Give Credit Where It’s Due

By Jake • June 2nd, 2010 • 9 Comments

From I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER, an homage to gonzo journalism

I found this post fascinating, “How The Mainstream Media Stole Our News Story Without Credit.”

It’s about a news item you might have seen, namely the lawsuit a woman filed against Google after she followed Google Maps’ walking directions and was struck by a car on the route.

Attribution is a sticky subject online. Over the years, I’ve tried to play fairly, i.e. using licensed images, attributing stories properly, etc., and after reading Danny’s post, I’m going to try to attribute more accurately.

I encourage you all to do the same. Attribute properly. Use licensed images and videos. It’s a “do unto others” exercise.

Obviously, driving traffic is the primary driver for attribution, and if a post gets picked up by mainstream media, the blogger stands to gain a lot financially. However, Danny makes an excellent point about the erosion of good journalism, proper attribution, and the shoe being on the other foot.

What’s funny is that as link sharing friction trends toward zero, thanks to services like Facebook and Twitter, original attribution becomes even more important and usage becomes nearly impossible to track.

With some services inlining content like images, video and even full pages, as a content producer, you might never even know your stuff was being seen.

Anyway, for your consideration.

Oh, and the story Danny broke is a laugher too.

Find the comments.


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  • http://davidhaimes.wordpress.com davidhaimes

    Fully agree, I will try to be more careful.

    I was very impressed to have my blog attributed in an internal Oracle Design document, it's nice to know people find your stuff useful.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    I think most casual bloggers don't know how to attribute, but they would if they were given examples and a guide. I know, I've learned along the way. There's really no excuse for journalists and mainstream media to avoid citing online sources. I understand there's a stigma associated with using a blog as a source, but that's so 2001.

  • http://empoprise-bi.blogspot.com/ John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises)

    The heartening part about Sullivan's story is that there are a number of updates noting that many online publications eventually DID credit Sullivan for breaking the story.

    Incidentally, I originally learned about the story via a Jesse Stay Facebook share of a Fox13Now story. Fox 13 cites the Associated Press as one of its sources.

    Oh, and if I do comment on Sullivan's post, I'll be sure to indicate that I heard about his post via The AppsLab. :)

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    I feel like Google should be able to make sense of all this with their algorithm, i.e. tracing keywords and links. Maybe they just haven't productized it yet, or more likely, the addressable user base is too small to bother.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    I think most casual bloggers don't know how to attribute, but they would if they were given examples and a guide. I know, I've learned along the way. There's really no excuse for journalists and mainstream media to avoid citing online sources. I understand there's a stigma associated with using a blog as a source, but that's so 2001.

  • http://empoprise-bi.blogspot.com/ John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises)

    The heartening part about Sullivan's story is that there are a number of updates noting that many online publications eventually DID credit Sullivan for breaking the story.

    Incidentally, I originally learned about the story via a Jesse Stay Facebook share of a Fox13Now story. Fox 13 cites the Associated Press as one of its sources.

    Oh, and if I do comment on Sullivan's post, I'll be sure to indicate that I heard about his post via The AppsLab. :)

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    I feel like Google should be able to make sense of all this with their algorithm, i.e. tracing keywords and links. Maybe they just haven't productized it yet, or more likely, the addressable user base is too small to bother.