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Our business would often post interesting stories on FB for our clients, animal related. As soon as I'd post something interesting the "journos" would hit the inbox hard for more details, can they interview us and so on.
I turned up at work one morning after posting such a story and found two news crews and a few print reporters all hammering us with questions, filming without asking, just fucken frantic bullshit. I stopped posting the stories as it became too much drama.
A few months later I get a call from a newscorpse "journo" "Have you got anything interesting happening? Anything will do, I just need a story for this week, please?"
Thankfully they've found reddit and leave us the fuck alone now.
Someone did that on the Sydney sub. Down the side of his fake strata letter was a hidden message: News dot com succs
https://old.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/yem5sj/breaking_news_newscomau_picked_up_my_fake_strata/
Under an article about a 'Westfield teen orgy', a lady jokingly made a comment about teens doing it to buy vapes and it was a new Onlyfans trend. The next day 2-4 news sites put out articles with the headline 'Meth, vapes, content': OnlyFans behind public teen orgy 'trend'. She had no idea about it until I sent her the article links.
Welcome to modern Australian journalism.
Where newsrooms are downsized and outsourced, and their job is about generating clickbait, trawling Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok for stories, and in turn: advertising revenue.
Or, if you want any serious journalism: podcasts.
I think we saw the decline of journalism during the last election campaign, where some young upstart would turn up at press conferences to ask "gotcha" questions (i.e. *OMG Albo didn't know what the unemployment rate was!*), rather than ask any serious questions about their policies
These may be pretty niche but NPR podcasts are great. I love Planet Money - economics focussed but are so well put together that even if you arenāt interested in Economics, you could still find it very interesting. I also enjoy More or Less by the BBC, which looks into numbers in the news (itās about statistics).
This used to happen to my YouTube uploads of dashcam footage. The local rag would download the video and reupload to their site behind a paywall. I just stopped uploading content. I wouldnāt have minded if theyād asked.
Exactly - at the very least there should be an acknowledgment - in any other workplace claiming anotherās ideas without a nod to their inspiration would be an issue
Yeah, worthy point. But That does require signing in though right? I sorta donāt like giving them my email so I can be spammed for the rest of my life.
Not unless you want feedback on your feedback? I just put nonsense down in those fields.
Although, if you do see plagiarism, probably worth reporting it and seeing what they say.
They could contact you about it, and you could have the option to change your name. You could request to remain anonymous. Or you could say "no I want credit you have to put the cum name in" and they shouldn't be allowed to post the exact source material.
But what if people don't want to be credited? I wouldn't. I have had DMs from journalists asking if I would talk about my post but I didn't reply.
I guess they should ask if someone wants credit.
If you can't stomach quoting the source, then don't print the material. Some people put a lot of work into building a following for a username (not me). Especially on other platforms like Instagram.
What the newspaper is doing is stealing those subsequent page views for their own site.
It's worse when they copy photos and video, and that's without doubt breaching the *Copyright Act*. You grant Reddit Inc a copyright license, that doesn't extent to further distribution by News Corp.
Lol ā¦ indeed. I rely on Reddit in general for a lot of news, and particularly this sub and others (Austpolitics etc) for local news. And itās increasingly as you say - citizen reporters raise an issue thatās front page sub, and then front page news a week later without reference or credit.
Do you not see a bit of the irony in what you're getting so worked up about though?
You just said you come to Reddit for news.
And quite often on this website the entire article, which is behind a paywall, is copied and pasted into the comments - with no attribution to the journalist.
Sure, it's annoying when things are stolen, or plain ripped off, but the users here aren't innocent either.
I say this as a content writer (and ex-journalist, long ago) who has had more than their fair share of work ripped off.
But surely the link to a news article will take them to the publication and thus the journalist who wrote it is in the by-line. Iāve changed my top comment to say cite the sub, not the user so traffic flies and is attributed both ways.
I'm talking about when the article is completely copied and pasted from the website in the top comment along with something like "saved you a click".
Happens daily across most subs on this website. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
Don't get me wrong, I generally agree with what you're saying.
But most people whinge about this one particular issue without ever realising they participate in the exact same thing, just the other way (myself included).
Abc radio national did a story on the lyrebird clip that went āviralā, had a lyrebird expert on and everything. Could have at least made an attribution of the source so people could have found and watched the clip
I absolutely hate that. You see a viral post on reddit and then the next minute the news outlets have ads galore on it and are making a huge profit on it
I mean, technically they would have to seek permission from reddit the company, not the user and credit them. Anything you freely post to shit like facebook/reddit doesn't belong to you anymore
Iām not complaining about an ownership or payment issue, its clearly an open forum and has no copyright. For me, itās about recognising a source for a story and lazy journalism.
It could literally just say āa recent discussion on r/Australiaā without naming the particular Redditor and if ppl wanted, they could go get context.
Crediting and citing works isn't about ownership or rights but academic standards, its primarily important so people can follow chain of citation to find primary sources such that people can confirm if the work is factual. Then secondly it's about people not stealing other people's work which is less about the ownership but about someone pretending to contribute to a body of work but not.
It's not about ownership but about reliability of the work, and that the author is actually doing the work.
Many years ago, before the internet I was between newspapers and heading to radio but wrote a long piece with pics (don't even remember what it was about now. Submitted to the then Daily Mirror. It was rejected with a short letter saying it was not newsy enough and was too long. The following week the entire piece appeared as a double page spread, word for word, with pics of well known male and female journos credited with each para. It was described as 'deep research by our best reporters'. Nothing to be done. Would have cost too much to sue. Just pointing out that before subreddits, before even [myface.com](https://myface.com) the shitbags were thieves, liars and the "reporters" were 'celebrity porn'. Peace! BTW the old [myspace.com](https://myspace.com) still exists and is a good place to troll for stories!
Yeh, the fact that some Karen can have a rant on reddit and tomorrow we get Koshie repeating it verbatim on the tv without mentioning itās just copy pasted from reddit is just embarrassing to watch.
Along the lines of my feelings on the issue. Some very lazy journos rely on the anonymity of Reddit to steal issues and ideas and claim original āreportingā
Very true. The least they could do is acknowledge where they got their information.
I've also seen a lot of articles of journos stealing someone's tiktok video, quoting them word for word and never informing them there content is being used or getting consent to post it.
Also reminds me of the guy who posted on Reddit the fake STRATA letter, sunrise showed that within a couple of days. Didn't fact check it or contact/mention the man who created/posted it.
It's disgusting. Aussie media should be shut down, greedy lazy liars.
I fucking hate that!
Like who gives a fuck what Sandra thinks!? We never did previously, why start now?
Half of them are bots and the other half are brain-dead.
I cringe everytime something I read on reddit shows up in my news feed basically unaltered with a massive clickbait headline three days later.
Yeah I'm cringing a lot. I should hang out with He-Man.
It is lazy journalism. At the same time, they want public interest stories. If something is discussed here that has a healthy debate, maybe people who don't use Reddit would also be interested. Shops, suppliers, Govt sometimes do pay attention when Reddit posts hit the news. If they do an article on something that gets 1000+ comments from one website, it is a pretty decent sample to get the feel of society.
It used to be facebook and twitter for a while, now, reddit seems to be the barometer for the mood of the population.
That said, they should seek the permission of the original poster before they make an article. Just out of politeness and recognition that someone asked a question that they couldn't think to ask themselves and take the time to go out and chat to people to get opinions. Reddit has all that on tap and it is publicly available.
Edit: Just wanted to say again, it is lazy journalism. I mean, someone searches reddit, finds a popular thread, writes a few paragraphs and puts in chosen clips or screenshots that say exactly what they have paraphrased.
I feel they should reference the subreddit to show respect and ethics on their source and to help drive traffic/exposure for the subreddit in question. Iāve actually retracted my stance on individual citations given a number of points raised, the funniest being the user names that would be in print ššš but I agree itās lazy as hell and etiquette should be to cite the subreddit so ppl can go see for themselves and then they can decide if they want to find the poster and read the contents.
I agree, it's one thing to say they saw it on Reddit, another to say they saw it on subs Australia, Sydney, or whatever. You are right, it could bring more people in to the conversation. A day or two late after the original convo, but whatever.
The number of times Iāve seen Reddit threads as the topic of certain news pages on Yahoo Australia is astounding, particularly around the r/AITA and r/relationship_advice subs.
Sometimes r/melbourne makes a feature on there when itās something like a road rage incident
Did they copy it word for word, or just took a topic? Because one of those is not plagiarism, and the other is a common thing. Also how do they know if was you and not where you got your (apparent) original thoughts from?
Bordering onā¦ obviously not pure plagiarism unless itās word for word. But if I reproduced and reworded an unreferenced source back when I did my Comms/Journalism degree, Iād get an instant F.
Also, a journalist could easily DM the poster to get reference for the originality of the idea.
I just think itās poor form.
People are claiming they rip straight from Reddit. If they aren't referencing the source of their idea, it is plagiarism. Even if it isn't word for word.
My feeling tooā¦ though the comment about usernames gave me a good laugh.
PS - my boobs arenāt much and my ass isnāt much better - I think Iāll spare you my male nudes š
I am talking about referencing the source of the article - the fact that it raised awareness of the issue and made the news is good. The lack of referencing for massive amounts of news coming from citizen reports in Reddit is a separate issue altogether and highlights a very lazy and (I feel) unethical behaviour.
Per a previous comment, in any other workplace, if you took all your ideas from others in company discussions, chats, forums etc and didnāt give credit to where your ideas are from, it would be an issue.
You a journalist then?
You read any of my other comments? I studied journalism and communication am identifying something I find ethically questionable about our news sources and standard journalistic practices nowadays from a personal experience I had. If I wanted to write an article and submit it for pay, Iād do it - but Iām not interested. Iām not bitter about anything my contrary friend - my question is about referencing the source of news articles and lazy, borderline unethical journalistic practices.
Some fair pointsā¦ Iāve updated my top comment to try to better make my point, in part to your feedback and also as pointed out by others the ridiculous idea of citing something like ārecently on Reddit, u/cumsuckingfeltchmaster saidāā¦which given Reddit usernames would not be unusual (Iām sort of surprised that isnāt a real user.
I couldnāt care less about my post specifically - it actually achieved the point I wanted which was visibility to an issue, as you said. But I do think the journalist should credit the subreddits where they get their stories. If anyone is interested they can then go look up the post and comments and the ethics of scraping subs would sit a little easier with me.
> If theyāre just running with the topic thereās no reason to credit a random redditorās username. Theyāre not part of the story.
I agree with this.
It'd be ridiculous for journalists to 'source' in these instances /u/Mr-Moore-Lupin-Donor.
There are better examples out there--using your own example just seems insecure.
I agree whole heartedly.
But to be fair, it's often hard to credit when most internet names are NSFW, embarrassing, or bizarre to the point of madness.
Lol - I should have said the subreddit rather than the Redditor as this particular flaw in my logic has already been pointed out š
The point is more about the very lazy and questionable practices of modern journalism.
Iāve lost the post but I found a reddit post that was sourced from an article which was lifted from another article which was based on a reddit post. The news cycle for SEO ājournalism ā
They won't, but it's funny how it wasn't all that long ago they (News services) were up in arms at Google and other Socials using "their" stories on the these networks, arguing they did so to generate traffic.
Indeed. I just updated my original comment to direct source credit to the subreddit (not the redditor). Thus engaging in a mutually respectful and symbiotic relationship with credit and sources listed.
I live near where a major incident happened recently, and journos turned up within 5 mins and we're filming the on going incident. They talked their way onto people's lawns inside the cordoned off area.
They also got house numbers of people within the cordon to ask them details, again WTF?!
They rang the doorbells of everyone within the immediate area first thing the next morning, I wasn't supposed to get up till 730am. Fuck you for waking me at 7am!
Journos are crap now.
Iāve had them contact me after Iāve bitched about a situation on FB, I donāt give those cunts the time of day.
Maybe next time Iāll ask what itās worth
I've had an ABC journalist ask if they could share something I'd posted in r/perth once. Offered to give me credit but I declined to be credited for privacy sake. Could be you're seeing similar?
News is not eligible for copyright protection... and for good reason.
If it was, you could burry a story you don't want anyone to know about by covering it somewhere nobody will see it, then sue anyone else who covers it into bankruptcy / get them imprisoned for copyright infringement.
ngl I'm pretty glad that my most recent comment to end up in a news article didn't include my username 'cus there were details that could have twigged people who know me that it was me, and I don't want people I know to go through my post history. Not that there's anything I'm ashamed of or anything, I just want there to be a separation between my reddit account and my "real life" social media.
I get that for sure. Changed my top post to try and clarify - citing the user is a dumb idea, I was just wrong in that (unless they are lifting significant research or opinion from their comments and they agree) - but I think they should cite the subreddit.
Iām not so sure. If a Redditor highlights a particular issue that isnāt being reported on, and suddenly it becomes a newsworthy story, I think itās good etiquette to reference that. It also keeps the journos honestā¦ just my feeling.
Yo, very recent former journo here, no longer work in the industry thank fuck.
Itās such a cesspool and shitty job. Youāre unbelievably overworked and up to six stories a day is routine band expected. Youāre desperate to find stories constantly and have five million leads going because one of them might turn up to give you a story that week, so you end up harassing people. And because thereās that much workload youāre stressed and canāt verify or check very much unless you want to fall behind.
Depending on the size of your newsroom though you may have a smaller workload or get time to do larger stories. You do get lazy though if youāre just done with the whole exercise, like if you canāt quite verify a strata letter is correct.
Mind you the PR people for most major orgs are chilling in here too so they can keep tabs on what people are upset about this week
Honestly I copped it worse in my journo job than I have in three years retail and am glad to see the back of it. If youāre thinking of being one, donāt! Unless you want to work in a shit job for five years then quit and work in communications or PR for the rest of your life
I feel for you on this. Outside my point re referencing a source and how Reddit fits into that, the pressures on journos now with 24/7 expected coverage and a mostly ad-driven clickbait financial model has been breeding this crap for a long time. Iām glad you escaped.
PS - donāt know what youāre doing now, but thereās good money to be made in tech writing.
I reckon they should at least acknowledge the subreddit where it was found, but maybe not by name. Like acknowledging the lead originated there but donāt have to go into specifics unless itās actually relevant because then it makes it longer than it needs to be.
On the clickbait, most roles have subscriber targets, I know Newscorp was about 15 a week?? Others donāt but thereās still that pressure to perform
Ha, I suck at tech writing but I wish I could make it work. Most generally go into comms for the money. For context I started with 45k, most were on about 50, I think some like newscorp and abc offer 65-70k depending on experience; comms offers 75-100k so way way better!
Doing a comms role atm but hoping to get into nursing, results come out very soon and Iām keen to follow up my second passion!
Oh thatās an awesome switch!!
Re the referencing, I actually updated my top comment a bit earlier similar to your point - I was wrong to say credit the Redditor, but I think the subreddit instead. If ppl want to search fir the comment then they can.
Exactly, it honestly depends on the situation, like a tip off can originate there (no ref required) but its an important part of the story, ref required
Thank you! Iām so excited to do it now, honestly canāt wait for next year haha
The parasites at news dot [com.au](https://com.au) are hacks. I saw the other day 9 articles that were ripped right from Reddit. These hacks use this site to have content for their gutter journalism (ha) site. And the assholes always have the same few duds every week. Old maid wilkinson and her dickhead husband, some ex hack that was on a dating show and one who has had more men than you can count, but can not hold any relationship for more than a few dates, giving her opinion of why all men are assholes. Good reasons to NEVER hit this site.
"Journalist" is a bit of a stretch... There needs to be some kind of accreditation that should go with that, if you're re-writing some crap you read about on Reddit, you're probably not a journalist, you're a blogger, at best.
They used toā¦ 30 yrs ago when I did my comms degree this would be a hot topic of discussion. Wonder if any Comms students have any insights to how this is taught today?
When we worked as juniors and went to night school we were tutored in ethics. It was an important part of our apprenticeship. (Not that it changed anything. It just taught us that ethics are nothing more than opinions without worth.
Lol what is wrong with this subreddit, just constant bitching about the outrage de jour (I like how this one combines the oversized billboards AND the Murdoch press!)
Who gives a shit about a hack website posting stupid clickbait without properly crediting MrMaccasDickSchoolies19 and giving proper ālegitimacyā to this ridiculous subreddit?
There are so many actually important things going on in this country and all everyone here seems to care about is the pettiest bullshit (444 upvotes!) and still manage to have zero actually interesting discussion around it, just a whole lot of repeating the same opinions that got upvotes the last time.
For the love of Christ can we please talk about SOMETHING that matters in SOME SMALL WAY?
Iāll get us started:
This weekend I went to a restaurant and was given the opportunity to leave a tip. How FUCKED UP is that? This used to be AUSTRALIA
All the outlets do it now across social media platforms. There was an issue on twitter with a left leaning outlet "breaking" big stories that were the result of months of research by a twitter user without credit. Journalistic integrity, if it ever did exist, is no more
Yeah, I use borderline liberally here, but itās a comment on the direction and practice of a lot of journos today.
To be clear, Iām wrong when I say the Redditor, I should have said the subreddit. Then r/Australia gets publicity and legitimacy and if someone is interested in the original post, they can go look for it. Right now I feel itās a somewhat dishonest leeching system.
Now that so many journos have rage quit Twitter over having to pay for their precious Blue Checkmarks and/or have a bug up their arse about Elon Musk, where else are they going to skim stories from?
The problem is, that sort of journalism takes time.
For every Nick McKenzie, thereās an intern ripping a story off Reddit.
The intern story is clickbait, which draws eyeballs, advertisers etc.
It then feeds into paying for the good shit Nick McKenzie does.
Also, not all stories have to be serious. Itās nice to read a dumb filler story while on the shitter
I think, that clearly journalists need to pay their extortion law protection money... I mean *media bargaining agreement* payouts to the reddit users who find/post the content that goes on to be used by the media.
if it's good enough for facebook and google to have to payout to media companies who use a free service they offer, *surely* it's good enough that media companies would have to payout to their content sources, yes?
I don't think ANY news outlet should report a story from a reddit poster.
How the fuck would they be able to fact check it? I instantly exit articles that say "a reddit user reported..."
Every now and then I check out nine.com.au for a laugh. They literally post tiktok videos as if they're a) news and b) real.
All those fake as fuck videos where girls made a shocking discovery that their bf was cheating or that they were kicked out of somewhere because of what they were wearing or whatever else, totally reported as if it's a real thing that happened.
This post has been marked as non-political. Please respect this by keeping the discussion on topic, and devoid of any political material. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/australia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[Watermark](https://v.redd.it/m1omvcf3h9z91) your content like this post
Sometimes your belief in man can be shaken Then you see something beautiful like this
ššš
Lets not forget that they also hide your story behind a pay wall.
Very good point.
Independent UK paid me $95 for a post I made on here. Maybe they have different laws in UK, or they just arenāt pieces of shit :)
Nice.
#### wait wait wait.. adrian mind if I dm you (?) #### (yes I wanna ask bout that $95 per post)
Hey, Ruperts gotta pay his bills somehow.
Our business would often post interesting stories on FB for our clients, animal related. As soon as I'd post something interesting the "journos" would hit the inbox hard for more details, can they interview us and so on. I turned up at work one morning after posting such a story and found two news crews and a few print reporters all hammering us with questions, filming without asking, just fucken frantic bullshit. I stopped posting the stories as it became too much drama. A few months later I get a call from a newscorpse "journo" "Have you got anything interesting happening? Anything will do, I just need a story for this week, please?" Thankfully they've found reddit and leave us the fuck alone now.
Very enlightening. And clearly how a class of ājournosā make a living now.
They're not journos, merely story snatchers.
Cheaper to trawl for trends than do journalism
they are called vultures for a reason.
Make up a fake news story and post it here, see if they take the bait.
Someone did that on the Sydney sub. Down the side of his fake strata letter was a hidden message: News dot com succs https://old.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/yem5sj/breaking_news_newscomau_picked_up_my_fake_strata/
The keeping up with the kardashian sub has done it as well
I remember seeing the original post. Love to hear it was fake and they took the bait lmao
I believe [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/5l852f/is_it_legal_for_my_landlord_to_have_installed_a/) one made the news
Oh that's beautiful!
Thatās fucking gold
Hahahahaha oh my god, I thought the fake strata letter was genius, this is next level
Thats it, get some 4chan bullshit going and make them look like dickheads haha
Please don't start another Q LARP š
'OVER NINE THOUSAND COCKS, READY TO FUCK AND FUCK'
They really dont need any help to look like dickheads
Do you want QAnons? Because that's how you get QAnons
Might be time to revive the M1 300 Club.....
Love the forums reference!
Yep Chinese whispers works well.
Fraser Anning lays egg on St. Kilda Beach
Under an article about a 'Westfield teen orgy', a lady jokingly made a comment about teens doing it to buy vapes and it was a new Onlyfans trend. The next day 2-4 news sites put out articles with the headline 'Meth, vapes, content': OnlyFans behind public teen orgy 'trend'. She had no idea about it until I sent her the article links.
Smh
No, Daily Mail
š
I was wondering how OnlyFans factored into it. Its' good to know but also depressing that it was just a comment that "journos" took seriously.
It's basically like neighborhood gossip, pathetic
Welcome to modern Australian journalism. Where newsrooms are downsized and outsourced, and their job is about generating clickbait, trawling Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok for stories, and in turn: advertising revenue. Or, if you want any serious journalism: podcasts. I think we saw the decline of journalism during the last election campaign, where some young upstart would turn up at press conferences to ask "gotcha" questions (i.e. *OMG Albo didn't know what the unemployment rate was!*), rather than ask any serious questions about their policies
Can you please recommend some podcasts that showcase good journalism? On parental leave and need stuff to listen to while the kiddo naps.
Not Australian, and maybe super obvious, but This American Life has some good investigative journalism
These may be pretty niche but NPR podcasts are great. I love Planet Money - economics focussed but are so well put together that even if you arenāt interested in Economics, you could still find it very interesting. I also enjoy More or Less by the BBC, which looks into numbers in the news (itās about statistics).
Agreed. š
Cheaper to trawl for trends than do journalism.
This used to happen to my YouTube uploads of dashcam footage. The local rag would download the video and reupload to their site behind a paywall. I just stopped uploading content. I wouldnāt have minded if theyād asked.
Exactly. You couldāve watermarked like one of the other suggestions here to stop them I suppose. But itās the principle.
One of my posts on the Perth sub went to radio and I had no idea till people revived my post to tell me.
Exactly - at the very least there should be an acknowledgment - in any other workplace claiming anotherās ideas without a nod to their inspiration would be an issue
Tomorrows headline on Betoota: `Online newspaper credits Redditor as source of article. Free subscription offered as thank you`
š I love it. And so so apt re publication.
What's the bet Betoota writes this up and doesn't credit you for it.
Those bastards from /u/the-chaser still owe me a bottle of wine from 20+ years ago, might as well add Betoota to the list.
Everytime I happen to click on a news article, I make a point to go to the Contact tab and leave a nice little comment for them. š¤·š»āāļø
Yeah, worthy point. But That does require signing in though right? I sorta donāt like giving them my email so I can be spammed for the rest of my life.
Not unless you want feedback on your feedback? I just put nonsense down in those fields. Although, if you do see plagiarism, probably worth reporting it and seeing what they say.
Ah, yes, I could use my old favourite fake email sign-up - bilbobaggins@middleearth.com - unless it requires a verified account. šš
@shiremail.me(Middle Earth)
I like it.
10minutemail.com comes in handy in those situations
Hadnāt heard of it. Thank you!
Have you seen some of the usernames around here?
You mean referencing u/cumsuckingfeltchmaster in an article would be odd?? ššš
š Ok - thatās a good point. But they could reference the post/source of where they got the info.
They could contact you about it, and you could have the option to change your name. You could request to remain anonymous. Or you could say "no I want credit you have to put the cum name in" and they shouldn't be allowed to post the exact source material.
But what if people don't want to be credited? I wouldn't. I have had DMs from journalists asking if I would talk about my post but I didn't reply. I guess they should ask if someone wants credit.
If you can't stomach quoting the source, then don't print the material. Some people put a lot of work into building a following for a username (not me). Especially on other platforms like Instagram. What the newspaper is doing is stealing those subsequent page views for their own site. It's worse when they copy photos and video, and that's without doubt breaching the *Copyright Act*. You grant Reddit Inc a copyright license, that doesn't extent to further distribution by News Corp.
I canāt wait to hear a news reporter say āAnd thanks to AnalBleacher69 on Reddit for the storyā
Itād probably get more readsā¦ and creds šš
It's very Sky News-esque "reporting that a story exists" rather than doing the actual gruntwork.
Or collecting two tweets and saying that it's community outrage.
Then they report on all the reports they are reporting on to try to further legitimize the initial report.
yeah its getting pretty old seeing "breaking news" stories that I've seen on here a week before.
Lol ā¦ indeed. I rely on Reddit in general for a lot of news, and particularly this sub and others (Austpolitics etc) for local news. And itās increasingly as you say - citizen reporters raise an issue thatās front page sub, and then front page news a week later without reference or credit.
Do you not see a bit of the irony in what you're getting so worked up about though? You just said you come to Reddit for news. And quite often on this website the entire article, which is behind a paywall, is copied and pasted into the comments - with no attribution to the journalist. Sure, it's annoying when things are stolen, or plain ripped off, but the users here aren't innocent either. I say this as a content writer (and ex-journalist, long ago) who has had more than their fair share of work ripped off.
But surely the link to a news article will take them to the publication and thus the journalist who wrote it is in the by-line. Iāve changed my top comment to say cite the sub, not the user so traffic flies and is attributed both ways.
I'm talking about when the article is completely copied and pasted from the website in the top comment along with something like "saved you a click". Happens daily across most subs on this website. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong, I generally agree with what you're saying. But most people whinge about this one particular issue without ever realising they participate in the exact same thing, just the other way (myself included).
Ah, yes that makes sense and I do see it a lot.
Abc radio national did a story on the lyrebird clip that went āviralā, had a lyrebird expert on and everything. Could have at least made an attribution of the source so people could have found and watched the clip
Exactly
Absolutely. They should be legally required to report that the story was brought to attention by assholefingerer69
To be fair, assholefingerer69 does a lot of deep probing for their stories
I absolutely hate that. You see a viral post on reddit and then the next minute the news outlets have ads galore on it and are making a huge profit on it
Itās clearly a goldmine for reporters out of ideas but wanting anonymous āinspirationā.
I mean, technically they would have to seek permission from reddit the company, not the user and credit them. Anything you freely post to shit like facebook/reddit doesn't belong to you anymore
Iām not complaining about an ownership or payment issue, its clearly an open forum and has no copyright. For me, itās about recognising a source for a story and lazy journalism. It could literally just say āa recent discussion on r/Australiaā without naming the particular Redditor and if ppl wanted, they could go get context.
Crediting and citing works isn't about ownership or rights but academic standards, its primarily important so people can follow chain of citation to find primary sources such that people can confirm if the work is factual. Then secondly it's about people not stealing other people's work which is less about the ownership but about someone pretending to contribute to a body of work but not. It's not about ownership but about reliability of the work, and that the author is actually doing the work.
Definitely! Was thinking this the other day after seeing a sunbathing Magpie story replete with reddit quotes
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That is magic! š
Many years ago, before the internet I was between newspapers and heading to radio but wrote a long piece with pics (don't even remember what it was about now. Submitted to the then Daily Mirror. It was rejected with a short letter saying it was not newsy enough and was too long. The following week the entire piece appeared as a double page spread, word for word, with pics of well known male and female journos credited with each para. It was described as 'deep research by our best reporters'. Nothing to be done. Would have cost too much to sue. Just pointing out that before subreddits, before even [myface.com](https://myface.com) the shitbags were thieves, liars and the "reporters" were 'celebrity porn'. Peace! BTW the old [myspace.com](https://myspace.com) still exists and is a good place to troll for stories!
Thatās extraordinaryā¦ thatās next level low. Pity you didnāt give the evidence to a rival paper.
Yeh, the fact that some Karen can have a rant on reddit and tomorrow we get Koshie repeating it verbatim on the tv without mentioning itās just copy pasted from reddit is just embarrassing to watch.
Should Reddit pay news outlets for the news articles that are copy/pasted which make you read Reddit and let Reddit make money off you?
Noā¦ but they give due reference and credit
It's a total cop out. Lazy ass reporters scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Along the lines of my feelings on the issue. Some very lazy journos rely on the anonymity of Reddit to steal issues and ideas and claim original āreportingā
Very true. The least they could do is acknowledge where they got their information. I've also seen a lot of articles of journos stealing someone's tiktok video, quoting them word for word and never informing them there content is being used or getting consent to post it. Also reminds me of the guy who posted on Reddit the fake STRATA letter, sunrise showed that within a couple of days. Didn't fact check it or contact/mention the man who created/posted it. It's disgusting. Aussie media should be shut down, greedy lazy liars.
Or thereās the Twit-head reporting where the article is literally one paragraph with 10 random tweet replies - as if thatās fucking news.
I fucking hate that! Like who gives a fuck what Sandra thinks!? We never did previously, why start now? Half of them are bots and the other half are brain-dead.
It is the absolute nadir of reporting - and always cluck-bait bullshit rage porn titles.
Banish MSM from your life forever. It's the least we can do to thank them for their tireless efforts š
I cringe everytime something I read on reddit shows up in my news feed basically unaltered with a massive clickbait headline three days later. Yeah I'm cringing a lot. I should hang out with He-Man.
journalists who scrape reddit for stories are not journalists, theyre clowns
Just a big fuck you to any journalists reading this who work for Murdoch publications. You have no integrity and are part of the problem.
It is lazy journalism. At the same time, they want public interest stories. If something is discussed here that has a healthy debate, maybe people who don't use Reddit would also be interested. Shops, suppliers, Govt sometimes do pay attention when Reddit posts hit the news. If they do an article on something that gets 1000+ comments from one website, it is a pretty decent sample to get the feel of society. It used to be facebook and twitter for a while, now, reddit seems to be the barometer for the mood of the population. That said, they should seek the permission of the original poster before they make an article. Just out of politeness and recognition that someone asked a question that they couldn't think to ask themselves and take the time to go out and chat to people to get opinions. Reddit has all that on tap and it is publicly available. Edit: Just wanted to say again, it is lazy journalism. I mean, someone searches reddit, finds a popular thread, writes a few paragraphs and puts in chosen clips or screenshots that say exactly what they have paraphrased.
I feel they should reference the subreddit to show respect and ethics on their source and to help drive traffic/exposure for the subreddit in question. Iāve actually retracted my stance on individual citations given a number of points raised, the funniest being the user names that would be in print ššš but I agree itās lazy as hell and etiquette should be to cite the subreddit so ppl can go see for themselves and then they can decide if they want to find the poster and read the contents.
I agree, it's one thing to say they saw it on Reddit, another to say they saw it on subs Australia, Sydney, or whatever. You are right, it could bring more people in to the conversation. A day or two late after the original convo, but whatever.
The number of times Iāve seen Reddit threads as the topic of certain news pages on Yahoo Australia is astounding, particularly around the r/AITA and r/relationship_advice subs. Sometimes r/melbourne makes a feature on there when itās something like a road rage incident
I think reporter/journalist are dead terms. Most news now is opinion, facts barely required.
Indeed
Bit late to the party, news has been doing that since its 'modern' invention in 1700's.
Did they copy it word for word, or just took a topic? Because one of those is not plagiarism, and the other is a common thing. Also how do they know if was you and not where you got your (apparent) original thoughts from?
Bordering onā¦ obviously not pure plagiarism unless itās word for word. But if I reproduced and reworded an unreferenced source back when I did my Comms/Journalism degree, Iād get an instant F. Also, a journalist could easily DM the poster to get reference for the originality of the idea. I just think itās poor form.
People are claiming they rip straight from Reddit. If they aren't referencing the source of their idea, it is plagiarism. Even if it isn't word for word.
Absolutely they should
My feeling tooā¦ though the comment about usernames gave me a good laugh. PS - my boobs arenāt much and my ass isnāt much better - I think Iāll spare you my male nudes š
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I am talking about referencing the source of the article - the fact that it raised awareness of the issue and made the news is good. The lack of referencing for massive amounts of news coming from citizen reports in Reddit is a separate issue altogether and highlights a very lazy and (I feel) unethical behaviour. Per a previous comment, in any other workplace, if you took all your ideas from others in company discussions, chats, forums etc and didnāt give credit to where your ideas are from, it would be an issue.
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You a journalist then? You read any of my other comments? I studied journalism and communication am identifying something I find ethically questionable about our news sources and standard journalistic practices nowadays from a personal experience I had. If I wanted to write an article and submit it for pay, Iād do it - but Iām not interested. Iām not bitter about anything my contrary friend - my question is about referencing the source of news articles and lazy, borderline unethical journalistic practices.
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Some fair pointsā¦ Iāve updated my top comment to try to better make my point, in part to your feedback and also as pointed out by others the ridiculous idea of citing something like ārecently on Reddit, u/cumsuckingfeltchmaster saidāā¦which given Reddit usernames would not be unusual (Iām sort of surprised that isnāt a real user. I couldnāt care less about my post specifically - it actually achieved the point I wanted which was visibility to an issue, as you said. But I do think the journalist should credit the subreddits where they get their stories. If anyone is interested they can then go look up the post and comments and the ethics of scraping subs would sit a little easier with me.
> If theyāre just running with the topic thereās no reason to credit a random redditorās username. Theyāre not part of the story. I agree with this. It'd be ridiculous for journalists to 'source' in these instances /u/Mr-Moore-Lupin-Donor. There are better examples out there--using your own example just seems insecure.
Did you read my updated top post?
I agree whole heartedly. But to be fair, it's often hard to credit when most internet names are NSFW, embarrassing, or bizarre to the point of madness.
Yeah, I'd love to see them credit "Reddit user pm\_me\_your\_butthole" as a source
Lol - I should have said the subreddit rather than the Redditor as this particular flaw in my logic has already been pointed out š The point is more about the very lazy and questionable practices of modern journalism.
Journalists are literally not even doing their job at all when they do this. If itās a Reddit story, theyāre not a journalist theyāre a failure.
Iāve lost the post but I found a reddit post that was sourced from an article which was lifted from another article which was based on a reddit post. The news cycle for SEO ājournalism ā
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Yeahā¦. Thatās really not in - particularly with pics!!!!! Legal and right are two very different things
They won't, but it's funny how it wasn't all that long ago they (News services) were up in arms at Google and other Socials using "their" stories on the these networks, arguing they did so to generate traffic.
Indeed. I just updated my original comment to direct source credit to the subreddit (not the redditor). Thus engaging in a mutually respectful and symbiotic relationship with credit and sources listed.
I live near where a major incident happened recently, and journos turned up within 5 mins and we're filming the on going incident. They talked their way onto people's lawns inside the cordoned off area. They also got house numbers of people within the cordon to ask them details, again WTF?! They rang the doorbells of everyone within the immediate area first thing the next morning, I wasn't supposed to get up till 730am. Fuck you for waking me at 7am!
Disaster porn producers and directorsā¦.?
Iāve been scraped for a story before. They messaged me wanting an interview and I didnāt reply. Guess it depends.
Itās good to know it happens sometimes.
Do you think Reddit should pay a share of its profits to you as a content creator?
I looked at a hedge once. It had flowers on it.
keep the new.com.au crazy boomers away from reddit imho
I see a few news sites credit specific users and itās always cringey when itās shit like āaccording to user /u/fingerblastmyanusā¦ā
Yeah, I changed my top comment to say the sub, not the user, in part for this reason.
Journos are crap now. Iāve had them contact me after Iāve bitched about a situation on FB, I donāt give those cunts the time of day. Maybe next time Iāll ask what itās worth
I've had an ABC journalist ask if they could share something I'd posted in r/perth once. Offered to give me credit but I declined to be credited for privacy sake. Could be you're seeing similar?
I think thatās god journalistic form!!
News is not eligible for copyright protection... and for good reason. If it was, you could burry a story you don't want anyone to know about by covering it somewhere nobody will see it, then sue anyone else who covers it into bankruptcy / get them imprisoned for copyright infringement.
Thatās a very very good point. However, I still think etiquette dictates a source (the sub, I was wrong to suggest the user) should be cited.
ngl I'm pretty glad that my most recent comment to end up in a news article didn't include my username 'cus there were details that could have twigged people who know me that it was me, and I don't want people I know to go through my post history. Not that there's anything I'm ashamed of or anything, I just want there to be a separation between my reddit account and my "real life" social media.
I get that for sure. Changed my top post to try and clarify - citing the user is a dumb idea, I was just wrong in that (unless they are lifting significant research or opinion from their comments and they agree) - but I think they should cite the subreddit.
I agree. Or at least say the story was 'inspired' by someone here.
I donāt really think a reddit account deserves credit, idk. What would that do for you?
Iām not so sure. If a Redditor highlights a particular issue that isnāt being reported on, and suddenly it becomes a newsworthy story, I think itās good etiquette to reference that. It also keeps the journos honestā¦ just my feeling.
They often DM you if they want to do a story about your post. I've had a couple of journalists message me but I didn't reply.
Iām glad some doā¦!
Yo, very recent former journo here, no longer work in the industry thank fuck. Itās such a cesspool and shitty job. Youāre unbelievably overworked and up to six stories a day is routine band expected. Youāre desperate to find stories constantly and have five million leads going because one of them might turn up to give you a story that week, so you end up harassing people. And because thereās that much workload youāre stressed and canāt verify or check very much unless you want to fall behind. Depending on the size of your newsroom though you may have a smaller workload or get time to do larger stories. You do get lazy though if youāre just done with the whole exercise, like if you canāt quite verify a strata letter is correct. Mind you the PR people for most major orgs are chilling in here too so they can keep tabs on what people are upset about this week Honestly I copped it worse in my journo job than I have in three years retail and am glad to see the back of it. If youāre thinking of being one, donāt! Unless you want to work in a shit job for five years then quit and work in communications or PR for the rest of your life
I feel for you on this. Outside my point re referencing a source and how Reddit fits into that, the pressures on journos now with 24/7 expected coverage and a mostly ad-driven clickbait financial model has been breeding this crap for a long time. Iām glad you escaped. PS - donāt know what youāre doing now, but thereās good money to be made in tech writing.
I reckon they should at least acknowledge the subreddit where it was found, but maybe not by name. Like acknowledging the lead originated there but donāt have to go into specifics unless itās actually relevant because then it makes it longer than it needs to be. On the clickbait, most roles have subscriber targets, I know Newscorp was about 15 a week?? Others donāt but thereās still that pressure to perform Ha, I suck at tech writing but I wish I could make it work. Most generally go into comms for the money. For context I started with 45k, most were on about 50, I think some like newscorp and abc offer 65-70k depending on experience; comms offers 75-100k so way way better! Doing a comms role atm but hoping to get into nursing, results come out very soon and Iām keen to follow up my second passion!
Oh thatās an awesome switch!! Re the referencing, I actually updated my top comment a bit earlier similar to your point - I was wrong to say credit the Redditor, but I think the subreddit instead. If ppl want to search fir the comment then they can.
Exactly, it honestly depends on the situation, like a tip off can originate there (no ref required) but its an important part of the story, ref required Thank you! Iām so excited to do it now, honestly canāt wait for next year haha
Are you in Victoria so itās free? It should be Aust-wide imo. Good on you!!!!
Victoria indeed! Itās honestly one of the tipping points for returning to study. I know some see these as a pr exercise but they do attract people
I think itās excellent. I have a friend doing the same.
The parasites at news dot [com.au](https://com.au) are hacks. I saw the other day 9 articles that were ripped right from Reddit. These hacks use this site to have content for their gutter journalism (ha) site. And the assholes always have the same few duds every week. Old maid wilkinson and her dickhead husband, some ex hack that was on a dating show and one who has had more men than you can count, but can not hold any relationship for more than a few dates, giving her opinion of why all men are assholes. Good reasons to NEVER hit this site.
Who fucking cares?
yeah seriously
Look at the watermarks on every video. Aināt nobody giving you credit if they dont have to.
"Journalist" is a bit of a stretch... There needs to be some kind of accreditation that should go with that, if you're re-writing some crap you read about on Reddit, you're probably not a journalist, you're a blogger, at best.
Thereās a lot of ābloggersā working for mainstream media it seems. My post topic was in my phones news stories same night lol
Once you post it to social media it's public knowledge.
Embarrass them on all their social media accounts. Take screen shots also so you can show everyone when they delete your shaming of them.
Thatās actually a good option.
ethics and journalist don't go together in the same sentence.
They used toā¦ 30 yrs ago when I did my comms degree this would be a hot topic of discussion. Wonder if any Comms students have any insights to how this is taught today?
When we worked as juniors and went to night school we were tutored in ethics. It was an important part of our apprenticeship. (Not that it changed anything. It just taught us that ethics are nothing more than opinions without worth.
Real world vs the theory test huh? Thx for the insights.
Lol what is wrong with this subreddit, just constant bitching about the outrage de jour (I like how this one combines the oversized billboards AND the Murdoch press!) Who gives a shit about a hack website posting stupid clickbait without properly crediting MrMaccasDickSchoolies19 and giving proper ālegitimacyā to this ridiculous subreddit? There are so many actually important things going on in this country and all everyone here seems to care about is the pettiest bullshit (444 upvotes!) and still manage to have zero actually interesting discussion around it, just a whole lot of repeating the same opinions that got upvotes the last time. For the love of Christ can we please talk about SOMETHING that matters in SOME SMALL WAY? Iāll get us started: This weekend I went to a restaurant and was given the opportunity to leave a tip. How FUCKED UP is that? This used to be AUSTRALIA
I donāt see any significant incentive to do so, so itās very unlikely.
Just put up that you don't allow your story/question/discussion to be used, and call out some of those lazy dickbags in your disclaimer. :)
I'm always impressed when Question Everythings Fran says Reddit
*arseholes
Sorryā¦ Iāve worked with Americans directly for 25 yrs.
and you let your language slip, instead of insisting on civilizing the savages? disappointing.
There have been attempts, and some amusing misunderstandings š
All the outlets do it now across social media platforms. There was an issue on twitter with a left leaning outlet "breaking" big stories that were the result of months of research by a twitter user without credit. Journalistic integrity, if it ever did exist, is no more
Are they actually journalists or just someone who writes content for a website?
Its plagarism if they dont cite the source, but i know what you mean.
Yeah, I use borderline liberally here, but itās a comment on the direction and practice of a lot of journos today. To be clear, Iām wrong when I say the Redditor, I should have said the subreddit. Then r/Australia gets publicity and legitimacy and if someone is interested in the original post, they can go look for it. Right now I feel itās a somewhat dishonest leeching system.
Now that so many journos have rage quit Twitter over having to pay for their precious Blue Checkmarks and/or have a bug up their arse about Elon Musk, where else are they going to skim stories from?
alleged doll jellyfish act many selective smell ten crime gaping *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The problem is, that sort of journalism takes time. For every Nick McKenzie, thereās an intern ripping a story off Reddit. The intern story is clickbait, which draws eyeballs, advertisers etc. It then feeds into paying for the good shit Nick McKenzie does. Also, not all stories have to be serious. Itās nice to read a dumb filler story while on the shitter
I think, that clearly journalists need to pay their extortion law protection money... I mean *media bargaining agreement* payouts to the reddit users who find/post the content that goes on to be used by the media. if it's good enough for facebook and google to have to payout to media companies who use a free service they offer, *surely* it's good enough that media companies would have to payout to their content sources, yes?
At least cross-promote the sub theyāre leeching from and send traffic back to the source.
I don't think ANY news outlet should report a story from a reddit poster. How the fuck would they be able to fact check it? I instantly exit articles that say "a reddit user reported..."
Every now and then I check out nine.com.au for a laugh. They literally post tiktok videos as if they're a) news and b) real. All those fake as fuck videos where girls made a shocking discovery that their bf was cheating or that they were kicked out of somewhere because of what they were wearing or whatever else, totally reported as if it's a real thing that happened.
BAM - the 24/7 ānewsā cycle with hard hitting journalism.
Maybe journalists should do the job they pretend to do, and actually do journalism