What the Fuck?

[diogenesshadow]

The Advocate is increasingly starting to irritate me. I have yet to figure out precisely how they choose which stories to write about, but damn do I ever wish I was in on some of these board meetings. I wonder what triggers them to write certain articles - does merely the person the article is about have to be homo? Is being homosexual or

Comments

[lucidstar]

[diogenesshadow]

I know, and I don't think that should be part of that story. I was frustrated that the Advocate's headline had to announce that he was out before talking about the story, I didn't think it was relevant.

I don't particularly like when the Advocate appears to make things that happen a part of the person's sexual orientation.

[bakuretsu10shi]

I saw a short article about the gag video teacher, but it did not mention he's 'out' either.

To answer your question about how general news writers choose articles: The criteria lies in something called news values, such as timeliness, proximity (close to home, or abroad?), unusualness (man bites dog), prominence (mel gibson spewing anti-semitic comments), sensationalism, impact (war, etc), and human interest (sob stories).

In the case of the Advocate, I expect they've shifted towards a more sensationalist slant lately, which explains their constant harping on news that would otherwise never merit such prominence on a general newspaper.

[diogenesshadow]

I am aware of how the news selects stories. I was being sardonic about it, because the articles that they have up are extremely irritating to me.

And, I was commenting on the article mentioning that he was "out" out of frustration. I didn't see what it had to do with anything else, yet the Advocate added it. I understand that when I am reading something like The Advocate, I have to expect that they will fixate on certain things, but it still irritates me when they mention someone's sexuality, even if it has nothing to do with the article at hand.

[bakuretsu10shi]

Oh, okay. =D

That's true. It's how newspapers like to milk the story for all it's worth. The worst thing is what they do may end up stigmatising people; like Girls = Inferior Math and Science, Muslim = terrorist, or gays = wackos who film their colleagues to make stupid videos. D=

[diogenesshadow]

Yeah, I guess The Advocate has just really been aggravating me because it seems like they take random stories and put OUT or GAY or whatever in front of certain names - when really, there are so many actual news stories out there about issues that people in the LGBT community face.

I can understand some personal interest stories - ZOMG LANCE BASS IS GAY - and stuff like that, but damn if I didn't need to read so many stories about Foley.

[satou_sei]

I don't follow the Advocate, but I know exactly what you're saying. The LGBT community complains that they are constantly being marginalized, but it seems to me that half of the marginalization is on behalf of the ludicrous actions committed by the LGBT community. If they want to be a part of the larger culture, if they want to be represented better, they need to be realistic; they need to stop pouncing on every story about gay elephants discovered in Namibia.

[diogenesshadow]

ZOMG DEY R TEH GHEY PENGWENZZZZ!!1111!!!!! DEY LUV EACH ODAR!111!!!!

Yeah, I wish they'd actually put up newsworthy stories instead of using their "news" website to announce every fucking celebrity that comes out.

[satou_sei]

You have to think about their target audience, though.

My bet is that more than half their readers are gay men who jump at every opportunity to celebrate the outing of some hot guy celebrity so as to dupe themselves into thinking they have a chance.

[diogenesshadow]

I'm waiting for Orlando Bloom to come out.

But that's for my own sadistic reasons.

[fnck]

I like not being well-known.

I can fuck as many young guys as I want and no one gives a shit.

Heh. The only gay magazines I read are full of porn...