Have you ever sourced a story from the 'net?

ODS

As it says on the tin... Have you ever sourced a story fresh from the internet which was subsequently published? I know that I have;)

Come on, 'fess up!

lostexpectation

huh?

damien

First tell us who you are and what was the story.

ODS

damien.m wrote:

First tell us who you are and what was the story.

Oi I am the one asking the questions:p
Perhaps I value my anonymity on the boards :cool: ...although I do see that you are involved with IrelandOffline, who were most helpful to me when I previously had a few questions about providers...and I mentioned I was a journo at the time;)

flogen

This thread is moronic.

firstly, ODS, you can't play "show me yours and I'll show you mine" if you're not willing to bare all yourself.

Secondly I think it's fair to say that the internet holds a wealth of information, some of it worth pushing into the mainstream media... any journalist with an internet connection is likely to have at least spotted a story online once in their career.

I'm 99% sure that locking this would be the right thing to do, someone convince me otherwise.

ODS

flogen wrote:

This thread is moronic.

firstly, ODS, you can't play "show me yours and I'll show you mine" if you're not willing to bare all yourself.

Secondly I think it's fair to say that the internet holds a wealth of information, some of it worth pushing into the mainstream media... any journalist with an internet connection is likely to have at least spotted a story online once in their career.

I'm 99% sure that locking this would be the right thing to do, someone convince me otherwise.

Locking this thread would be a shame, however as you the mod its your prerogative.

Point being I thought its a worthwhile discussion as the general issues can be raised vis-a-vis good Irish (or other sites), as well as the issues that can crop up relating to reliability.

As to journos sourcing stories online, I suspect that its a lot less frequent than you would think - judging from conversations that I have had with collegues.

Lock the thread if you want, but I think the issues raised above are worth discussing - and if theyre not, than surely the thread will die a death anyway?

flogen

Perhaps the discussion is worthwhile, but you seem to refuse to get involved in it yourself.

I'm not sure if you're posting this hoping that other journalists will share their sources with you but I doubt that will happen.

lead by example, ODS.

ODS

flogen wrote:

Perhaps the discussion is worthwhile, but you seem to refuse to get involved in it yourself.

I'm not sure if you're posting this hoping that other journalists will share their sources with you but I doubt that will happen.

lead by example, ODS.

Okay... To begin with boards.ie is a good place to fish... regional papers online are also a great source - not to plagiarise but again to look... and there are also a couple of environment and planning forums out of which, as it happens, lead to a front page on a national before.

On the whole I reckon forums are good, but time consuming. As to reliability, my own thoughts are that the usual rules as to being able to sustain a story apply. Did I just say something about having to 'sustain a story'; I musnt work for a tabloid so

So there you go!

lostexpectation

so you nick stuff uncredited from archeire yes?

BarneyMagee

There are a lot of stories that you can source on the internet considering so many government and semi state bodies post newsworthy items online. An Bord Pleanala, The Equality Tribunal and The Revenue's Investigations are a few that come to mind.

On the regional's if we found a story online about someone from our county then we would naturally follow it up but would always try to get my own quotes.

I have seen a lot of my pieces followed up by the nationals. Sometimes they do their own work and sometimes it's almost exactly the same.

If the item is fairly minor I would admit to just rewriting a piece.