It May Seem Obvious, But…

I came across two interesting Tweets in the last few days which made me wonder whether some professionals really consider what they are doing before they send out either Tweets or articles for general consumption. They both strike me as being examples of seeing without really understanding, sending before re-reading and thinking.

Take this first one, for example. A company asks whether a journalist is interested may be interested in taking on a piece of work. Whether it is suitable for him or not makes little difference, his comment tells us plenty.

Yes, timing is of the utmost importance. And there is a very good idea of timing right here, although you probably get the impression that Josh doesn’t quite see it that way. Why, he seems to be saying, would a company ask to be included in an opinion piece which will first be published in the winter when we’ve only just started on summer?

Anyone working in the publishing business on the editorial or planning end of things will understand. A newspaper may well have articles slated for publication within a few days if not hours of their being written, but they also have items – investigative journalism is one – where longer term planning is required. No publisher will suggest, for example, that an author begin writing a Christmas story at Christmas; they tend to be written much earlier in the year so that, when Christmas season comes, they are ready to go out on the shelves.

Magazines and periodicals are much the same: there is a good deal of planning. An editor will approach prospective writers months in advance with an idea for a future issue, especially if the winter issue has a specific theme. Working from one month to the next simply doesn’t work, there needs to be a long time-frame of work, advance planning, to ensure that a proposed special issue has enough content to make it worthwhile, to ensure that writers and illustrators (or photographers) have enough time to prepare, to create. The PR team here has it just right, even if they are talking to the wrong person.

And then we have those who do not think about what they are commenting on at all, or so it would appear. Now, I know that bankers and insurance brokers are often called sharks, but there are very few dry land sharks in Nature. They tend to live in the sea, for obvious reasons.

So really, writing that coastal States are more prone to shark attacks – bearing in mind that an attack by a great white was reported recently – is something of a no-brainer. I would be exceptionally surprised to read of a shark attack in Iowa or Colorado, but this journalist seems to believe that having shark attacks in and around coastal States is Breaking News. Perhaps it is, for those without an inkling of commonsense in them. Perhaps it is for those who don’t feel any need to check facts, but simply take a chart and add a few words to it. Or perhaps he has lived in the city all his life and can only visualize anywhere outside the city limits as being wild, abandoned and filled with sharks, mammoths and saber-toothed tigers.

Love & Kisses, Viki.

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