standards should apply to both online and print versions for newspapers. He recognizes that blogging is just software and the content is what really counts.
Smith realizes the problems with unpaid bloggers and says, “Rather than becoming a pariah among journalists, I think Gray should be held up as a bit of a hero for potentially rattling the nerves of newspapers, Web startups, and other aspiring online media feudal lords. By betting their bottom line on getting people to work unsupervised for free, companies might get no better than what they paid for.”
Source: Sfweekly.com through Poynter Institute
For example, the Web site for billionaire Philip Anschutz' experiment in free dailies, the examiner.com features 40 blogs, one being "Around San Francisco" by Sharon Gray.
"Photographer, author, poet, award-winning artist, designer, and socialite Sharon Gray reports on San Francisco savvy lifestyles, the social set, neighborhoods, top getaways, sports, whales, environmental issues," reads Gray’s online bio. Smith recently reported to the site that Gray’s column appeared to have work from other news sources, pasted verbatim and without attribution.
"They're blogs. They don't get edited," explained Examiner executive editor Jim Pimentel. "We don't give any direction to people on what to write in their blogs. And that's standard operating procedure." The site, however, can remove blogs, and as of last week, most of Gray’s columns were gone. By Friday, "Around San Francisco" was no longer in the list of blogs on examiner.com.
“But rather than being a profits panacea for the Examiner, Gray's unsupervised, unpaid efforts may actually provide a glimmer of hope to us paid news hacks by showing that free isn't always a bargain”, says Smith. He goes on to say, “I see no reason a newspaper's Web content should be inferior, as a matter of company policy, from what appears in print.”
Robert Gunnison, director of school affairs at the U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism agrees with Smith that the same standards should apply to both online and print versions for newspapers. He recognizes that blogging is just software and the content is what really counts.
Smith realizes the problems with unpaid bloggers and says, “Rather than becoming a pariah among journalists, I think Gray should be held up as a bit of a hero for potentially rattling the nerves of newspapers, Web startups, and other aspiring online media feudal lords. By betting their bottom line on getting people to work unsupervised for free, companies might get no better than what they paid for.”
Source: Sfweekly.com through Poynter Institute
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SF WEEKLY'S MATT SMITH CAUGHT LYING IN 2007 JOURNALISM SCANDAL - PAID REPORTER OR PAID HITMAN?
Matt Smith, lead hitman-reporter for a weekly, free, alternative tabloid owned by news conglomerate, Media News has been reported for scandalous journalism. Smith recently wrote a hit-hate piece on an Examiner blogger that was full of inaccurate facts, out of context remarks, false quotes, slander, scandalous accusations, lack of fact checking and lies. What was his motive? Jealousy? Hate? Malice? Envy of the blogger's popularity? Was he actually trying to eliminate the competition to his rag and himself? Or did he make innocent mistakes – and is only incompetent?
Smith has been accused and found guilty in the past by the MSM of false reporting. In a serious journalism scandal in 2007- that of false and inaccurate news reporting - either on purpose or by a lack of fact checking. So even though Matt Smith is paid and edited, he apparently can publish lies, false facts and misquotes on the SF Weekly - and get away with it - WITH PAY. SF Weekly reporter, Smith, is guilty of a journalism scandal. He was caught and outed for unfair and inaccurate reporting of news – by making substantial reporting and researching errors with the results leading to libelous or defamatory statements. Perhaps Matt Smith’s media scandal was a deliberate attempt to promote himself or a means to further a political goal, or benefit his career. His paper did not deny the allegations – thereby proving his guilt.
According to Wikipedia, Journalism scandals are high-profile incidents or acts, whether intentional or accidental, that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of journalism: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.
SF Newspaper, Beyond Chron reported on Smith’s journalistic reporting and research errors … Read complete article @ http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=5069
“It is no secret that the SF Weekly’s Matt Smith has trouble getting his facts straight …”
Smith apparently saw a total lobbying amount of $4.8 million on the Clinic’s most recent 990 form and ignored the fact that this was the maximum amount the group was authorized to spend. There is a line item just below that number that asks for the “Total lobbying expenditures.” Had Smith read more carefully, he would have noted that this amount totaled $728.00. In other words, Smith’s total – adopted and quoted without question by a sitting SF Supervisor – was wrong by over $4 million.
Smith’s error may be based more on malice than ineptitude - there is another line that asks about “Grassroots lobbying expenditures.” That amount also totaled $728.00. Smith ignored the title of the key section, which reads "Lobbying ceiling amount." To most people, "ceiling" meets the top amount that can be spent, not the actual expenditure.”