Irresponsible data collection
Back in September, we reported that the Chester Chronicle (and other Cheshire local papers owned by the Trinity Mirror group) had revamped its website to provide daily news online, in addition to the Friday print edition. The new site offers readers the opportunity to get involved in commenting on the news - citizen journalism - which is fine until you register and discover that you have to provide not just an email address but also your full name, phone number, fax etc etc, all of which may be published on the website. Somewhat irresponsible in these days of identity theft.
Worse, all comments are withheld from publication until approved by the moderator. What is the point of encouraging people to engage with their local media if their contributions are to be positively vetted?
We had hoped that the "Cheshire Communities" initiative launched by Trinity Mirror would have provided a viable alternative to the lack of news coverage of Cheshire at the BBC, but it appears not be the case.
Back to the drawing board...
Labels: Chester Chronicle, data protection, phishing, Trinity Mirror
posted by Louise B @ 11:48 am
4 Comments:
Firstly, many thanks for your interest in Trinity Mirror Cheshire's new websites.
If I may, there are a few points I'd like to clarify in your blog.
In September we launched a number of new websites and forums, of which Cheshire Communities was just one - these included:
- The Chester Chronicle;
- The Crewe Chronicle;
- The Mid Cheshire Chronicle;
- The Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News;
- The Ellesmere Port Pioneer;
- and The Cheshire Guide;
These new companion sites also come with a whole host of forums which are free to join and require just an email address to sign-up.
Cheshire Communities basically offers free web hosting to community groups. As a result, we need further information from these community groups for them to be able to have their own web page - which they add to freely and maintain.
The form for signing up to Communities clearly asks for details to appear on the sites - and separately asks for contact details which we need to set up that group but which won't appear on the site.
Comments made to posts on Cheshire Communities are moderated (just like comments on this blog are moderated). It's purely a safety net against abuse - it will not be used as a tool to filter out negative comments.
Cheshire Communities is a big project for us and one we feel has a tremendous amount of potential for people to share news and information, quickly, easily and safely.
But it will take time to bed-in and needs the support of the wider community to work. We are keen to here the views of users to iron out any issues and if anyone has a query please contact me either through Cheshire Communities or by calling 01244 606409.
James Shepherd, Site Administrator, Trinity Mirror Cheshire
Hi James, many thanks for the clarification, which is much appreciated. I myself have found it quite difficult to locate the other forums and several other people have told me the same thing. With Cheshire Communities being so easy to find, one could be forgiven for mistaking it as the only place where one can comment on issues.
How about going one step further, though, and letting your readers comment directly on the news stories (ie on the page of publication rather than on the forums)? It would also be good to see news published as it breaks instead of once a week.
Thanks Louise,
It's going to take a while for people to find and get used to the new sites - until then people may unfortunately end up in the wrong place.
We're doing all we can to try and ensure this doesn't happen and all feedback is appreciated.
On the companion sites (eg www.chesterchronicle.co.uk) we have breaking news "tickers" on the homepage. We aim to update these at the very least once/twice a day. Last week alone, 19 breaking news stories went on to the site in addition to the publication of stories onto the site from the newspaper.
For all our Cheshire companion sites combined last week we had around 40 web-only breaking news stories going online.
As for ther forums - I will look again at the signposting to forums from the companion sites if people aren't locating them easily.
Again, thanks for your feedback - we are totally committed to providing a first class online news, sport and entertainment news service for Cheshire. As a part of that, all constructive criticism is welcome.
James
I think the changes that Trinity have introduced can only be a good thing. As you are no doubt aware, this blog is about the poor deal the BBC offers to those in Cheshire, which means that local news outlets resources are even more vital now than before, given that BBC Radio Cheshire has been scrapped indefinitely and there is no news page for Cheshire on BBC News Online.
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