Student paper stealing quotes

[mannheimadler]

There was a student reporter I knew who used to follow me around and do the same interviews without asking questions. (He's heard me tell this story, so I'm sure he's fine with me sharing it here.)

One time we were interviewing a Division I basketball coach after a home game. As usual, he didn't ask any questions.

I finished the interview and turned off my tape recorder. Thanking the coach, I turned to head back to the press table. As I was walking, I heard the coach turn to the student reporter and say "How come you never ask me any questions?"

By this time, I was half-way across the basketball floor. The coach shouted to me and said, "Hey, come back, he's actually going to ask a question!"

Laughing, I turned back and got a chuckle as the reporter stammered out a question. I think he was embarrassed, but he was a good sport about it. After that, he always asked questions in every interview. Even if they were inconsequential answers he got.

But i think he learned his lesson. I was glad he could be a good sport, though. ;D

 

[JonathanG]

guess this guy is now qualified to work at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Detroit Free Press?

Chicago Sun-Times?

 

[MGoBlue]

Slappy ... probably?

 

[Tom Petty]

Is it any different, though, when the student reporters are following you around to every interview and never asking any questions — just taking the quotes you get?

That always irks me a little.

i think that's totally different. they are called students for a reason, because they're there to learn.

those kids that make it a habit of following certain writers around probably say some of the coolest shirt about the "certain writer" when they're burning a fattie with their friends. there's a reason they latch on to one "guy." take it as a compliment.

 

[ronalong]

When I worked for my college newspaper, the head of the journalism department actually encouraged us to use quotes from the larger papers in the state. Her reasoning was that papers are in the public domain and after articles are published, the content is free game. Needless to say, I quit working for the school newspaper and went to work as a stringer for a local paper until I got out of college.
It's a wonder, the school has not been sued, yet.

 

[Scribbling]

Is it any different, though, when the student reporters are following you around to every interview and never asking any questions — just taking the quotes you get?

That always irks me a little.

I'm not that far out of college so I know what you mean because I was guilty of doing exactly that. It wasn't because I didn't know what to ask or anything of that nature. Instead it was because I worked for a major D-I student paper and all of a sudden I was sitting next to writers I had been reading for years. I was flat out nervous and kind of scared.

My original beats in college were swim teams and soccer teams, so I would have to learn how to conduct interviews because I was the only guy there, but when I moved to football and basketball it was a little nerve racking.

I grew out of my "in awe" condition pretty quickly, but I contribute that to the beat writers covering the college. They were very helpful to me and never made me feel beneath them. Well, there was one exception to that, but he was a brick anyway. In fact, I still get a beer with some of them every now and then when we're in the same town.

Now, I hope I can be just as helpful to student writers who I come into contact. Those beat writers were invaluable to my growth, and I'm still trying to futher myself, but without them I wouldn't be writing today. I hope I can have the same type of impact on someone at some point.

So basically I'm trying to say, don't just get pissed at a student following you around for interviews. Instead, just give them some encouragement and make them feel like they are on your level. It's an intimidating environment for student reporters. Cut them some slack.

 

[mediaguy]

I'd go to the writer first, and only if he/she isn't getting it, then go to an advisor or supervisor. Tell 'em they can have your quotes, just attribute them. Lifting quotes is much worse than just piggybacking on an interview, which is weak, but not plagiarism.

Happens all the time, and not just student papers. I had it happen with a national web site recently.

 

[RossLT]

You need to let the reporter know that this type of thing is not cool.
I once took quotes from the bigger paper and gave them credit and my editor asked me why I did it. I told him it was the right thing to do and he looked at me like I was an idiot.

 

[sartrean]

When I worked for my college newspaper, the head of the journalism department actually encouraged us to use quotes from the larger papers in the state. Her reasoning was that papers are in the public domain and after articles are published, the content is free game. Needless to say, I quit working for the school newspaper and went to work as a stringer for a local paper until I got out of college.
It's a wonder, the school has not been sued, yet.

My college daily (five day a week daily) was a freaking joke, as was the whole journalism department. The kids in the journalism school were mostly a bunch of idiots, so after one semester, I changed my major and ended up doing a "quadruple" major in the humanities. I feel like I got a better education than my peers that were also working at the college daily.

I and I did a ton of writing for my four majors. By my junior year, I was turning in on average 40 major research papers each semester.

I wasn't a reporter at the college daily. I worked my real job at a local radio station (back when radio was local), but I did just turn in a column every week as a donation, and also because my friends there were hard-up for writers.

But looking at that college daily on the internet every so often that I do, I notice that their current op-ed writers lift quotes off of TV, from local and nation print media, and quote people being quoted on other TV news programs. There's rarely attribution. What a joke. What are the teaching people in journalism school?

 

[kooshdoctor]

is it appropriate to get quotes from a team's website or other medium, when they list the answers players or coaches give at a press conference? should you credit the team or the site or the player or? does a press conference just count as public material?

 

[Chi City 81]

is it appropriate to get quotes from a team's website or other medium, when they list the answers players or coaches give at a press conference? should you credit the team or the site or the player or? does a press conference just count as public material?

Jay Mariotti certainly thinks so.

 

[Tierra]

is it appropriate to get quotes from a team's website or other medium, when they list the answers players or coaches give at a press conference? should you credit the team or the site or the player or? does a press conference just count as public material?

The answer would seemingly be yes, but MLB.com kind of blurred the line on this.

Still, I tend to think that lifting stuff from MLB.com, for example, presents a more authoritative way of stating something that you otherwise couldn't report.

For example, in my past life as a minor league baseball reporter, parent club Z wouldn't officially announce managerial assignments at particularly good times, and minor league club Y wouldn't help out, either, in part because competing paper X was a part owner of the club.

But when parent club Z's MLB.com beat writer got wind of the managerial assignment that I kind of saw coming anyway sometime in January, I could proceed from there.

"Johnny Sixthyear will manage Team Y this year, according to a report on Team Z's official Web site. Officials from Team Y would not confirm the hiring of Sixthyear, but contacted at his home Someplace Sunny and Warm, Sixthyear said the deal was done."

You give credit where credit is due, and legitimize it at the same time.