Well, I guess at least one guy sees the value in "Scoop"'s column.
My biggest beef: There are a lot of people out there who spend a lot of time and money gaining an education in journalism. Yours truly has two degrees in the field. That's JOURNALISM... not short storytelling, not poetry... journalism. The point of journalism is to use the English language to communicate news or opinion in a way easily understood by the reader. Writing in the "character" of a hip-hop poet doesn't get the job done. Think of it this way... if a poster comes on this board and writes all his posts "in character" as The Rock, he'd be banned.
I don't want this spiraling into a cultural discussion, but I think his hiring does a disservice to African-Americans. It's almost as if ESPN said, "Hey, black people sure like that NBA, let's get an urban-styled writer to drop knowledge!" It seems almost racist that they'd hire this guy so "African-Americans would have someone THEY could read." (hypothetical ESPN statement, not mine)
Unless, of course, they have market research that shows that you can get more readership with this kind of article.
Does anyone here think Disney does this kind of thing willy-nilly without testing for audience response?
I'm not sure who they are testing it to - whether it actually is to get African American readers or if it the cynic in me that says this is aimed at suburban kids who want to come off as "street" as possible.
I suppose I'd have to have their market research and target demographics to know what is really going on over there. I can tell you that I won't read that article, but I hardly doubt that they intended me as the audience anyway.
Willful ignorance of science is not commendable. Refusing to learn the difference between a credible source and a shill is criminally stupid.
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