Friday, August 3, 2012

Media: Stop being stupid with your Olympic headlines and tweets

I thought this would die down rather quickly once the Olympic games got under way but unfortunately it appears I was wrong. Evidently most major media organizations don't seem to understand the Olympic games.  Folks, some of us want to watch the games and not know who will win the event beforehand!  I know this may appear to be strange but yes, it's true. I happen to be one of them.  I also like to go to movies and not know the ending beforehand.  I must be peculiar because the major media outlets appear determined to ruin the tension and build up to various Olympic events.

STOP IT!

Are you so desperate to post that article or tweet that headline 2 seconds before some other organization does that you don't realize you are totally ruining the event for a significant portion of your viewership?

It's not hard, really... I'll give you an excellent example in contrast.

I censored some of the AP tweet so I don't ruin your Olympic experience.
Somehow this concept is beyond reporters with several years of college and degrees and stuff.

Two tweets about the same event, and the Small Town Tacoma News Tribune (and I mean that as a complement) @thenewstribune understands the concept of building tension in a story while massive Associated Press seems to be run by monkeys and spam bots (and I'm insulting monkeys in this comparison)


In case I'm not making my point yet, imagine if a reporter wrote a book review like this:
The new novel A Winter's House by rookie author June Anderson breaks new ground in the mystery/crime genre. In the end we find out the butler killed Mrs. Kavendish in the study with a candlestick, but not during the stormy evening as the author alludes to in her clever story telling.  No, she'd been dead for days...
The NBC Olympics web site titles some videos with the event and WINNER'S NAME. Um, we may want to actually watch the video before knowing who won, ok?

You are tweeting and publishing to a worldwide audience who may not be able to watch the events live.  I have my DVR at home filled to capacity with 3 channels of Olympic programming, please stop ruining it for me.

In short: STOP BEING STUPID WITH YOUR HEADLINES AND TWEETS!  I'm unfollowing every news source that does so. Trust me, if you are furiously tweeting spoilers about the Olympics, I can get whatever other 'news' you provide elsewhere.

p.s. I know I'm just one smaller blogger in a very large universe but I'm sure there are others who share my viewpoint.