Why Hard News Works Now
By Punchwood
When I first joined Europeia I was shocked to discover that there was no news outlet that was releasing what we now call “hard news.” All the EBC work was either reports or opinions and the same was true for the private news outlets just with added opinion. I decided in my newcomers ignorance to set up Euro Weekly which would report on the goings on in the region and as the name suggests on a weekly basis. It never really took off, I got the occasional nice comment and a guess publication from Klatonia who liked the idea of my paper but that was really it.
People explained to me why there were no news outlets dedicated to hard news in Europeia. For starters people could see for themselves the goings-on in the region just by logging into the forums. Secondly Europeia is a political region, nearly everyone in the region is trying to climb the political ladder and to climb that ladder you have to know what is going on in the region so most people were up to date. While in regions with a distinct RMB and forum community, or larger regions such as the feeders or what we will call a multicultural region (a region that don’t solely concentrate on one area, eg politics, culture) hard news is important in keeping everyone up to date on all the goings on. In Europeia there just wasn’t a need.
I disagreed at first but soon came around to the idea as I learned more about what type of region Europeia actually was. I attempted to restart Euro Weekly with its core principle at heart twice, once with a roleplay twist added on and the second time the same way I started originally. Neither caught on and Euro Weekly has since been used for the odd poll or two. Then Deepest House took over as Minister of Communications and proved that hard news was both important and possible in Europeia. Not to toot my own horn too much, but turns out I was right. The only problem was, what I thought I was doing was by no means hard news.
Deepest House made hard news work not just because he could write fantastically but because he was reporting on the actual news, what I was reporting on was history. When an event happened Deepest House reported on it within hours. It was relevant and that made it readable. The best example I can give is Senator JayDee Blind-Sides Rand during Senate Confirmation ” Firstly while Aex was the only one public to say so, I don’t think many people would have noticed what JayDee had done or if they did likely later on when it was less relevant. Senate confirmations aren’t particularly interesting and we often only check them once or twice. By covering everything Deepest House gave hard news a purpose. It was keeping people up to date with the news. Secondly the article allowed for discussion about JayDee’s actions as well as provide a platform for a discussion about if it was alright or not to share private conversations in public. While hard news is about keeping people up to date, it is also about providing a platform for which people can discuss the goings on. What I had been doing was reporting on only the largest and most widely known stories which had occurred earlier that week. As such it was nothing more than a very modern history lesson on Europeia. Very dull and unneeded.
The EBC has since continued to report on hard news in an update format, writing articles on events in a very timely and efficient manner. Communications which had been for a while seen as more of a cultural thing which was nice to have but not necessary, is now a very important Ministry.
JayDee was able to become a potential future Presidential candidate and indeed an actual Vice Presidential candidate due to his performance in Communications. I think it is only because the EBC started covering hard news that the Ministry was able to become this valued.
For a short time JayDee split the EBC into two subforums, one for “updates” or hard news and the other for High Return Media articles (HRMs) essentially opinion pieces, and articles that weren’t updates. At the time I supported his actions and said so publicly. While I recognised that comparing the quality of my work to Deepest Houses’ was like comparing a diamond to a rock I still believed that what he and the EBC had done was essentially the same as what I had done with Euro Weekly, only of a higher quality. I believed it suffered from the same problems as the problems I was told my work suffered from, that it simply wasn’t relevant. In reality what the EBC was doing was relevant and what it had achieved were the reasons why I originally started Euro Weekly. The differences between our styles was clear, I had attempted hard news in such a way that I wasn’t even reporting on the news while Deepest House and the EBC had gone about hard news in the perfect way. To paraphrase Luke Skywalker, everything I did was wrong.
I am glad to see hard news as a valued part of Europeia. While my original attempt at hard news in Europeia was an utter shambles I am still glad I did it. Since seeing what real hard news is I have been able to improve my writing but in particular my style of writing. I have written a few hard news articles for the EBC and while my writing still needs great improvement it is a lot better than it once was. Hard news works in Europeia now because it was tackled in the right way. In many ways it is very simple why hard news works, it looks at the new.
What do you think? Am I on the right lines or am I talking a complete load of waffle. Why do you think hard news works: debate it below!
By Punchwood
When I first joined Europeia I was shocked to discover that there was no news outlet that was releasing what we now call “hard news.” All the EBC work was either reports or opinions and the same was true for the private news outlets just with added opinion. I decided in my newcomers ignorance to set up Euro Weekly which would report on the goings on in the region and as the name suggests on a weekly basis. It never really took off, I got the occasional nice comment and a guess publication from Klatonia who liked the idea of my paper but that was really it.
People explained to me why there were no news outlets dedicated to hard news in Europeia. For starters people could see for themselves the goings-on in the region just by logging into the forums. Secondly Europeia is a political region, nearly everyone in the region is trying to climb the political ladder and to climb that ladder you have to know what is going on in the region so most people were up to date. While in regions with a distinct RMB and forum community, or larger regions such as the feeders or what we will call a multicultural region (a region that don’t solely concentrate on one area, eg politics, culture) hard news is important in keeping everyone up to date on all the goings on. In Europeia there just wasn’t a need.
I disagreed at first but soon came around to the idea as I learned more about what type of region Europeia actually was. I attempted to restart Euro Weekly with its core principle at heart twice, once with a roleplay twist added on and the second time the same way I started originally. Neither caught on and Euro Weekly has since been used for the odd poll or two. Then Deepest House took over as Minister of Communications and proved that hard news was both important and possible in Europeia. Not to toot my own horn too much, but turns out I was right. The only problem was, what I thought I was doing was by no means hard news.
Deepest House made hard news work not just because he could write fantastically but because he was reporting on the actual news, what I was reporting on was history. When an event happened Deepest House reported on it within hours. It was relevant and that made it readable. The best example I can give is Senator JayDee Blind-Sides Rand during Senate Confirmation ” Firstly while Aex was the only one public to say so, I don’t think many people would have noticed what JayDee had done or if they did likely later on when it was less relevant. Senate confirmations aren’t particularly interesting and we often only check them once or twice. By covering everything Deepest House gave hard news a purpose. It was keeping people up to date with the news. Secondly the article allowed for discussion about JayDee’s actions as well as provide a platform for a discussion about if it was alright or not to share private conversations in public. While hard news is about keeping people up to date, it is also about providing a platform for which people can discuss the goings on. What I had been doing was reporting on only the largest and most widely known stories which had occurred earlier that week. As such it was nothing more than a very modern history lesson on Europeia. Very dull and unneeded.
The EBC has since continued to report on hard news in an update format, writing articles on events in a very timely and efficient manner. Communications which had been for a while seen as more of a cultural thing which was nice to have but not necessary, is now a very important Ministry.
JayDee was able to become a potential future Presidential candidate and indeed an actual Vice Presidential candidate due to his performance in Communications. I think it is only because the EBC started covering hard news that the Ministry was able to become this valued.
For a short time JayDee split the EBC into two subforums, one for “updates” or hard news and the other for High Return Media articles (HRMs) essentially opinion pieces, and articles that weren’t updates. At the time I supported his actions and said so publicly. While I recognised that comparing the quality of my work to Deepest Houses’ was like comparing a diamond to a rock I still believed that what he and the EBC had done was essentially the same as what I had done with Euro Weekly, only of a higher quality. I believed it suffered from the same problems as the problems I was told my work suffered from, that it simply wasn’t relevant. In reality what the EBC was doing was relevant and what it had achieved were the reasons why I originally started Euro Weekly. The differences between our styles was clear, I had attempted hard news in such a way that I wasn’t even reporting on the news while Deepest House and the EBC had gone about hard news in the perfect way. To paraphrase Luke Skywalker, everything I did was wrong.
I am glad to see hard news as a valued part of Europeia. While my original attempt at hard news in Europeia was an utter shambles I am still glad I did it. Since seeing what real hard news is I have been able to improve my writing but in particular my style of writing. I have written a few hard news articles for the EBC and while my writing still needs great improvement it is a lot better than it once was. Hard news works in Europeia now because it was tackled in the right way. In many ways it is very simple why hard news works, it looks at the new.
What do you think? Am I on the right lines or am I talking a complete load of waffle. Why do you think hard news works: debate it below!
