Apparantly the Calgary Eye Opener on CBC Radio did a blurb on Where's Willy last Wednesday. Just goes to show you how newspapers, radio and TV are all about knowing someone… it seems that no one does any due diligence. Anyway, here's what's on the Eye Opener website:
Where's Willy
Whereswilly.com is a website that tracks the travels of Canadian $5 bills. Click here to listen to the site inventor Hank Eskine.
Jeff then spoke with Josh Krabbe, a Calgary grade ten student who is an avid user of the site. Click here to listen.
-dr
<::Just goes to show you how newspapers, radio and TV are all about knowing someone…
Hey DR, we didn't know anyone there.. Josh just sent them an email alerting them to the site and explaining what it does. They were interested and did a story. Most of the press (>90%) I've gotten on Where's George? and Where's Willy? come from people/reporters actually finding marked bills. That's it.
-Hank
Ya, sorry, that's not exactly what I meant. What I meant was exactly what you said: that more often than not, new stories come from people (in most cases PR-type firms) "alerting" the media to the story. I know this to be the case as I have several friends in public relations/communications. And a big part of their job is calling up the media and "selling" their story, either by calling in favours or simply convincing the media that it's a worthwhile thing. If 90% of your media comes from reporters finding the bills then you are the exception that makes the rule. But most stories are generated from either reporters picking up on Associated Press stories or from PR firms as I mentioned.
I realize that Josh emailed them, and that's how they were alerted and that's fine. What I was really trying to get across was that because of the media getting "tips" in todays society per se, they rarely do any investigation (ie. due diligence) of anything else associated with whatever the story is. That's all. Anyway, I thought it was cool enough to repost the info here (since in a couple of days it will disappear off the EO website).
-dr
I would have to agree that the mainstream media lets down the public far too often. What is forgetten is that essentially ALL media sources are a BUSINESS of some sort, and as such will do whatever is necessary to make money. Sure, in certain cases the source is publically funded (aka CBC, BBC etc.), but there are still executives that are appointed and as such they must follow certain agendas.
Anyway for a unique source for news, I would recommend for those in Alberta, http://calgary.indymedia.org/ or for the main independant media source simply go to http://www.indymedia.org
Do I sound like a crazy left-wing nutter??? Maybe. More than likely. But oh well, I will leave you with this little thought, "we must remember that news itself, is only entertainment."
Actually the only hint I had to this site that started me off was that it was mentioned in the WW site. And before that I read about it in the Globe and Mail.
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