NPR's Eric Deggans speaks to Summer Harlow of the Knight School for Journalism in the Americas and V Spehar of UnderTheDeskNews about the role of influencers in journalism.
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Yeah this was a really poor story by NPR. They should rethink this story. Gatekeeping and self serving. Maybe they should retract it. Or at least maybe let someone else do an alternative take.
UnderTheDeskNews posted a super concerning update about this interview with you guys where she made the case that the interview was highly edited to favor legacy news orgs such as NPR. Will you guys respond? Or is legacy news actually cooked?
Even if I was not a regular viewer of UTDN - it was not difficult to hear that V's replies were chopped and edited.
Cadence changed mid-sentence and the interview focused on Harlow moreso than V.
NPR needs to do much better.
NPR y’all need to get on board with this type of journalism. It’s a fast growing, popular way people are getting their news. NPR used to be progressive but has, of late, become a dinosaur. Start swimming before you drown.
1/2. So I find this bit at the end of the article interesting, “.. we need to recognize is how this trial has played out, which the media has not covered. While we're talking about that on TikTok, I haven't seen that on the mainstream news.” TikTok has been a great medium for news.
2/2 I see major news organizations along with reliable influencers getting the news out to people. We know there are some news groups owned by billionaires who also donate to politicians and influence them. Could the TikTok ban be more at the behest of major donors than any threat from China?
If people think folks are paying for newspaper subscriptions/to get behind a digital firewall OR have time to sit down for 30 minutes to watch news delivered by for-profit bias legacy media then we're doomed.
What I see with my eyes I believe, what is told me by those we are supposed to trust I take with a pinch of salt. Influencers are fickle mostly, the word influencer is exactly what it says on the box.The journo course is 3 years, levels 4-6. Each year requires you to achieve 120 credit points.
V is a journalist who has worked for legacy news outlets, NPR just doesn’t like that social media is the avenue V uses to distribute the news. To have been referenced as simply an influencer is disrespectful.
This story did a huge purposeful harm to journalists … who happen to also be influencers. And yes, journalism belongs in every place people tune in. If they happen to become influencers, even better.
I don’t think using the same no longer trust media channels to train the newly trusted social media channels is quite the approach folks are looking for.
So disappointed in how V was treated. Today I turned NPR off for my drive and will reconsider my annual donation pending their response to V's concerns.
Wheres the details about cyber bozos far right politics? You continue to fail the American people, when you should be better than every other mainstream news source
I'm old. I see "influencers" as some kind of non-journalistic money making scheme . If there's more to it, please enlighten me. AFAIK "influencers" make zero attempt to make any contact with people other than their peer/age group. That is at odds with actual journalism which attempts to inform all
So, how does one know to go and consume their journalism? I have never heard of these folks and I consume a LOT of news from a variety of sources.
But like I said, old people may not be their target audience. It's like Time vs Highlights
You have to be on the platforms they exist on. I get underthedesk via Instagram. They are also on Tiktok (for as long as that's a thing at least). Does the platform dictate the age of the audience, sure, but the journalism itself is solid and would work for all ages.
Too bad they're limited by using a youth-oriented platform . I have both Instagram and Tiktok but don't like the user experience. Not a big consumer of video. I read
Not every media source is for everyone, but news should be accessible to all ages and types of people. IMO, this article tries to discredit how many younger folks are more engaged because of these types of news sources.
?youth oriented? Lol! You continue to claim you are “old”, as an excuse to purposely not know what is going on. Curious what age you are? Also, every video they publish is captioned … so you can read.
We can’t help but notice: you totally ignored how you were corrected on ‘influencers’ … and immediately went back to the “but I’m old” narrative. Lol, maybe that works with the “youth” you claim to interact with more(?) But you are not old, by your own statements, and are purposely playing he victim
This is exactly why everyone is upset at this NPR story. They purposely demeaned the status of actual journalists, who happen to have huge audiences. They called them ‘influencers’, knowing it is perceived an non-credible money grabbing content creators. They have far more experience than He does.
Eric Deggins entire approach to V was not only condescending but insulting. As V points out in their Instagram, their actual credentials were conveniently left out & it is obvious to us that follow them, there was a lot of creative editing. I’m a huge NPR supporter who is extremely disappointed.
It's destroying it. They're more effective at disinformation than China or Russia, which is why they pay influencers. Hell, the right-wingers realized this a while ago.
Everyone in the comments here go to TikTok and see V’s video about this story and how she was treated and her messages excised and/or taken out of context. I’ve lost some respect for NPR over this.
It’s disappointing as a news source that’s considered reliable to edit, manipulate, and change an interviewee’s response to fit a narrative that you are trying to push. @underthedesknews.bsky.social has a great platform on Tik Tok that’s informative and reliable. Times are changing. Deal with it
I'm a 60 year old that trusted NPR for years. After this heavily edited hit peace you've lost a reader. Shame on you. There a very few places left to turn now.
A government station saying to only trust media owned by the billionaire class… didn’t the Washington Post just kill a carton criticizing the very same owners? 🤔🧐
I listened to this interview earlier today and was profoundly depressed.
After scrolling through all the replies to this post, I am rooting for AI to wipe us all out. We’re done. Get it over with and make it as painless as possible.
@npr.org this is extremely disappointing you were like the last hope in legacy media news if this is how you're going to continue to conduct yourself perhaps it is time for a legacy media to die off
NPR lost me after I heard about this. I trust UTDN for my daily news for a reason. NPR’s “editing” is evidence that they are a legacy agency more than I thought. Very disappointing, especially going in to an undoubtedly hellish second Trump term.
It's fascinating how the word "influencer" immediately invalidates good work for a lot of otherwise self-professed progressives. The "we're doomed" crowd is blind to their own bias. Gatekeeping access to news is deeply problematic.
It almost seems like journalism is being gate kept to be used only by large organizations. Most large news organizations have been bought, maybe you have too?
This piece was heavily edited. You owe V an apology. You’re clearly partial to legacy media. You don’t understand why we prefer to get our news from Under the Desk and Aaron Parnas. I mistrust legacy media and now I mistrust NPR.
First Amendment Auditors love the 1st amendment "freedom of press" but yet law enforcement in those videos seem to hate your constitutional & civil rights of freedom of press, they always ask for their press credentials... 😂
This was a horribly done piece. Usually NPR is great. But the way this one purposely edited V to sound and talk different, left out all their actual journalism credentials, and made it sound like there was no credibility, even purposely edited the important parts about integrity … shame on NPR
V is a journalist and was one before they built their platform on TikTok while still remaining a legitimate journalist. I agree, this should have been reiterated in the article.
Comments
Cadence changed mid-sentence and the interview focused on Harlow moreso than V.
NPR needs to do much better.
But like I said, old people may not be their target audience. It's like Time vs Highlights
After scrolling through all the replies to this post, I am rooting for AI to wipe us all out. We’re done. Get it over with and make it as painless as possible.
Please make things right with Under the desk news, and get your 💩 together NPR.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTYcHfA3m/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8FjRCpS/