Truemors
Recently a brand new NowPublic member posted a YouTube video to my article about a multi-religious 'Spiritual Awareness Conference' at a local college. Here I met two Scientologists and got a quote from one, and a photo of the other. I wrote about the conference objectively and did not enter religious bias, either for or against. I personally think it is a good thing the students were allowed the chance to hear from so many religious groups, as the area (Manchester) is very culturally (and hence religiously) diverse.
The new member has a problem with the Church of Scientology. His video was of a guy saying how his daughter is under the control of the church and he doesn't like it, in essence. This video was irrelevant to my story and while it may well have grounds for its own story, it was unwelcome as an addition to mine. I deleted the video and was quite upset, as it felt as if my story was being vandalised. My story was also a positive, "human interest" type story, and this video was adding bias and controversy and, in my opinion, some kind of attack upon a specific religion. I don't really mind if a person is Jewish, Scientologist, Catholic, Church of England, Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon. What matters is the person, and in this case, the people I met were nice people.
This then started a barrage of comments simply attacking the Scientology movement or their beliefs or church, and this guy turned out to be the one talking in the video. He added his video again, and private messaged me, pasting a whole page from his YouTube and not really addressing the situation. I told him I suggested he chew his beef somewhere else and he said his goodbyes, after which he posted on the article saying that I gave his family no respect, which I consider a personal attack.
Now, (1) what on Earth do I do with this? And (2) if this kind of religious bigotry (or whatever it is) leaks into my freedom to express the fact that diversity of religion and learning about it is a good thing, how can I be sure no-one's rights (including my own) are infringed upon?
Over to the community...
at 01:56 on July 30th, 2009
Send a PM to one the content team to deal with situation. Worst case all further commenting can be closed down on the story.
at 05:15 on July 30th, 2009
Quote from #1: nagba at 01:56 on July 30th, 2009
Thanks nagba - who are the content team? I'll gladly send someone a PM for help!
Kev
at 07:46 on July 30th, 2009
Quote from #2: Kevin_Jones at 05:15 on July 30th, 2009
Bellow find the link to the content team or also called Staff Editors.
here http://my.nowpublic.com/newsroom/community/nowpublic_editorial_team
at 08:55 on August 2nd, 2009
In reply to #3 Paschen at 07:46 on July 30th, 2009
I agree that other users posting media to a story is a problem, as things are.
An obvious solution would be that any media added byusers should be in a box stating that the media has been added by an outside source.
I disagree that the content should not be included if the writer does not agree with it. The opposing viewpoints through comments are good and provide perspective for everyone.
Another issue with content in a story can occur with media added by the WRITER. If the writer adds content proposed to be related to the story and it turns out to be footage of a completly unrelated happening, the said writer is misrepresenting the story and erroding his/her credibility.
This is unfortunate and very difficult to monitor. Playing these games of deception on readers should be reported to the editors and the staff.
at 01:46 on August 12th, 2009