Op/Ed Your Monthly Rant: Regurgitated and Celebretard News

I agree. Granted I just finshed a Paris piece but a lot of my articles are research pieces. They aren't upvoted. I just figure I have to get better at making them fluffy enough to be entertaining. :)

Hard news and research though is what writers need to exist. Even when the masses don't upvote you.

Great OP/ED piece.

101 views, and only one upvote (and it probably was a pity vote!) that has to be a record. With all of your whining, it must feel good getting all of this frustration off of your chest. They say the "squeaky wheel gets the oil," maybe now you will be lubed up with some sympathy upvotes...And maybe even a diaper change too...By the way, David Bowie sucks.

I write plenty of heavily researched articles - some "hit", and some die a quick death. I have no explanation for any of it other than there seems to be a certain mood each day. Some days, politics is all the rage, others - Paris. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it.

I often write fluff pieces because they are easier, quick and I usually try to find stuff with a humorous twist. I don't simply regurgitate the news, though I agree that I have seen plenty of articles that do just that.

I don't think I would ever go so far out onto a limb as to say I would never write a celeb story, or that I will heavily research every article I write. I think I would have to be on a much higher pay scale to make such statements.

I see your point though, Am - good luck with that.

Curious - did you consider your Maxim Top 100 piece from a few days ago a well researched article, or is that the "experiment" you are referring to. I thought it must have been awfully time consuming, uploading all of those photos to photobucket!

@ "Big Dick" Cheney:
101 views, and only one upvote (and it probably was a pity vote!) that has to be a record. With all of your whining, it must feel good getting all of this frustration off of your chest. They say the "squeaky wheel gets the oil," maybe now you will be lubed up with some sympathy upvotes...And maybe even a diaper change too...By the way, David Bowie sucks.

pfffft you wish David Bowie would give you the time of day. Worthless peice of political trash that you are.

lol

Amaranth,

I'm very sorry to hear about your brother. I know very well what it is like to lose a loved one tragically -- and I know that after it happens, people who are careless with facts can be especially stinging in what amounts to a very sensitive and sad time for family, friends and loved ones.

I agree that there is some "regurgitated" news here on DJ. I try to be very careful with my upvotes and only reward them to stories that I truly find interesting and appealing with a bias toward original content.

When I started writing articles here, some of what I wrote about was regurgitated, and I quickly found my enjoyment of this site going down. I took a break and came back with a new personal policy of only posting original content and making a rare regurgitation exception for those stories that I have a deep interest in.

I feel your pain about the stories you work hard on not getting the amount of attention you feel they deserve. Sometimes I feel like that, but I remind myself that I'm not here for anybody else. I write because it's what I love to do and because I like sharing my interests and viewpoints with the rest of the world.

@ Pamela Jean (GotTheScoop):
I write plenty of heavily researched articles - some "hit", and some die a quick death. I have no explanation for any of it other than there seems to be a certain mood each day. Some days, politics is all the rage, others - Paris. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it.

I often write fluff pieces because they are easier, quick and I usually try to find stuff with a humorous twist. I don't simply regurgitate the news, though I agree that I have seen plenty of articles that do just that.

I don't think I would ever go so far out onto a limb as to say I would never write a celeb story, or that I will heavily research every article I write. I think I would have to be on a much higher pay scale to make such statements.

I see your point though, Am - good luck with that.

Curious - did you consider your Maxim Top 100 piece from a few days ago a well researched article, or is that the "experiment" you are referring to. I thought it must have been awfully time consuming, uploading all of those photos to photobucket!

The Maxim peice was because I love Maxim. It is a peice of fluff that I honestly didn't expect any votes on, but it did spark a good debate about self image and I think it inspired Museinspiredart to write a peice as well. The experiment was somethig about Angelina Jolie. It was worthless.

Honestly scoops you are far from the reguritated news type. I love your stories.

Don't you feel that you are being a tad hypocritical Amaranth? I have checked your "found important" upvote record, and you have upvoted your fair share of fluff news and even quite a few Paris Hilton stories. So why the self-righteous diatribe all of a sudden? You have to remember that just because you have worked hard on a story does not mean people will find it, or have to find it appealing.

@ "Big Dick" Cheney:
Don't you feel that you are being a tad hypocritical Amaranth? I have checked your "found important" upvote record, and you have upvoted your fair share of fluff news and even quite a few Paris Hilton stories. So why the self-righteous diatribe all of a sudden? You have to remember that just because you have worked hard on a story does not mean people will find it, or have to find it appealing.

Nothing self righteous at all. I enjoy a bit of fluff, but don't you find it annoying that all there is sometimes is fluff? I upvoted the recent Paris news because I found it a good find when it comes to justice not being served. When I first came on here I pretty much upvoted everything I read because I figured, if I read it it must be news worthy. Also I felt that my vote gave someone about 20cents. However the past few weeks I have been finding myself more and more disappointed with the news on here and on TV, the radio, the internet, etc. I figure if I find something annoying that I should do something about it. So I am as you can read in my story. I never ask anyone something that I am not willing to do myself.

news is subjective. I hate Paris stories...But some teenage girls find it important to them perhaps...One person's trash story is gold to another...

News is subjective, however I feel that the quality of news that people find worthy shows the gutter we are currently in. What is more important, Paris Hilton or Japanese Animatronics(sp) that look like children? I think the innovation in robotics is far more important than if a celebrity makes the news.


I would like to add that just because I used myself as an example does not mean I am looking for any type of pity. It is simply what I know and how I can convey this. I have seen MANY stories on here that do not get the recognition they deserve.

@ Carpenter S. Newton:
Amaranth,

I'm very sorry to hear about your brother. I know very well what it is like to lose a loved one tragically -- and I know that after it happens, people who are careless with facts can be especially stinging in what amounts to a very sensitive and sad time for family, friends and loved ones.

I agree that there is some "regurgitated" news here on DJ. I try to be very careful with my upvotes and only reward them to stories that I truly find interesting and appealing with a bias toward original content.

When I started writing articles here, some of what I wrote about was regurgitated, and I quickly found my enjoyment of this site going down. I took a break and came back with a new personal policy of only posting original content and making a rare regurgitation exception for those stories that I have a deep interest in.

I feel your pain about the stories you work hard on not getting the amount of attention you feel they deserve. Sometimes I feel like that, but I remind myself that I'm not here for anybody else. I write because it's what I love to do and because I like sharing my interests and viewpoints with the rest of the world.

Thankyou for the sympathies. It did hurt quite a bit to see my brother's death treated so coldly. I wrote this and it was either while I was watching the O'Reilly factor or right around that time. I had the news on and they had like one important story, the rest was all grabage. Despite the regurgitation we have far better reporters here on Digital Journal than most news channels.

Humm ...i'm a fluff queen and I fully admit it I get depressed over the crime stories and the many abuse and starving people stories but I feel they should be put out thier to be noticed and remembered and possibly helped.
Then I usually revert to somthing on the lighter side such as unusual stories with a twist. I avoid war or politics as often as possible as they are well covered by those much more informed that I ever plan to be in those areas.
So I myself am a "regurgitated news" people who yes, I do use sources such as other news reporting agencies with the occasional back-up from a variety of other places such as wikipedia and others.
I am not a reporter (they get paid alot more and have access to alot more feeds than I myself do) and I never even knew what a blog was just a few months ago, what I know of posting has all been learned right here on DJ (with alot of tips from Chris and staff and by reading and looking at other popular writers posts) and I have enjoyed every minute of it and plan to continue to do so.
I do agree though it is heartbreaking to pour your heart into a story and then not see a single hit on it then to for example write about boobs and get hundreds of reads on it within a few hours but i'll take those reads just as I would any others I may get. What it boils down to is what stories draw people to this site.
So my feeling are just a little hurt that others don't feel as if all the contributions that everyone has made are valid stories. (I don't include the copy pasters in this statement they don't last that long here).
To hunt for just that something for hours that catches my attention, to add a little variety is what I like to do, be it erection causing spiders or hate groups that should be stopped.
I have noticed one or two that just pop onto a post just to cut down someones post (thanfully I am not referring to mine, so no i'm not whining here) then pop back out on a reapeated basis never leaving a vote, just nasty little comments in thier wake. A debate is fine but snottiness is not appreceated and no i'm not talking about L or GTS past instances either (though I am guilty of avoiding both of thier posts for awhile because of thier disagreements... sorry guys it was just getting too mean for me to stick around...though thankfully now I find that is over so I check them out once agian) :)

Amaranth hon i'm sorry you lost your loved one, I lost a loved this last week and know the anger and hurt to see it reported in the newspapers full of inaccuracies and downright wrong facts. They did correct the mistakes after they were called on them.
Unfortunatly this also happens with breaking news stories.

Good post Amaranth, but I do take issue with a couple of the points you make. To my knowledge none of us who post stories here, with the exception of the DJ staff, are professional journalists. And while pounding the pavement, doing hard research, and confirming sources are all things that professional journalists do, to reiterate what Scoop said in her previous comment – I would have to be on a much higher pay scale to do those things.

That being said, most of us have other occupations, and so over ninety percent of what you read on Digital Journal is going to be regurgitated news. That is the point of posting a link to the source of your “news.” It is expected that we are not hitting the streets like the pros but merely rehashing the news of the day even if it’s in our own prose, be it flowery or plain. And so, DJ is bound to be dominated by celebrity news just as every other news publication on the planet is. I personally am minimally interested in celeb news and hardly ever post it (an exception being the satirical piece that I posted earlier today related to the issue of class and the system).

I do also notice a lot of fluff here being upvoted into the teens, and other serious writing being virtually ignored. That is nature of news media I guess. The average person would rather read the fluff than the more profound stuff. That is why I love the opinion/editorial section of the newspaper, and the many “Op/Ed’s” posted here on Digital Journal. In my opinion, these are when the writer’s skills in the use of satire, persuasion, argument, and their own unique voice stand out. That is why I am probably only going to post “Op/Ed” pieces from now on as it is the most creative we can get, anything else is going to be a rehashing or regurgitation.

So don’t sweat it Amaranth, just as I, you also love the Op/Ed. Those of us who are interested in creative quality over quantity should probably focus on this category as well. Perhaps there should be a specific “Op/Ed” category here at Digital Journal, just as mainstream newspapers have an opinion and editorial section.

Am, this is an excellent article and Squid, i totally agree with you.

I just joined DJ a few days ago and got my approval to post news. I too noticed the abundance of regurgitated news and was a little disappointed but have since come to realize that it is inevidable gives the nature of any site like this. Many people will use it and at some of them will put in as little effort as possible.

I was also concerned because the first few stories I have written (none of them posted yet) are all op/ed and don't have any source on the net that I can link to. They are opinions based on experience and perhaps snippets of various news items I have read over the years with no hope of ever finding again. The site seems to emphasize getting source material from elsewhere on the web (or else why provide means and encourage the use of links to the source?) I was disappointed when I mentioned a few news stories to my wife and she had already read them on Yahoo.

In the end I think we can all expect to see plenty of fluff (I like to be light hearted too) and plenty of regurgitation and we'll have to get used to seeing them get the votes. But as has been said, we are not professionals and we are not really writing for the money. The purpose of the money is so we write for DJ rather than for some other site that doesn't share any of the revenue generated by the traffic that the articles generate.

For myself, I will generally not vote on simple repeats of news from elsewhere - it must have some kind of comment or opinion or somethings added that is not in the original - and I will always try to write about things that will add to the quality of news on the net, not just duplicate it. Secretly I hope a few of my articles get large debates going but I don't know if I have the ability yet.

I thought this article was aces.

Good Post. Unfortunately. Fluff sells...Just check out all the celebrity rags.

Sorry to hear about your brother.

Sometimes I spend two hours to write an article about Apple nobody votes it but when it is about Paris people vote, so you just do your best I guess. I like articles here, they have opinion unlike the newspapers or media who have either skewed opinion or none. Just do what makes you happy. This Digital Journal is much better than other sites, more civilized that is what I like about it.

Thankyou everyone for the replies. This has just been a wonderful debate,Obviously last night I was quite dienchanted with what was going on here on DJ. It seems like I touched a nerve with people though judging from the votes here. I am glad I inspired some thought and discussion about this.

As far as taking something from regurgitated news into a more unique news, you can verify your sources and information quite easily by looking at website or other non news articles. I attempt to every time I post. The other day I posted something up, and someone asked, hey did you know this or that about the case? No I did not cause I didn't bother to look, I regurgitated with just a bit of half arsed information. Had I took time to look for the case file I probably would have written a better article. So while people feel like I am pointing fingers I am in full realization that every time you point your finger you have three pointing back at you.

Perhaps there should be a specific “Op/Ed” category here at Digital Journal, just as mainstream newspapers have an opinion and editorial section.

That is a great idea

Here is another suggestion. I have noticed that some posts get far more views than they do votes. Perhaps there can be program set up that pays a person a fraction of a cent per view?
I am under the assumption that the pot being split is generated by those hits, so wouldn't it make more sense that those who recieve more hits on peices get rewarded?

Ok, here's my 2 cents. I know I am late at writing this, but I didn't know what or how to say this exactly yesterday night so I am writing it today.

When I started writing for DJ, most of my news were totally useless news. They were fluff (you can check to see if you want). Yes, for some of them I received a lot of votes, for others I didn't. Then I came to realization that to be a journalist you have to be unique. To be noticed on DJ, your stories have to stick out and be different. That's when I started writing space news. I always had an interest in space, I knew a lot about it and I asked myself "What do I want Franklin to be known for? Fluff or real, interesting news that will stick out?" So I decided to put all of my time into posting science. You can find me posting into some of the other sections, but I mostly post science news because I love everything about it.

I have written a lot of articles where I did not have a source. It was purely my article. So how did I end up linking it? (This concerns barryb). I ended up either not linking it at all, or for example, for Luminato linking it to the actual site of an event. I don't think the Staff would bite your head off if you don't post a link. I think they're all for posting unique stories which are written by you and not summarized from another website.

However, there are people on this website who write fluff because they're here for the money. Some of the users write up a story in 10 minutes and post it. No research, no work put into it. But sometimes, you've got to realize that people rush things and really want to post a story that is interesting but don't want to spend an additional hour researching a certain topic. That's what usually tends to happen.

As for the upvotes: I have had stories that received a lot of upvotes and stories that didn't. But, again I was proud of the work I did. I don't care if someone doesn't give me an upvote. I know that my story was interesting and that I put some work into it. Giving me an upvote would just mean that I am earning more money. And really, when it comes to it, I am not here for money. I am here to write and learn how to be a journalist and so far my experience has been great. I loved every minute of it so much so that I am considering to do a double major with journalism.

When it comes to the number of views: there are a lot of people who read articles on DJ, so Am, you're saying some of the articles get a lot of views but no upvotes. Again, that is because for a person on the outside the article might be interesting, but for the people on DJ might not. Everyone has their opinion about certain things: some people like tech so they upvote only that, others crime. I have tried to upvote as many articles as possible. But sometimes I would upvote a user's article and he/she wouldn't do what cgull tend to do and that is upvote one of my articles in return. We're here to support each other and that's the way to do it.

So, what can you do to make your articles really stick out but avoid the fluff news? Well, I don't know where any one of you lives, but I am sure there are events out there that happen in your city. When you're on the street try to look around and I am sure you will find a story to write about. Include pictures because I have noticed that people love pictures. Try to put a different spin on it. Try to add examples from different sources. Post your news when many people are online and when you know your article will be noticed by someone. For example, I take subway every single day. What have I noticed? A lot of things that are just not right. What did I decide? I decided to record everything with my voice recorded and a small camera. So now, I go to subway, and unanimously record things that are happening. That is the base of my next article. I am sure it will be unique. Will people read it? I don't know. Will people upvote it? I don't know. But then again, when I am done with it I will know that I did a great job, I would tap myself on the back and I would say "Good job!"

Also about the money on DJ: The more users sign up, the more likely you're going to get paid more money for your articles. So, get some people to sign up for DJ and start writing. The money pot then grows and we're more likely to receive more money. Right now, I don't think DJ has a lot of money to give out (especially after the crash). So, more people = more money for us.

I don't know if I was clear in my explanation and rant. If you don't understand something, please ask me and I will reply as soon as possible. :)

Thankyou Franklin. You always have insightful comments!

I vow from now on to stop any bit of regurgitating on my part, and put time and effort into my stories

I find celebrity news dull and unimaginative and completely irrelevant which is why i rarely read it unless it may be about a movie I may want to watch, maybe. Or if a celeb is donating money to Africa for something that because of my volunteer work has interest.

I had just decided to take a similar approach to news reporting rather than regurgitating other stores which I have done, unless they are vital and underreported,(Africa related stories, for example) I will look for stories that have meaning and are not getting coverage.

I have always complained in the past about the news media and their consistent hype. It frustrated me that the important and educational news was never in the forefront. It seems it is always fluff and entertainment, salacious crime details, or sex.

When I first posted articles on DJ it was a real eye opener. That was when I realized why the media presents what it does. I figured out that if I posted meaningful educational serious news articles I would get very few views and not much voting...thus ending up in the archives quickly. But if I posted fluff and entertainment my articles would make it to the front page. Why? Because that is what the majority want to read.

So...what to do? Sell out for page views and votes, or stick to my values and write about the important issues of the day. Now I understood how the newspapers and TV journalists face that very same question. But mainstream media must make money. So they stick with hype that sells.

Fortunately I don't make a living doing this. I have done fluff.... but no longer want to regurgitate light news and fluff. I quit writing on DJ a while ago, but recently returned to request the ability to write again. When I do....I will write what I believe is truly important news that educates and informs the readers. If I end up in the archives...then so be it.

I love the well researched informative articles I find here on DJ. Especially Scoop. I hope we all consider keeping this DJ a cut above the others when it comes to citizen journalism sites.

Great article Am!

Thank you Lightening. Educational news is always helpful and important. Even if you reach just one person it matters!

I try to find things to write about that are off the beaten track a bit, that hasn't been overplayed in the media in general. I do agree that fluff sells, but it really does depend upon how it's presented, as to whether it's a repeat of a repeat.

Sure is something to reconsider though! :)

First, I want to extend my sympathies to you for the loss of your brother & to patxxoo for her loss as well.
And then I must say David Bowie ROCKS!!!!!
He is sooooooo awesome! One of the most talented singers that has ever been created on this earth!
:)

Jag and Sky thankyou for the comments

Yes David Bowie is the shiznit. He is not only a talented musician, but also a great actor, dancer, and artist. Not to mention that he really works the tight pants thing...

Yep...there is something to be said about men in tight pants! LOL!

I too wish to say that I send my prayers to both you Amaranth and to patxxoo, as well. (hugs)

Franklin,

I had just finished upvoting an article of yours before visiting these replies to see how the discussion was going. You are an awesome writer and I'm looking forward to finding more of your artcles, and Amaranth's (another talented writer) and the others I am getting to know.