Autumn in Second Life & Other Things

Autumn {Imagination} (moderate)

The beautiful {Imagination} build has moved to a new sim↑ and Arnicar India↑ has decorated it in the colours of the season here in the north. I say that last bit in an acknowledgement of the fact that, while SL tends to default to what’s happening in the Northern Hemisphere, it is actually Spring in large parts of the world. Ah well.

I’ve mentioned before that a blog is just a way to document “stream of consciousness”, or talk to yourself out loud. Skip the words if you like because I feel the need for a tiny vent. :)

Autumn has been used for centuries, by writers and poets and artists, as a metaphor – although there is abundance and beauty, this is the beginning of the end. The “autumn of your life” is followed by winter and decline.

Autumn {Imagination} (moderate)

Personally I reschedule my life’s autumn every time I have a birthday. At this point it will happen in my eighties. :p

For some things though, the clues are too obvious to be ignored. One example for a news junkie such as myself – and a strong pet peeve of mine – is the rapid decline of journalism once it hit the interwebs.

Back in the olden days we had icons of journalistic integrity. If it was on the cover of the New York Times, for example, it was trusted. I’m not going to rant about loose standards in “truth”, I think that’s just a given.

Autumn {Imagination} (moderate)

The problem I have – a lot – is that, when they went online, media giants seemed to take the platform lightly. They didn’t apply the same standards of perfection that we used to see in their original venues. This slipshod approach has been adopted by new, less traditional, outlets as well.

If you’re too young to remember getting your news from hard copy you might not realize that there was an entire job description entitled Proof Reader. Really!

It’s one thing for me to have to keep fixing errors on my blog – I don’t have a staff that should be doing it. Internet media seems to rely on a combination of spellcheck and crowd sourcing typo correction. Look at a page of your favourite online news site and you’ll find a link to tell them when they’ve screwed up. It’s a cheap approach, but it’s also lazy and unprofessional.

Autumn {Imagination} (moderate)

I try and ignore it – why should I do their work for them? However, seeing a big, bold headline proclaiming the fact that a politician had been “Charged Of Fraud” made me think they’d trusted the online version to a 16 year old. I sent a less than polite message. Don’t editors ever read what they publish? While I’m venting – why do so many people have difficulty using the word “with”? How many times have you seen “bored of” in a news story? If you’ve ever used that phrase yourself don’t tell me. I’ll lose all respect for you.:)

So it’s the autumn of journalistic integrity – and not just in its content. Dear internet media, do me a favour. Wait until I’ve gone into the winter of my life, and a permanent decline, before you completely trash the profession and the language.

Autumn {Imagination} (moderate)

Posted by honourmcmillan on November 5, 2014

https://honourmcmillan.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/autumn-in-second-life-other-things/