[Foundation-l] David Shankbone in Israel

[GerardM]

Hoi,
Wikinews has a problem. When I notice the coverage of Wikinews. It is more
then four and less then fourteen news items a day. The interviews, a report
like the trip to Israel, are different. Wikinews needs to be different
because as far as I am concerned it did not find its niche yet.

In my opinion doing stuff like this is daring, it makes a difference and it
is interesting. It is definetly not boring and predictable. So my answer to
your question is, Wikinews is experimenting here and that is good. Without
it there is little to show for all the effort. When you get the mix right,
you will get your audience and you may be able to make Wikipedia an offer it
cannot refuse. But first you have to work on gettin the right mix.
Thanks,
     GerardM

On Dec 19, 2007 11:09 AM, Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org> wrote:

> David Shankbone's first report from Israel
> (
> http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Israel_Journal:_The_Holy_Land_has_an_image_prob
> lem) has provoked a bit of controversy. One reaction I got was "why the
> segue into the COO issue?" It annoys me to see that the MSM are now
> picking
> this up (the COO issue) and whilst The Register broke the story I don't
> think they did anything beyond fact-check what their source told them.
> Details from Wikinews' investigation have been lifted and written into
> recent coverage of the issue, we did check the Reg. story and we found
> more
> - including bankruptcy proceedings (PACER will give you a list of the
> creditors).
>
>
>
> Anyway, back to David in Israel, and I assume a fair number of people are
> aware this is an expenses-paid trip where the Israeli government and
> friends
> are footing the bill. David's first piece seeks to say "here is the
> stereotype, but that's not what I'm here for". If you read the talk you'll
> see we have some people think you can't do any story about Israel without
> going "OMG! Israel-Palestine! Car bombs! Terrorists! Human rights
> violations! Israeli oppression!". I agree with David's argument that this
> is
> like saying every coverage of the U.S. should have an aside about Camp
> Delta
> in Guantanamo - and I *know* people who'd do that too - we've had to ban
> idiots like that from Wikinews in the past.
>
>
>
> I'd like people on the list to read this with a critical eye and see what
> they think about Wikinews developing policies and structure to allow this
> sort of reporting. Keep any eye out for David's forthcoming reports. The
> indications I have from private email are that they're keeping their
> journalist guests busy about 12-14 hours a day and if they don't have
> breakfast with Israeli technologists it's probably the only meal of the
> day
> they're getting off the job.  Not a holiday by any means.
>
>
>
>
>
> Brian McNeil
>
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