After this past week’s case study, I became completely entrigued with the thought of being an editor who allowed a completely false story run in a major newspaper. I feel that in the fast-paced media business where everything, editors are not completely doing their jobs the way they should be doing them. I’m not saying that an editor should question the reporter constantly throughout the story progress, but there needs to be some check and balance system where the editor should be double checking sources as the reporter writes the story. In any job, it is not effective nor conducive towards success if everyone agrees with everyone. There needs to be someone disagreeing and questioning in order to uncover false stories and errors. I think Jimmy’s World, along with stories such as those created by Stephen Glass, are appealing in that they are different from the mundane news events normally in print or television and people truely want them to be an accurate account. However, while news is supposed to provide some sort of entertainment, it is not fiction. The news is what readers need to be informed about in our society. If someone wants to create a jaw-dropping story about drug-addicted or computer-hacking children, he should put his innovative talents towards writing the next bestselling novel.
Reporter – Editor relationship January 29, 2008
After this past week’s case study, I became completely entrigued with the thought of being an editor who allowed a completely false story run in a major newspaper. I feel that in the fast-paced media business where everything, editors are not completely doing their jobs the way they should be doing them. I’m not saying that an editor should question the reporter constantly throughout the story progress, but there needs to be some check and balance system where the editor should be double checking sources as the reporter writes the story. In any job, it is not effective nor conducive towards success if everyone agrees with everyone. There needs to be someone disagreeing and questioning in order to uncover false stories and errors. I think Jimmy’s World, along with stories such as those created by Stephen Glass, are appealing in that they are different from the mundane news events normally in print or television and people truely want them to be an accurate account. However, while news is supposed to provide some sort of entertainment, it is not fiction. The news is what readers need to be informed about in our society. If someone wants to create a jaw-dropping story about drug-addicted or computer-hacking children, he should put his innovative talents towards writing the next bestselling novel.