Well today has been a different kind of day here at 1 News Plaza. Obviously, the big news of the day is the plane crash in Clarence that tragically killed 50 people. The newsroom is chasing the details of the story, while we at Buffalo.com have been working to get the story online in as many places as possible.
I don't write news, of course, but I can aggregate it, to a certain extent, using Internet tools like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, del.icio.us, and other, similar sites. My role has not been to create content, but to find some of these new methods of pushing eyeballs to our site.
I will be the first to admit that there does seem to be a sort of mercenary quality in this, a feeling that we are using a tragedy to push traffic. However, this is how it is done - people are looking for news, and we believe - rightly, I am confident - that The Buffalo News is the best source for this information. So we go after that audience.
Some of you may be wondering if I am "disappointed" that none of the home video or photos from the scene of the crash ended up at our Spotted site. I will admit that, early this morning, I was kind of hoping to be on the cutting edge of this scoop. However - when I realized what I was hoping for - photos from the scene where over four dozen people lost their lives - I felt guilty and ashamed of myself.
So no, I am not disappointed we don't have Spotted photo or video. If someone posted it, I would leave it up, of course, but I am not "rooting" for it.
My condolences to all of the families and friends of those who lost someone in this tragedy.
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2 comments:
If you go to the site, you will see we did create a place for the community to post (a community gallery). This was decided upon after much debate. To be honest, I am not convinced the community sees the Spotted product as a place to post "newsy" photos, but it is the only product we have in our family of Web sites that would facilitate user photos...so that's what was decided. I'd be interested in reading your thoughts.
I know this is a late comment, but the gallery was removed by me later in the day. No one was posting to it - not surprising, considering the tiny fraction of people who would have photos of the incident - and because I was 100% uncomfortable having it at the site. Deanna was also in agreement on this one. There had been a link for people to post from the BuffaloNews.com homepage, but our newsroom folks - understandably - felt uncomfortable with people jumping to a page with party pics, etc., to post such somber photos. I think we all made the right choice to begin with, then second-guessed ourselves. I feel as though I was right to remove the gallery. That's how the new media world works...you move, you adapt, you change. It's nothing if not interesting, and the world of new media changes every day, if not every couple hours.
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