[Seattle-editorial] latest story?--More thoughts on picking features

[Gentry Lange]

Well I think there's middle ground here--

The problem I see with the offsite links in what we call "highlight stories"
is that it can threaten to fill up the majority of the frontpage when
editorial writers get busy. And in this way pushes original Seattle IMC
stories off the frontpage more quickly, making Seattle content less unique,
and less uniquely Seattle. Highlight stories that use Indymedia writers,
from original newswire posts, around the world, are less problematic, as
they encourage writers to post to Indymedia, as we feature their writing
occasionally, so they get a shot at center column.

I agree with the intent of offsite highlight stories as a way to critique
the media... but think it should be used sparringly, or in a directed way
that uses multiple stories to make a point. For instance, "the corporate
media lists 153 stories looking at this story, in this consistent summarized
way, here's story 1, 2, 3 that look at different perspectives". I also like
to link to stories that have been reposted to the newswire and then linked
to the original source as a way to provide room for comments, as this is
where lots more critique happens. So posting a synopsis to the wire and then
linking to the original would help.

Too many offsite links makes us less useful to the writers who post to our
site. But stale content makes us look bad to readers. I think there's a fine
line to be walked, but in general think we should try to emphasize local IMC
content, then northwest/coastal IMCs, then national and global IMCs, then
Alternative Press, and then corporate critique.


Gentry

-----Original Message-----
From: seattle-editorial-bounces at lists.indymedia.org
[mailto:seattle-editorial-bounces at lists.indymedia.org]On Behalf Of Sheri
Herndon
Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2003 7:22 AM
To: Joseph Eisenschmidt
Cc: seattle-editorial at indymedia.org
Subject: RE: [Seattle-editorial] latest story?


joseph,

you are completely right.  i agree with your analysis and tactics and i
think we must think along these multiple lines.  i guess it was more the
cosmic title that threw me and then to just be linking to sfgate.com.
somehow it didn't feel right.  maybe we need to more clearly articulate all
these goals to ourselves and to our listeners and include it in our
editorial policy.

something some of us on global features have discussed way long ago was this
issue of corporate media and linking to corporate news sites.  something
pablo from imc brasil and i talked about was that in terms of media critique
and educating our readers, by showing the *good* news out there, we could
also be doing our job (as you mention) to educate people.  alot of times
finding the good information is the hardest part.  exactly.  maybe
highlighting it on the site in some way, distinguishing it?

maybe when we move to sf active or mir or something better than our current
code, we'll have this ability to make categories and topics and we can do
this with greater ease.

sheri

>How do,
>
>While the story is a little 'cosmic', We do need to link to commercial
>web sites occasionally. Remember when the Cincinnati Enquirer got in a
>huff about us publishing one of their copyrighted pictures? We kind of
>determined that linking is always allowed-even though the link may break
>someday while a picture will remain. Re-re posting commercially
>available stories does lack freshness, if nothing else.
>
>I would like to see a weekly synopsis of the worlds news on our newswire
>occasionally. I'd also like to see a feature on the hundreds of
>non-commercial site folks can use to get real news. A link here, a link
>there; pretty soon we're talking real news. I'd like to see it be full
>spectrum, so folks can bore down through the right/left wing news they
>get saddled with. We could include links to AP, foreign nations official
>newswires, ourselves, etc.
>
>Part of our job is to teach people how to make the news. Another
>important part is teaching folks how to consume it. Sometimes just
>finding it is the hardest part.
>
>Joseph
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: seattle-editorial-bounces at lists.indymedia.org
>[mailto:seattle-editorial-bounces at lists.indymedia.org]On Behalf Of
>sheri at speakeasy.org
>Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 5:18 AM
>To: seattle-editorial at indymedia.org
>Subject: [Seattle-editorial] latest story?
>
>
>hi,
>
>i'm really confused about why we have a cosmic question story on the
>front page that takes us to a commercial website page about 911 making
>you sick.  in my humble opinion, this is not a story for the seattle imc
>to be featuring...catching a plane now or i'd comment further....
>it doesn't even link to a local newswire story...
>sheri
>
>
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