By - The Reporter
On - 27 AUG 2016
ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTION
"With great power comes great responsibility…"
~SpiderMan…as well as other famous people like Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and even a biblical verse variation. RESEARCH PEOPLES!
Every generation of the city has had a ‘newspaper’. A news source for the city’s happenings.
When the Necropolis went down for a bit, new papers tried to fill the void.
Suddenly it became a bunch of mudslinging. Malkavian was accused of neglecting the Necropolis on purpose, and abandoning his family.
This new place, Abs, as I like to call it, started picking up readers. It’s new, but it has its failings. Totally acceptable in most instances. Running such a thing takes time to learn and master.
However, it seemed from the get go there were blunders abound. Not that the Necropolis, or any other paper didn’t face some of the same.
The Necropolis, and Malkavian, made some poor choices for staff sometimes.
Abs seems to have no one with any experience at all.
Abs is pleasing to look at, but the bantering back and forth is being stifled. People are crying foul. The very same people who, at one time, thumped their chest about how big and bad they were, and they were trying to shame, bully, and drive citizen from the city.
Their vehicle to do this? The Necropolis. Because it has always been about freedom, until, of course, you cross a line with Malkavian himself.
With a newspaper, comes a responsibility to be completely fair. Fair in your reporting, fair to your readers and their rights.
News outlets come and go.
How their owners and staff handle things makes all the difference in the world.
As for bias, that should be held in check as well. When you start leaning to one side, simply because you, or your staff, or even the majority of your readers are a congregation of one or more allied factions, you start falling away from being objective. You are setting yourself up for failure.
Bias in articles is never acceptable. That’s what editorials are for. When reporting news, a good journalist can avoid bias, looking at all sides.
News reporting is never easy. Journalist have to be sure what content is acceptable.
Editorials are a free for all from the writer’s perspective.
Bantering, be it friendly or vicious, is going to happen as well. Insults will be tossed. If owners and staff can roll with the punches and can avoid taking sides, things run pretty smooth, because, hell, who doesn’t get a chuckle out of people nitpicking at one another? You have to have thick skin in the city of Ravenblack, no matter who you are, how long you’ve been here, and no matter how many times you’ve done…whatever. It’s a requirement, from fledgling to old war horse…thick skin is a must. And that applies to newspaper owners and staff. These people have set themselves up for some of the most heated of blows, and if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, as they say.
Governing with an iron fist is something to be avoided. Remember…freedom of speech. We may be vampires (or Lycans, birds, seahorses, whathaveyou), but we have voices and we want to be heard. Also, we are vampires, we don’t sit around holding hands and roasting marshmallows. We’d rather sling holy waters and smack talk. Owners and staff of these papers need to know just how far to let something escalate until they put their foot down and tell the participants to take it to the streets.
There is a huge impact on how matters such as those are handled, as well. Tact and fairness. If those things aren’t present, then the slant appears. And that spells the doom for any news outlet.
If a paper is going to run particular sections, such as WAYT and Rumor Mills, they had best be sure to be equipped with the fall out of such endeavours. They are hard to master and control. Rumor Mills, while entertaining, can really be a downfall of a paper. If not handled just right, you will lose readership, and you will most certainly gain animosity.
News outlets should learn from one another, however, it is tacky to steal ideas and information.
One must find its own niche that keeps readers involved, happy and entertained.
Editor's Note
This article was submitted anonymously and posted in its original form. Only formatting elements have been modified. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ab Antiquo and its staff.