7 ms·
Much of the credit goes to The Cincinnati Enquirer for having the ethics to include interns on the byline. As they should, but not everyone would do so.
by mcherm 9y ago
Much of the credit goes to The Cincinnati Enquirer for having the ethics to include interns on the byline. As they should, but not everyone would do so.
- Waterluvian 9y agoThis is exactly it. This was clearly a team effort. Like 60 people won the same Pulitzer. But it's quite clear that even as an intern, this individual's contributions were very important. I love team awards.
- philliphaydon 9y agoTeam awards don’t seem to exist for the advertising industry even tho its a team effort to do the work to win them.
- awat 9y agoThat’s a shame spreading the credit helps build loyalty which keeps those award winning teams in place.
- aggie 9y agoTo play devil's advocate, an intern with a Pulitzer (or similarly prestigious award) on their resume is going to have a lot of job opportunities.
- tsunamifury 9y agoYou’d be surprised how dire the situation is in most newsrooms, and how petty the competition is.
- godzillabrennus 9y agoIf your head hasn’t been in the ground for the last twenty years you should have an idea on how bad the business is. Here is a recent article about the situation if indeed your head is below ground: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-news-041152018-story.html http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-news-041...
- smichel17 9y agoI found this comment fairly condescending and presumptuous. Not everyone has the time and ability to follow everything. That doesn't mean their "head is below the ground." Twenty years ago, I was an infant.
- georgebarnett 9y agoIts not just newsrooms. Many teams allow internal politiking to take precedence over working together. As a result, they're at war with themselves _and_ trying to compete in the market for customers. As you might imagine, teams which do not have this conflict have substantially more time to focus on their customers.
- jrockway 9y agoAn intern whose work won the Pulitzer but wasn't listed on the byline is probably not going to want to work for you again, for fear of that happening again. It goes both ways.
- kabacha 9y agoUnfortunately it's accepted in the industry not to get bilines while you're an internet or a new guy, so I'm sure interns don't have any expectations because of this culture.
- rdlecler1 9y agoWhich is exactly why you’re going to attract better intern candidates.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- abritinthebay 9y agoThe Clio Awards do (source: I won one as part of the Media Lab team at Bleacher Report). They credit the team but specifically name the individual members as well. The Clios are pretty big as industry awards go.
- rishaanpatel 9y agoPeggy worked on Glo-Coat, but only Don won the Clio.
- abritinthebay 9y agoI’m assuming they got better since the fictional 60s ;)
- calimac 9y agoYes, She had the idea to create the database out of unstructured paper arrest slips which gave coverage and statistical credibility to the effort. Key in the entire operation.
- adfm 9y agoExactly this. She deserves the attention she's getting. And she did the grunt work daily, which is important to call out. Reminds me of the ChicagoCrime.org feet-on-street data wrangling story. A great idea and the persistence to follow through.
- DonHopkins 9y agoNot to mention visiting the county jail each morning, when most interns would just be out getting Starbucks.
- pranau 9y ago> when most interns would just be out getting Starbucks. On the contrary, most interns I know wouldn't be doing this because of how overworked they are doing the grunt work.
- lostlogin 9y agoAgreed. New Zealand’s semi national paper prints unattributed reddit comments on a regular basis. It’s grim.
- bonestamp2 9y agoDa fuck? What am I spending all that time on reddit for then? But seriously, I am actually an award winning writer (and it's not even my profession, it's just a hobby) and I do comment on reddit a lot... they're stealing comments without attribution? Ethics aside, that's just terrible journalism to say the least.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago> Da fuck? What am I spending all that time on reddit for then? Whenever I see youtube clips on evening news, my thought is the exact opposite - why am I bothering to watch this, when I can just head over to YouTube and catch it without a pair of talking heads doing their own version of a Reaction Video about it?
- noir_lord 9y agoI got quoted in international business times, which struck me as funny. http://www.ibtimes.com/hackers-warn-about-future-threats-how-guard-against-next-heartbleed-1573074 http://www.ibtimes.com/hackers-warn-about-future-threats-how... That comment was from Reddit.
- talltimtom 9y agoHonestly why should they? The Interns did exactly what they were told, the went and jotted down details. Is that Pulitzer Prize worthy work? Does the helper who whipes Einstein’s blackboard during the break deserve partial credit for what he put on it? I get that it’s a fun story but it honestly just seems redicules.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- theoctopus 9y agoHad you actually read the article, you would have seen that: > From there, she took it upon herself to create a database for Enquirer reporters, documenting the time, location, and nature of every opioid-related arrest that occured over those days. The article also says that because of that database they were able to fill gaps in the article and make it as compelling as it was.
- philosopher1234 9y agoShe seems worthy of being added to the byline, but I don't think its right for you to be so dismissive of OP's point. GP wrote a statement that sounds like "interns should be added to the byline for pulitzer prizes." The way its written sounds like a general statement. In reality, I'm not sure this is a reasonable expectation (as in, the word "should" seems inappropriate.) We should consider what makes someones work Pullitzer prize worthy. I'd speculate (because I don't know much about journalism) that it really comes down to doing outstanding work, more than is usually expected of any individual, and for succeeding on metrics that are hard to succeed on. This intern did something valuable, adding things to the database, and probably coming up with the idea for the database herself, but does this meet the criteria of being truly standout, incredible work? The nature of this particular award that it was given to the entire staff who contributed substantially to the coverage, seems like she is thus worthy, but I don't think treating OP like they're being ridiculous is reasonable. This is a worthwhile question. I think a lot of people on this site are familiar with awards being given to people who don't seem to deserve it, so investigating this topic, for a case that resembles that pattern, doesn't seem so offensive or outrageous as you've kind of termed it.
- claforte 9y agoI'm sure that sense of ethic will pay for itself for years to come. They will get the best students applying for internships.