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Orphan content syndrome puts off readers/viewers
Writer: Odoobo C. Bichachi. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
- So in all, it is important for journalists to always remember that when they arouse the readers’, listeners’ or viewers’ curiosity with a news story, they have a duty to satisfy that curiosity.
On January 28, Mr Ojuluna Peter Thomas, a fervent consumer of NMG-Uganda platforms and who regularly shares feedback with the public editor, sent the following note: “What came of this story? I saw the truck in Entebbe with Ampurire. How was it ‘recovered’ and reunited with her? We would love to know that part of the story. Thank you.”
The story in question titled, “Night Ampurire’s car goes missing, MTN speaks”, was aired on NTV on January 20. The story stated that fruit vendor Ms Ampurire who last year received, amid much fanfare, a free brand new Nissan pick-up vehicle from MTN-Uganda replacing her old one had somehow lost it!
In the story, Ms Ampurire was recorded claiming that when the vehicle developed a problem, an official from MTN referred her to a mechanic whom she gave the vehicle and paid him the repair cost (Shs700,000 with balance of Shs100,000). Days later, she could neither trace the mechanic, nor the vehicle. She wondered if this was a trick by MTN to repossess the vehicle it had publicly donated to her. MTN’s side of the story was not included in the clip, even though the headline suggested so. I shared Mr Ojuluna’s concern with the editors.
I also checked online for any developments to the story that could answer his question. The handful of news websites that had published the story in the first place had no follow-up.Only two nondescript news websites carried a follow-up on January 28 derived a statement by MTN on its X (Twitter) handle explaining how/where the vehicle was found, fixed and returned to Ms Ampurire.
Mr Ojuluna no doubt missed both websites.What he, and many other readers experienced with this story is what is known in journalism as “orphan content syndrome”. This refers to “articles, stories and information that is reported and published – and then forgotten by newsrooms, even if the readers are left wanting more.”
There are two types of orphan content stories: happy orphans and sad orphans. The happy orphans are articles that do what they need to and share the information required. For these, further updates or follow ups would be a waste of everyone’s time. Sad orphans, on the other hand, are the articles that beg for follow-up, for additional information, for new developments, for more attention, etc.(See: https://wan-ifra.org/2023/08/answering-questions-and-adding-depth-the-importance-of-follow-up-stories/ )Ms Ampurire’s missing vehicle story falls in the latter category.
The story was begging for more information. What happened after she reported the loss of vehicle? How was it found? Where was it found? What was the mechanic’s explanation? Was the police involved in tracking it? Did MTN help? Etc.Jon Talton, quoted in Sherry Ricchiardi’s article, “Putting a ‘Spotlight’ on follow-up stories” (2018) published on www.ijnet.org explains why follow-up stories should be part of the news agenda in every newsroom.
“Information is thrown out quickly and often never pushed to find out ‘what happened next?’ or ‘how did it end?’ Not only do these avenues [follow-ups] help readers, they can also give a trove of potential stories to a good reporter. The follow-up should play as importantly in online media as [in print] – maybe more so, given its insatiable appetite.”
This is even better explained in The News Manual (www.thenewsmanual.net) as follows:“Follow-ups are needed because one story on its own may not cover all aspects of an event or controversy properly. Although life goes on second-by-second, day-by-day, journalists cannot report it all. Journalists have to concentrate on bits of life and report them to their readers or listeners in 20 centimetre stories or 40-second news reports, three-minute current affairs segments or half-page features. By this, journalists impose space and time limits on their reports which do not always reflect how important the event is in the real world.”
So in all, it is important for journalists to always remember that when they arouse the readers’, listeners’ or viewers’ curiosity with a news story, they have a duty to satisfy that curiosity. And the best way to get around it is for every reporter/editor to put themselves in the place of the audience and ask: “Is there anything else I want to know about it?”That will tell them if their story, at that point, is a happy or sad orphan?
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