Opinion: Hard News Deserves Rightful Place in the EBC
By Deepest House
(Europeia – September 19, 2017) - This term the Ministry of Communications has marginalized the value of hard news stories. Minister of Communications JayDee has dubbed hard news “EBC Updates” and sequestered them into an EBC sub-forum reducing their visibility and potentially reader engagement, in favor of so-called “High Return Media” which feature prominently in the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation’s forum main page.
The term “EBC Update” is a misnomer that minimalizes the importance and purpose of hard news, and inherently infers that the content lacks substantial news value. “High Return Media” is nothing more than a made up and cumbersome term for the industry standard vernacular “feature story.” Using terminology inconsistent with the ministry’s past use, and inconsistent with professional standards, is confusing and a disservice to the reader.
JayDee justified moving hard news to a separate sub-forum on several faulty premises. The first faulty premise was that these supposedly more important articles needed more time to appear in the “News” drop down on the Europeian forum main page, before being bumped off by so-called “EBC Updates.” When challenged that the most important stories are the stories that generate engagement, to his credit he backed off calling “high return media” more important.
According to my conversations with Europeian citizens, most visit the EBC directly for news stories, leaving the “News” dropdown on the main page as a barely used tool that offers limited value. With the primary reason for creating the sub-forum not having much, if any, practical value to the end user, the change is not necessary. Coupled with the demotion of important and engaging hard news stories into a sub-forum, the decision is questionable and should be reversed.
The second incorrect assumption was that “High Return Media,” is somehow more engaging than hard news. I do not believe that the data bears this out. During my most recent term as Minister of Communications, the hard news stories, or “EBC Updates” as referred to currently, generated much greater discussion than feature stories (High Return Media). Over the course of my term, the EBC generated more than 500 comments, with thousands of page views, primarily through hard news. The trend continues this term, with early results demonstrating that hard news stories published in the “EBC Updates” sub-forum generating much more substantial engagement and discussion than feature stories published in the main EBC forum.
An example of the importance of, and impact that, hard news articles can make is demonstrated by my piece titled “Senator JayDee Blindsides Rand During Senate Confirmation,” found here http://s6.zetaboards.com/Europeia/topic/10013388/1/. I did not choose to highlight this piece because it features JayDee, and he is currently minister and we are discussing his current policies. Rather, look at the comments generated by the piece and the overall outcome of that reporting. That was actual journalism that reported on the ongoing confirmation hearing. The coverage informed the previously unaware public and generated substantial engagement. It also compelled an apology from JayDee. This would, undoubtedly, be identified as an “EBC Update” in the current Ministry of Communications and be tucked away into a sub-forum rather than taking a prominent place in the EBC as merited. The news value and engagement generated is without question. JayDee himself even highlighted the importance of this particular piece of journalism in his town hall.
The public is very interested in the day-to-day events of Europeia, and the EBC should endeavor to cover as much as possible that is newsworthy. Hard news stories play an important role in our region, and they should not be marginalized by placement into an EBC sub-forum. All news coverage generated by the EBC should be treated equally, and the value of each piece is determined not by its style, but by its substance. The EBC does not produce content in such quantities that a separate sub-forum is needed based on the style of news story produced, and the dropdown news bar reason is without merit.
JayDee is off to a promising start as minister. There is nobody in the region who is better suited right now to take on the job. He has grown tremendously in the past three terms, from staffer to deputy, and now to minister. Personally, I want JayDee to succeed. I recognized him for an outstanding term during my term as minister, identified him to serve as a deputy last term while I served as vice president, and recommended him to the current administration to serve as minister this term. I also want the Ministry of Communications and the EBC to succeed. Hard news and feature news are equally important components of the news coverage generated by the EBC. The EBC will be most successful when its content is located centrally, with equal visibility for all pieces, and the articles generating discussion based on their merits.