What Can The Media Do For You?

[HaveADream]

Hello!

 

I'm HaveADream and, for those of you that don't know, I run Saints News, which is an (unofficial) news faction here at GTA World. Following off from the very positive feedback that was given to both the police department and the fire department in their respective threads, I thought it'd be constructive to allow the same opportunity regarding news factions. I've invited Saints News staff and the other press outlets to contribute to this thread too to allow us to get a very wide array of views on record, and we're here to ask you simply - what can we do better, what can we do to improve your experience with the press/the server as a whole?

 

As Saints News has grown quite significantly over the past month, I'd like to bring the question to you so I know how we can all move forward in the future to provide a better experience for the many people that interact with us, even indirectly through reading our material our directly through our stories. This thread is entirely OOC and will only be used to guide us onto a path that works for everyone, so please keep that in mind when posting.

 

To echo the other threads - this is not the place to complain about individual members - that can be done directly through forum PMing me (or that factions leader)

 

Look forward to reading what you guys think! 

Edited August 15, 2019 by HaveADream

[Tseard]

I would just like to point out that I do like the news releases you make and on such a constant level. Keep up the good work!

[Cascade]

13 minutes ago, Tseard said:

I would just like to point out that I do like the news releases you make and on such a constant level. Keep up the good work!

Totally agree with this! Also the interactions with myself and my team are always great. We are working to make it easier for you guys as well in the media.

[HaveADream]

9 minutes ago, Tseard said:

I would just like to point out that I do like the news releases you make and on such a constant level. Keep up the good work!

 

Just now, Cascade said:

Totally agree with this! Also the interactions with myself and my team are always great. We are working to make it easier for you guys as well in the media.

 

Thank you both very much! It's honestly a pleasure! ❤️ 

[wicked iraheta]

Report more on gangs & gang crime, it's pretty easy to get information on them ICly. you just need to seek it.

[HaveADream]

Just now, wicked iraheta said:

Report more on gangs & gang crime, it's pretty easy to get information on them ICly. you just need to seek it.

 

The problem with this is that nobody reports it to us IC. We get plenty of OOC messages like this, saying we should report on this or report on that, but there's genuinely no way to find out more information about it. While we do try to stay close to the gang areas at times, along with our sources in the police department, there's just really not a whole lot to go on in terms of gangs. However! There are still some things in the works for this. We also have to conscious of how we're portraying our characters, hanging out in gang areas with no fear and just shoving cameras in peoples faces could be perceived as a poor portrayal which contradicts the standards that the faction has. 

 

Really, the best way for us to report on gangs & gang crime is to report it to us IC.

[Law]

I feel like you’re better off having separation of company and personal written pieces unless you want the author’s views to reflect the company’s views.

 

At the moment some pieces aren’t exactly news but much rather random topics that some authors may want to explore alone, which isn’t much of an issue until they use Saints News like a publisher, luring people with a Saint “News” title when really it’s not newsworthy. This could be excused with title segments like “Sport, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Business, Crime” and so forth, just so the user knows what they’re about to read before clicking. 

 

On the other hand of feedback though, I do like most of the written pieces, especially with in-game events involving different businesses and factions. Some that I haven’t heard of until I read a Saints topic.

[HaveADream]

Just now, Law said:

I feel like you’re better off having separation of company and personal written pieces unless you want the author’s views to reflect the company’s views.

 

At the moment some pieces aren’t exactly news but much rather random topics that some authors may want to explore alone, which isn’t much of an issue until they use Saints News like a publisher, luring people with a Saint “News” title when really it’s not newsworthy. This could be excused with title segments like “Sport, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Business, Crime” and so forth, just so the user knows what they’re about to read before clicking. 

 

On the other hand of feedback though, I do like most of the written pieces, especially with in-game events involving different businesses and factions. Some that I haven’t heard of until I read a Saints topic.

 

It's very interesting that you brought this up as it's something I do think about.

 

Articles are categorised internally, so finding a good way to make those categories apparent to the reader is something we're looking into. On the other hand, the pieces are important to us to explore things that a news company would actually write about other than 'this happened, so this means X', we take a lot of inspiration from the BBC in our OOC operation, who do post articles like this, as seen here.

 

If you have any issues with a certain member, my inboxes are open and I can try to explain a bit further.

 

Thank you for the compliments! We're always working to expand our reach so that we can report more on businesses and factions, so it's nice to hear you've learnt at least something from us.

[wicked iraheta]

12 hours ago, HaveADream said:

 

The problem with this is that nobody reports it to us IC. We get plenty of OOC messages like this, saying we should report on this or report on that, but there's genuinely no way to find out more information about it. While we do try to stay close to the gang areas at times, along with our sources in the police department, there's just really not a whole lot to go on in terms of gangs. However! There are still some things in the works for this. We also have to conscious of how we're portraying our characters, hanging out in gang areas with no fear and just shoving cameras in peoples faces could be perceived as a poor portrayal which contradicts the standards that the faction has. 

 

Really, the best way for us to report on gangs & gang crime is to report it to us IC.

The information's all there. It's just about caring enough to go and look for it. I could go and dig up information about any faction on the server simply by approaching people through Facebrowser and setting up meetings or conversating with them right there on FB. Hell, I could even go ingame and dig up information on other factions simply by talking to people.

 

Go around gang territories while they're around and ask them in /do about the graffiti on their walls. Take pictures of said graffiti ICly, research the gangs through their graffiti ICly and find out who their enemies are, who they're allied with, etc. (All this can be found out simply by roleplaying studying gang graffiti IRL and ICly. You don't even have to interact with a single person ICly through this method.)

 

You could even reach out and speak to the LSPD's gang unit if you wanted to, I'm sure they know a lot about the gangs on the server.

 

Nobody said anything about shoving cameras in people's faces or hanging out in dangerous areas and if you think that's what reporters do, then you're wrong.

 

We're portraying an American city on the westcoast of the US, which (you'd assume) has a very large gang problem. Every second report that goes up by the media, would realistically be about gangs. If it's not one gang, it's the other. Writing about clubs and all is cool, but it's genuinely boring. People wanna read about things that matter to them, they wanna hear about the different factions on the server and whatever information people have dug up on them.

 

I'm not saying every person you approach ICly is gonna be 100% approachable and actually wanna talk to your character. He/she will be harassed, he/she will probably be robbed once or twice, but there's always gonna be people who are willing to conversate with you ICly and actually give you some insight into gang life in LS. I highly recommend that if you want to get In contact with a gang member ICly and find out info for reports? Approach someone that's clearly a gang affiliate through Facebrowser and start a conversation with them. Over time, ask them to meet up and organise an interview.

 

There's a lot of roleplay that can go into things like this, to be honest. It's just about how you go about it and quite honestly? Who you interact with.

[HaveADream]

7 hours ago, wicked iraheta said:

The information's all there. It's just about caring enough to go and look for it. I could go and dig up information about any faction on the server simply by approaching people through Facebrowser and setting up meetings or conversating with them right there on FB. Hell, I could even go ingame and dig up information on other factions simply by talking to people.

 

Go around gang territories while they're around and ask them in /do about the graffiti on their walls. Take pictures of said graffiti ICly, research the gangs through their graffiti ICly and find out who their enemies are, who they're allied with, etc. (All this can be found out simply by roleplaying studying gang graffiti IRL and ICly. You don't even have to interact with a single person ICly through this method.)

 

You could even reach out and speak to the LSPD's gang unit if you wanted to, I'm sure they know a lot about the gangs on the server.

 

Nobody said anything about shoving cameras in people's faces or hanging out in dangerous areas and if you think that's what reporters do, then you're wrong.

 

We're portraying an American city on the westcoast of the US, which (you'd assume) has a very large gang problem. Every second report that goes up by the media, would realistically be about gangs. If it's not one gang, it's the other. Writing about clubs and all is cool, but it's genuinely boring. People wanna read about things that matter to them, they wanna hear about the different factions on the server and whatever information people have dug up on them.

 

I'm not saying every person you approach ICly is gonna be 100% approachable and actually wanna talk to your character. He/she will be harassed, he/she will probably be robbed once or twice, but there's always gonna be people who are willing to conversate with you ICly and actually give you some insight into gang life in LS. I highly recommend that if you want to get In contact with a gang member ICly and find out info for reports? Approach someone that's clearly a gang affiliate through Facebrowser and start a conversation with them. Over time, ask them to meet up and organise an interview.

 

There's a lot of roleplay that can go into things like this, to be honest. It's just about how you go about it and quite honestly? Who you interact with.

 

Believe me, as far as I'm aware, there are members in the faction looking into starting the topic on gang violence and it's long overdue, I completely agree with you. It's just been finding the right people both internally and externally. (My character can't get a PF License, for example, so it's not something my character would be entirely comfortable to explore, as well as properly representing fear.) 

 

Relationships take time to develop and, without giving too much away, seeds have been planted in the general area to allow a relationship to begin so that people are more open to talking to us as well as building certain relationships with people in certain areas directly to grow our network, if you will. To put it into perspective, it took until about a month or so ago until MRCAD (Police Media Division) stopped seeing us as a nuisance. 

 

So it's coming!

 

I hope this answers everything for you, I'm sorry if it's brief, it's not something I'm actively too involved in  myself and what I do know isn't able to be said so publicly and OOCly. Just know you've been heard and we're working on it. ?