On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 6:56 AM, Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: > > I will freely admit that I'm gonna go in the weeds on this. > > I developed a presentation on e-mail marketing. The key point is to > make every e-mail you send relevant. If I have to wonder why I'm > getting this e-mail, you've failed. > > If you're a news organization, and I've signed up for a news alert, > I've told you that I want to hear from you when something important > happens. The two e-mails fail miserably. > > I'm sure there was a discussion that took place in both newsrooms > about the idea of being spoiler-free, and the risk of fury because it > gave away the ending. I can respect that concern, but if you're really > that fearful of it, then don't send the e-mail. Again, people who were > really interested knew the time that the answer would be revealed and > could've taken the appropriate action to avoid hearing the answer. > > There are places I feel a spoiler alert is appropriate. A news > organization is not one of them.
I agree a news organization shouldn't be worried about spoiling the ending of a TV show, or announcing the winner of a given sports event like the Olympics. By delaying or denying information from its audience, it ceases to be a news gathering organization. But I have one more argument to make about all of this, if you'll permit me. Having been discussing the concepts of journalism with my 6th grade students this week, I made a point of mentioning that, like the show or not, the winner of American Idol is NOT NEWS. And yet even non-Fox TV stations ran with it, it was on the front page of newspapers across the country, and I'm guessing the first and/or second place winners will grace the cover of at least one weekly newsmagazine this weekend. I don't get why so-called "reality" TV is exempt from the "it's just television" rule of covering media. When KITT battles KARR, it doesn't make the front page of a newspaper. When Homer Simpson gets a new job, no breaking news e-mail alerts. Nor should there be. But because Lumpy gets first place instead of Clumpy (too lazy to look up the names of either contestant), we literally stop the presses? A journalist's job is NOT to make what is interesting seem newsworthy; it is to make what is newsworthy seem interesting. Are there any journalists left in North America? -- Kevin M. (RPCV) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... Smart (TV) People on Ice! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
