Journalist's dilemma (crediting sources)

[chevalier]

Basically, we have a disagreement with my boss about the way news should be done on a site. I want to give “spotted at X” credit whenever I post something I spotted on a different news site and not at the original source. Boss says it’s harmful to our site and not everyone does that, just some other sites and I (the way I see it, it’s done more often than not). He says I can’t keep doing that and this wasn’t the first conversation about the subject, either. Solutions are three:

Boss’s solution:

• I stay and put a list of sites in my signature (my signature can be seen in the forums but can’t be seen on the frontpage, where the news goes automatically from the forums, and people can’t see which news I found out about on my own and which I spotted elsewhere - and where)

My solutions:

• I quit
• I stay and I only post the news that weren’t spotted on a different site (feels bizarre and superficial to me)

I don’t like solution #2 and #3 because they both look like keeping my hands clean on the surface only. At the same time, something’s telling me I might be overreacting and #2 might be good enough for a compromise. To be honest, I don’t know how things like this are done on a professional level, because we’re amateurs and I don’t even know how other amateurs do it outside our field of interest. I don’t earn money there, so I don’t depend on it for a living. There’s no noble cause that would suffer if I quit, either, it’s just a hobby. I feel bad trying to tell myself I’m not responsible for the decision and can’t change it… because, well, I can always quit and not have to do it at all. Weighing pros and cons (how much good I do staying or quiting) and deciding pros > cons feels like I’m justifying doing a bad thing so that a good one would come out of it. Someone tell me I’m overreacting - or I’m not?

 

[aicirt]

If you are reporting a story from another source, you need to give credit. I’m sure your readers know you are not out there actually gathering the news. I’d do it the boss’ way.

 

[chevalier]

It’s actually a new short story every time, but sometimes I get info from a story someone posted a day or two before, indicating the original source. My story is supposed to be based on that original source, without giving credit to the other site for the fact that I spotted it there and it led me to the original source.

 

[Secret_Square]

My story is supposed to be based on that original source, without giving credit to the other site for the fact that I spotted it there and it led me to the original source.

OK, say you were a professional, paid reporter, and one day the waitress at your favorite coffee shop told you “Hey, I know somebody you ought to do a story on.” You get that person’s name from her, contact that person and interview them.

When you write the story, do you have to give credit to the waitress or name her as a source? No. Reporters get story tips all the time from people they know, (and even from people they don’t know) but that doesn’t mean and has never meant they have to give explicit credit to these people as “sources”. I was a newspaper reporter for 20 years, and never once was expected to give credit to someone who tipped me off to a story, unless I actually quoted them, or used information that came ONLY from them and not from any other source.

The way you describe it, “spotting” stories on other sites is equivalent to seeing a story in another newspaper or getting a story tip from the waitress at the diner and deciding to go pursue that story yourself. The person who leads you to the original source does not have to be credited unless you quote them or include information that came only from them in your story.

Unless you are lifting big chunks of story text verbatim from other sites, or taking direct quotes from these other sites without attribution, I don’t see anything wrong with what your boss is asking you to do.

 

[chevalier]

Thank you. I’m trying to find an analogy. Say, a small local magazine interviewed an important person or wrote an interesting editorial or something of the kind. I read about it in a bigger newspaper. I obviously credit the local newspaper because their interview or editorial itself is the subject of my story. However, the other newspaper was the only reason I ever even knew about the interview and I read that other newspaper’s news column specifically to find clues about events to write about. Would it be okay in this scenario not to credit that other newspaper?

 

[aicirt]

You would give credit to the first and original source.

With the internet, you can track down the original story. I can’t see why you would have to credit the second source at all.

I’m thinking of this situation: I read a story in the NYT about something reported in the Toledo Blade. I’d bring up the original story and when I print it, give the Blade the credit.

 

[purplesunshine]

You need to credit your source…the ORIGINAL reporting information. (eg NYT) Just beucase you got the idea from Jimmy Fat’s blog doesn’t mean you need to credit him. You actually (and should) find the original first source. If you’d like to acknowledge Jimmy Fat, I believe your boss is correct…it should be done elsewhere.

 

[chevalier]

Thank you. Yeah, I always credit the original and base my short reports on the original because the point of any report I post is basically pointing to online material or existing online coverage of some event. I just had some qualms going to news services and using them to find the original and then only crediting the original but never the news sites that led me to the original.