Comments for Neil Sanderson

Comment on Western Manitoba loses local TV news as CKX closes by Chris Sobieniak

Chris Sobieniak — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:40:38 +0000

Though I’m not from the area, I just wanted to say how sad it is when these things happen, and it’s also a real shame nobody has challenged the CRTC on it’s unfair practices in recent years either.

It’s rather a shame this had to happen in such a modest city as Brandon and the area in general, also for the CBC for not even considering adding a transmitter site for it’s Winnipeg station if it came to that, but I’ve heard they haven’t done anything like that as of recent, expecting everyone to have had cable or satellite by this point (a right a person should not have for freedom of the airwaves I as see it).

I can only hope the area may see a new TV station someday as long as there is enough interest and local financial backing that could make it happen.

Comment on Video: Saving the Silverton Standard by Gina

Gina — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:59:33 +0000

Hey don’t forget about me! I also work with Mark at the paper. It is a 2 person operation!

Comment on Guardian silent on plagiarism question by Neil

Neil — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:46:05 +0000

Using a press release verbatim goes beyond mere laziness in my opinion. It is fundamentally dishonest to represent someone else’s words as your own. Moreover, in this case, it was a column - which is supposed to be a vehicle for original thinking.

Comment on Guardian silent on plagiarism question by Paul

Paul — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:47:15 +0000

The UNESCO ‘news release’ - do you mean a press release or a news story?

Using a press release verbatim is very lazy rather than plagiarism.

Using a news story verbatim is plagiarism, though muddied slightly if the publisher calls it something ambiguous like ‘news release’.

Comment on Kiwi stunt promotes breaking news on the web by Matt

Matt — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:02:43 +0000

Hi Neil - Good point re the embed code. Seems to have been sorted for stunt number two:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/consequences/2762393/Click-here-to-watch-us-pelt-Hamish-with-tomatoes

Comment on Delivering value to brand advertisers online by Simon

Simon — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:43:43 +0000

It could be argued that brand advertisers need to rethink their online advertising strategy.

Brand advertising might work for mass media venues, but most of the web is made up of demographic/interest sub-groups.

An advertiser might be better off creating a direct response ad that appeals to the group that is viewing a particular website.

Yes, it’s more work - but I’d bet the CTR is much higher and the ROI is much higher too.

The thing is, most brand advertisers haven’t a clue what their ROI on a campaign is, so they just try to shout louder and louder for less and less money.

That doesn’t drive sales, does little to drive “brand awareness” (whatever that is) and slowly kills the media on which they advertise. It’s a downward spiral.

A well targeted ad in well targeted media will produce a higher ROI, higher (deserved) CPMs and… oh, we forgot them, happier website viewers who come across ads that actually have appeal.

Comment on Outsourcing journalism to cut costs by More info here

More info here — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:17:29 +0000

More info here…

Good job narrowing down all the information….

Comment on Why are so many journalists clueless about Twitter? by Neil

Neil — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:41:46 +0000

And for more on how journalists can acknowledge and amplify reporting from Iran via Twitter, I recommend reading http://beatblogging.org/2009/06/16/creating-value-when-everyone-is-a-journalist/

Comment on Why are so many journalists clueless about Twitter? by Neil

Neil — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:07:42 +0000

I agree Simon. Fear and dismissiveness of anyone “not a journalist” have been infecting journalism for too long. Combine that with the fairly common ignorance of technology, and it’s not surprising that Twitter gets short shrift.

Comment on Why are so many journalists clueless about Twitter? by Simon

Simon — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:51:32 +0000

I’ve just finished reading Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky. One of the things he says in that book is that those in professions that are disappearing (journalism as a “profession” is being made redundant by amateurs now that the abundance of the internet has replaced the scarcity of the printing press) have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, even if by doing so they are harming the cause their “profession” is supposed to be about (in this case the reporting of what’s happening).

If reporters were to admit that, for example, the best reporting out of Iran this weekend was on Twitter, they would be recognizing that their profession no longer exists - that anyone can do journalism.

That’s kinda scary for them, so they feel (no doubt sub-consciously) that it’s better to put their heads in the sand or to disparage these upstart media.

And that, of course, is precisely the wrong thing to do.