Social media news and TV – Current.com Blog – Your guide to Current

Last week I laid out details about our editorial team and guidelines when it comes to finding and featuring content on Current.com. Today we’re launching a brand new community-based experiment built on top of our editorial practices which, for lack of a better name, I’m calling “Developing Stories.”

What is a Developing Story?

This doesn’t always hold true, but quite frequently we notice that stories we feature on Current.com actually speak to a larger, ongoing story in play. Sometimes these stories are stretched out over longer periods of time (e.g. the ongoing discussions around public options in healthcare reform, or the debates surrounding gay marriage), and other times these stories are developing rapidly over the course of hours (e.g. Elections 2009, Afghan presidential elections, or Michael Jackson’s death).

Starting today, we’ll begin identifying certain featured stories that we think have the opportunity to be “developed” further. These stories will be added to our Developing Stories group, and we’ll clearly mark it as such on both the story page and whichever image is picked to accompany the story.

What does it mean to have a story picked as a Developing Story?

This is the cool part. Getting your story featured as a Developing Story is like having the stage handed over to you. We’re looking to take a closer look at the underpinnings of these stories, and we’re giving you the opportunity to take on the role of online investigative journalist in the process. As long as things continue to progress in a relevant way, your story will remain featured on Current.com.

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L'écrivain by gilles chiroleu on Flickr

Earlier today one of our community members raised a question that immediately reminded me of a drafted post sitting in my to-do pile. So I dusted this sucker off and refreshed it with some new information for all to read.

Over on the announcement of our new submission tool, 02 commented:

“You guys never put my submissions up at all. It would seem as though a plan were afoot to force only designated providers – while the promise is held as Bullshit.”

This isn’t a anything new; in general people get a little confused when it comes to what gets featured on Current.com. It’s not uncommon to find out that people either don’t understand, or worse, their misunderstanding leads them to believe that there is a secret agenda conspiring against them behind-the-scenes.

Trust me, this is just not the case.

Our editorial team is relatively small on Current.com, especially in comparison with some of the more editorially driven sites out there. We see Current.com as a joint partnership between our internal team, and the community that frequents the site. While we produce content for TV, the amount of content we produce for the web is fairly small in comparison with what our community produces on a daily basis.

Here’s how things shake out:

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When digging through stories to feature in ‘Current Stories’ on Current.com, I often come across stories that you may have been overshadowed by bigger news items of the day. Take today for example, several stories were bubbling around just under the layer of Marvel/Disney buyout news and updates regarding the LA wildfires. Here are a few of those stories, with a little more context. Hope you enjoy.

The hatred continues

A new study reports that 60% of black and African citizens living in Moscow have been victim to racially motivated physical assaults. Additionally, 80% attested to being verbally assaulted as well.

The report concludes that Africans in Russia “exist in a state of virtual siege” caused by extremely violent acts. They avoid the metro, crowded public places, and stay home during Russian national holidays.

Back in 2007, Christof Putzel of Vanguard chronicled the hatred stemming from neo-Nazi groups in Russia towards outsiders and immigrants in ‘From Russia, With Hate.’ If you haven’t had a chance to see it, please do.

Christof files a Vanguard report, ‘From Russia, With Hate‘

Game winning goal

The words “World Record Holder” may not seem synonymous with Mexico, but today brings news of two instances where the connection is totally warranted. Our first story involves reports of Mexico’s growing obesity problem, an issue being attributed to changing dietary habits and lifestyles across the border.

The epidemic is being met head-on with an anti-obesity campaign aimed at raising awareness, luring people away from fatty foods, and getting them more physically active. Here’s where world records come into play. I’ve seen a lot of awareness campaigns come and go in my day, but never before have I come across one that involves the largest public dance routine to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller.’

But wait, the record-breaking didn’t stop there. In a story that is completely unrelated to obesity issues, yet another world record has been credited to Mexico — this time for the biggest mariachi band in the world.

Kudos, Mexico. You win.

Others worth noting

Wikipedia has decided to color code potentially untrustworthy text on articles in an effort to improve quality and credibility. What’s your take? How much impact does a color coded line of text actually have?

A student left his camera on a mountaintop. As it turns out, those who came across the camera took photos of themselves, and when it was finally returned to him he had a collection of photos to document this experiment in honesty.