The story of Ted Williams has been in the news throughout the entire week. It’s a great example of how some things just capture the public’s attention, and then the media picks it up and doesn’t just run with, but dissects it.
For the few of you without access to the internet or traditional media (and if that’s the case, I wonder how you could be reading this blog), Ted Williams is a homeless guy who often stands next to an off-ramp of I-71 in Columbus. Unlike the other homeless guys who are asking for money or food, Williams stood holding a cardboard sign saying he was a former radio announcer down on his luck. Columbus Dispatch photographer Doral Chenoweth decided to do a feature on this guy. Chenoweth posted the video on the Dispatch web site, and on You Tube, on Monday of this week. By Tuesday, the video had gone viral.
Here I will digress to say that “viral” is one of the words that Lake Superior State University put in its 2010 list of words that should be banned from the English language. However, “viral” has come to perfectly describe what happens when someone spreads like wildfire on the internet. Besides, if our language didn’t evolve over the years, we’d still be saying “thee” and “thou,” and forget about using contractions.
Now, back to our story.
The video went viral. Even I posted it on my Facebook wall.
Flash forward to Wednesday morning, when Williams was a guest on the morning show on WNCI radio in Columbus. It was during that morning show he was told about numerous job offers, including one from the Cleveland Cavaliers to do voice work at Quicken Loans Arena (the Cavs do a lot of radio and TV production at the Q).
Thursday, Williams was sitting next to Matt and Meredith on the set of the Today show in New York, basking in the glow. The day before, the CBS Early Show had had Williams on, live from Columbus.
Then, as reporters are correct to do, we have found out there are two sides to the story. The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that Williams had a criminal record. The Smoking Gun got a hold of his mug shots, some with hair, some without hair, and some with facial hair. Williams told Matt and Meredith that his crimes were for theft and larceny, all in order to feed his drug habit.
Here’s where we are, right now, in the saga of Ted Williams.
He’s considering a number of job offers, mostly to do voiceover work. Voiceover work, in this day and age, is so easy to do, because all you need is a basic home studio and access to the internet to send mp.3 files hither and yon. The problem is, you can’t set up a a home studio in the tent in which he had been living.
Williams wants something more permanent, such as what the Cavaliers are offering. Their offer is for a full-time job, and also a break on the mortgage for a home. He says what he really wants is to be a radio program director. Of course, anyone hiring Williams has to balance the notoriety factor with his criminal record.
On my Facebook page, I even brought the criminal record up today. One person said Williams has owned up to his legal issues and deserves a second chance, or really, a sixth or seventh chance, given the number of arrests. Another wonders, where do you draw the line, and gave the example of the man who shot dead a sheriff’s deputy in Clark County. He had also been before the law for attacking cops and was back out of jail. I say, shooting police officers is not the same as stealing cigarettes. They’re both crimes, but we have punishments that fit the crime.
The other aspect of this story is how the media ran with it. Actually, the traditional media had to do catch-up on this story. The media started the story (Columbus Dispatch), but it was average people who spread the story on the internet through social media. By Wednesday, the story was all over the place. Former WTAM 1100 colleague Karen Kasler, now the Statehouse bureau chief for Ohio Public Radio and TV, sums it up well.
The Ted Williams phenomenon is now more about the race to the day’s “big get” and how the media feeds on itself. It's a lot less about Ted Williams than it was two days ago.
She’s right. The Ted Williams story became a feeding frenzy, with the various media, traditional and digital, clamoring to get a new angle. I’ve seen that with so many stories in the past few years. No wonder some of us are simply turning off their TVs, and even radios, for what they think is the relative safety of the internet.
One more thought. Ken Robinson took a call in the WTAM 1100 newsroom this morning from a listener who had a point. He said he’s also out of work. He said he still has a home, but struggles to make the payments. He’s never been in trouble with the law. He’s never done drugs or drank to excess. This listener wondered why Ted Williams is getting all the attention, and he’s not getting a single nibble as he casts his line looking for a job.
I can tell you why. It’s because of my basic axiom about news. News, to me, is the unusual. News is what’s out of the ordinary. I feel sorry for that jobless listener, but there are plenty of other people like him. They’re newsworthy as a group, but his individual story probably isn’t half as interesting as Ted Williams’ story. That's the same for homeless people. There are plenty of them, but their individual stories are not any more different than the next one.
It’s stories like Ted Williams’ story that, in the day, sold newspapers, then later, got people to turn on the radio, then the TV. In this day and age, that’s what gets clicks.
Yep, it’s all about how many people you can get to click on your web page. We track that at WTAM 1100. Every time someone clicks on each feature at wtam.com, it gets registered. Why do you think we have so many photo galleries on the home page? If someone goes all the way through a 50-page photo gallery, that’s 50 clicks. And that is important to advertisers.
If we have something unusual to put on this web site, we hope you’ll click on it. We in the media want you to read, listen to, view, and click on our stories about Ted Williams, and do it now. You know why? In a week from now, he’ll be yesterday’s news. That’s why the feeding frenzies by the media.
And it all started with a chance encounter between a homeless man with a great voice, and a newspaper photographer who decided to post a video on a slow day.
For the few of you without access to the internet or traditional media (and if that’s the case, I wonder how you could be reading this blog), Ted Williams is a homeless guy who often stands next to an off-ramp of I-71 in Columbus. Unlike the other homeless guys who are asking for money or food, Williams stood holding a cardboard sign saying he was a former radio announcer down on his luck. Columbus Dispatch photographer Doral Chenoweth decided to do a feature on this guy. Chenoweth posted the video on the Dispatch web site, and on You Tube, on Monday of this week. By Tuesday, the video had gone viral.
Here I will digress to say that “viral” is one of the words that Lake Superior State University put in its 2010 list of words that should be banned from the English language. However, “viral” has come to perfectly describe what happens when someone spreads like wildfire on the internet. Besides, if our language didn’t evolve over the years, we’d still be saying “thee” and “thou,” and forget about using contractions.
Now, back to our story.
The video went viral. Even I posted it on my Facebook wall.
Flash forward to Wednesday morning, when Williams was a guest on the morning show on WNCI radio in Columbus. It was during that morning show he was told about numerous job offers, including one from the Cleveland Cavaliers to do voice work at Quicken Loans Arena (the Cavs do a lot of radio and TV production at the Q).
Thursday, Williams was sitting next to Matt and Meredith on the set of the Today show in New York, basking in the glow. The day before, the CBS Early Show had had Williams on, live from Columbus.
Then, as reporters are correct to do, we have found out there are two sides to the story. The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that Williams had a criminal record. The Smoking Gun got a hold of his mug shots, some with hair, some without hair, and some with facial hair. Williams told Matt and Meredith that his crimes were for theft and larceny, all in order to feed his drug habit.
Here’s where we are, right now, in the saga of Ted Williams.
He’s considering a number of job offers, mostly to do voiceover work. Voiceover work, in this day and age, is so easy to do, because all you need is a basic home studio and access to the internet to send mp.3 files hither and yon. The problem is, you can’t set up a a home studio in the tent in which he had been living.
Williams wants something more permanent, such as what the Cavaliers are offering. Their offer is for a full-time job, and also a break on the mortgage for a home. He says what he really wants is to be a radio program director. Of course, anyone hiring Williams has to balance the notoriety factor with his criminal record.
On my Facebook page, I even brought the criminal record up today. One person said Williams has owned up to his legal issues and deserves a second chance, or really, a sixth or seventh chance, given the number of arrests. Another wonders, where do you draw the line, and gave the example of the man who shot dead a sheriff’s deputy in Clark County. He had also been before the law for attacking cops and was back out of jail. I say, shooting police officers is not the same as stealing cigarettes. They’re both crimes, but we have punishments that fit the crime.
The other aspect of this story is how the media ran with it. Actually, the traditional media had to do catch-up on this story. The media started the story (Columbus Dispatch), but it was average people who spread the story on the internet through social media. By Wednesday, the story was all over the place. Former WTAM 1100 colleague Karen Kasler, now the Statehouse bureau chief for Ohio Public Radio and TV, sums it up well.
The Ted Williams phenomenon is now more about the race to the day’s “big get” and how the media feeds on itself. It's a lot less about Ted Williams than it was two days ago.
She’s right. The Ted Williams story became a feeding frenzy, with the various media, traditional and digital, clamoring to get a new angle. I’ve seen that with so many stories in the past few years. No wonder some of us are simply turning off their TVs, and even radios, for what they think is the relative safety of the internet.
One more thought. Ken Robinson took a call in the WTAM 1100 newsroom this morning from a listener who had a point. He said he’s also out of work. He said he still has a home, but struggles to make the payments. He’s never been in trouble with the law. He’s never done drugs or drank to excess. This listener wondered why Ted Williams is getting all the attention, and he’s not getting a single nibble as he casts his line looking for a job.
I can tell you why. It’s because of my basic axiom about news. News, to me, is the unusual. News is what’s out of the ordinary. I feel sorry for that jobless listener, but there are plenty of other people like him. They’re newsworthy as a group, but his individual story probably isn’t half as interesting as Ted Williams’ story. That's the same for homeless people. There are plenty of them, but their individual stories are not any more different than the next one.
It’s stories like Ted Williams’ story that, in the day, sold newspapers, then later, got people to turn on the radio, then the TV. In this day and age, that’s what gets clicks.
Yep, it’s all about how many people you can get to click on your web page. We track that at WTAM 1100. Every time someone clicks on each feature at wtam.com, it gets registered. Why do you think we have so many photo galleries on the home page? If someone goes all the way through a 50-page photo gallery, that’s 50 clicks. And that is important to advertisers.
If we have something unusual to put on this web site, we hope you’ll click on it. We in the media want you to read, listen to, view, and click on our stories about Ted Williams, and do it now. You know why? In a week from now, he’ll be yesterday’s news. That’s why the feeding frenzies by the media.
And it all started with a chance encounter between a homeless man with a great voice, and a newspaper photographer who decided to post a video on a slow day.
