Time for a media strategy

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I am a latecomer to this forum and I am thereby suspect. I also am a humble stay-at-home mother of five kids. I realize that, to some of you, this disqualifies me from ever having an intelligent thought. However, in my former careers in the paid workforce, I had responsibilities in PR contact with media. Later, as a community activist, I worked with local media. If I am allowed one intelligent insight per day, here goes:

This forum has become a source for investigative journalism. Numerous threads detail POSSIBLE y2k glitches being ignored by the media. If someone here could gather these up and present them in an organized way, perhaps some respectable mainstream or alternative media would bite.

Few newspapers have assigned y2k as a beat to specific reporter. In our local paper (northwest Indiana), many different reporters have covered y2k from every conceivable angle. No continuity = no awareness of the big picture (before or after rollover). Someone here needs to pull it together in an organized way and get it in front of the right journalist.

Also, local media tend to take their cue for national coverage based on what appears on the "wire". If AP or Reuters cover a certain issue or event as though it is the Second Coming, the local media get the message "this must be big," and they, in turn, carve out more space in national news section. Conversely, given the dearth of serious y2k glitch coverage, local media who might otherwise interested will instead follow the lead of the major media. (Not because of a conspiracy but due to lack of personnel, time, space, etc.)

Any suggestions for media and/or journalists who might take a look at this documentation? Didn't Ralph Nader recently get vocal about y2k?

Recall that some regular here is a former newspaperman. Your thoughts?

-- J Wheel (motherof5@wellprepared.noregrets), January 05, 2000

Answers

It's a good thought. I'm thinking, though, that given the earlier statements from McConnell and Koskinen -- expect some haze, slowdowns, glitches in the early days, etc. -- that initial reports could easily be seen as merely confirming those statements rather than necessarily prompting further investigation. That may sound like lazy journalism, but I've done a little bit of newspaper and journalism work myself, and there are indeed lazy journalists! And good ones, etc. ;-) What would be nice is if for those problems that are confirmed Y2K weirdness is to get follow-ups, either from another newssource or, if someone posted here directly explaining something, from them, in terms of if/when repairs were completed. Some reports include that info, others...

This adoption thing is strange.

-- Ned Raggett (ned@kuci.org), January 05, 2000.


The media only covers the potential blood and guts stories, or "dirty laundry" issues.

They were never interested in Y2K until a few days before rollover, because then they had an opportunity to boost their ratings by presenting it as an imminent terrorist opportunity, with potential for lots of blood and guts.

Since that scenario has passed, the only angle they now see as having any sensationalistic potential is the possibility of exposing it as a huge hoax. If they can just get government officials to admit they spent way too much, they'll have their story. This is why Koskinen has recently downgraded his estimate of the costs from about $500 billion to $100 billion, and supported that by saying that everyone agrees it was well worth it.

I don't believe that being a mother qualifies you as never having an intelligent thought, but a lifetime spent sheltered at home watching soap operas and raising children does tend to make one a little naive about the way things work in the real world. That is not meant to be a negative or personally offensive comment toward you in any way, but simply the way it is.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), January 05, 2000.


OUCH, Hawk; way to lose the plot. What's more "real world" than nurturing and educating human beings? What's your "real world" populated by? Alien replicants? ;)

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), January 06, 2000.

"but a lifetime spent sheltered at home watching soap operas and raising children does tend to make one a little naive about the way things work in the real world"

O.K. the housemouse is going to roar now. I have stayed home all my life and raised 4 children. #1 died at 22 from a heart defect, #2 served as security for AF1, and is still in security work (cant say), #3 went to West Point(ranked 21st in his class) 82nd Airborne, Harvard Business School, and is now employed at a fortune 500. #4 graduated summa cum laude, Math Major, and is now working on her PHD.

I attribute their success to the harder work of "being there" at home and working my little housemouse heart out to see that they got a good start in the early years of life, the most important, and then being there every day after school right up through high school to keep them focused on what was important, and out of mischief. It was harder work to make sure they developed as good human beings than to make sure their brains were developed, beleive me. It takes a much wider world understanding to do a good job as a parent, nerves of steel, and a good sense of humor.

Don't diss the work real full time mothers do at home. It is a lot harder than the "world" today wants to admit. Many women run screaming into the work force to avoid it, and witness the results in our schools, both urban and suburban.

Your remark was thoughtless. By the way, in spite of my limited brain capacity from sitting at home with these kids, and my naive world view, I served 8 years on the school board during a tumultuous time. Set up the computer system for my mousehubbie's office, (self-taught), taught my kids to use computers back when they weren't easy, and many more things that really matter but aren't measurable in your way of keeping score.

I suggest your world view is somewhat naive and limited. I wish you would apologize to all the unsung heroines of this freaked-up culture we live in... the strong and wise women who have the guts to stay home to walk a straight and hard road fulfilling their responsibilities to the next generation.

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world was, is, and evermore will rule the world...

ju

-- housemouse (inlittlehole@nevermind.now), January 06, 2000.


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