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Originally Posted by Willravel
Doesn't it *seem* like stealing, though?
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Are you stealing when you say that the sky is blue? Someone discovered that fact before you knew it. Should you not attribute?
Now, in your example, we should attribute because that is part of the story. If bananas were found to be linked to autism it would be a very big deal, and any journo worth anything would want an on-camera interview with the guy that discovered it.
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What happens when people start quoting the Journal instead of the researcher when they move on to further studies or when they yank bananas from their shelves?
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You keep changing the premise. Is it an attempt to put us off balance, or is it that you're not really sure where you're coming from here? Either the hypothetical journalist quoted the banana scientist's research paper directly without citing it (thereby what? Claiming that the journalist himself discovered the link?), or just reported what it said.
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Can't the original author of the work get lost in the dust? Where's his piece of the pie for doing all the work?
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Scientific acclaim. But in your example the original author is kind of stupid. If you have a groundbreaking discovery, you report it in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, not the school newspaper. That right there would make my antenna go up. Why isn't he putting this up for peer review? Why is he posting it in a college newspaper next to the meandering anti-professor rant from the freshman columnist?
Your example would probably never be published, because we would look into the story, and most likely figure out that the "scientist" was full of shit (and probably a sophomore fratboy trying to pull a prank).
You seem to be suggesting that broadcast journalists make a habit of leafing through college newspapers looking for stories to steal. That's silly to the point of absurdity.
You also seem to be suggesting that we comb real newspapers and lift the article word for word. That is also silly. We don't. IF the newspaper scoops us on something, we still make the story our own. You even said in the beginning that we shoot our own video, and get our own interviews. At that point, we are reporting on the facts, which we have verified independently of the newspaper, and are presenting it in an entirely different medium and style from the newspaper's version. If it's a big story, we (at least, every newsroom I've ever been in) mention that the whatever paper broke the story. If it's a story about the VFW's Memorial Day preparations, we don't. And the newspaper doesn't care, either.
there are a LOT of problems with my industry, but in my entire career I have never seen anyone take an article from the newspaper and just sit in front of the camera reading it word for word. I would challenge you to give me an example when this has happened, with the caveat that it must be from an actual television station. College kids playing at the community access studios do not count
