It’s happened again!
12 10 2006I recently wrote about stories being lifted from blogs by journalists, and either copied verbatim, or slightly re-hashed before appearing in ‘mainstream’ media. This is something that annoys me greatly, and has just happened to me again.
I wrote this piece over on The Dublin Community Blog on Tuesday evening, about the 150,000 rubber ducks that were recently released into the River Liffey as part of a charity fundraiser for Crumlin Childrens Hospital (more details here). So, imagine my suprise when I was standing on the DART today, and saw a nearby passenger reading this:
Needless to say, I picked up the Metro on my way out of Tara Street to see what they had to say, and looking forward to seeing some reference toward The Dublin Community Blog and the users comments that have been appearing there, showing where in the world these ducks have been turning up. Of course…there was nothing! Granted, there were mentions of another website that is tracking the ducks travels around the world.
Now, I could be way off the mark here, the Metro Ireland Editors could well have commissioned this article a while ago before my post, and it’s just pure coincidence that it appears in their paper two days later, given the time it takes for journalists to research stories and get their facts together. Then again, that wasn’t the case in this story.
I also know that there is a separate issue over Metro’s use of pictures related to that story, but given they’re not my pictures concerned, I’ll refrain from further comment on that one.
And, yes, I know the argument can be put forward that bloggers re-hash professional media stories all the time, but, this is usually with a hat-tip in their direction. Bloggers also aren’t paid (for the most part) for the writings that they generate!
/ Rant over…until the next time!
This sort of thing annoys me no end. Even if the timing was a co-incidence, a mention of the blog would be justified.
According to the NUJ Code of Conduct (assuming the journalist is a member) journalists are supposed to “….. obtain information, photographs and illustrations only by straightforward means. The use of other means can be justified only by overriding considerations of the public interest…..”
Wonder what the definition of “straightforward means” is. Vague enough to have many definitions it seems!
True, but we’re also assuming that my post was read by the people in Metro who wrote it, which of course may not be the case, and leaves us looking at pure coincidence!
Yeah, journalists rip off blogs and then tell people how amature bloggers are. I’m curious about the photos. Anyone recognise them? Are they ripped off from flickr and did they credit a photographer?