These days we most often hear reference to fact checkers in regards to the U.S. presidential election. After every debate, the major news networks and newspapers have their cadre of fact checkers hard at work to see if the things each candidate said ring true.
But, the fact checker I want is the one I learned about during my days at the J-School at LSU. This fact checker researches the stories set to be published in periodicals such as The New Yorker where this entry-level job is apparently considered prestigious. And, not only do I want one, I think everyone who blogs should get one (even though it will probably mean hiring ourselves for the position).
This is not said as a rant about irresponsible, inaccurate blogging. And I’ll not dip my toe into the debate about whether or not a blogger is a journalist. No, this is simply a little story I share in the hopes that it reminds anyone reading it who also blogs that it is important to make sure we get things right.
I was working on my next post for ThisMommyGig.com. It is the fourth in a series of reviews of kid-focused virtual worlds. It was pretty much wrapped up and ready to go when I started surfing for some links to add to back up points I’d made. That led me to find out that one main assumption I had – that you had to be a paid subscriber to get full access to this latest world I was reviewing – was totally wrong.
Turns out, there is no charge while they are in their beta launch period. When I had seen that there were two levels of membership, I just assumed the higher level cost money because that is similar to the subscription-based model other kid worlds use. In this instance, however, the upper level simply was one that required the children’s parents to create an account of their own and verify that their children were indeed permitted to access the world.
Wow! That totally changed a large portion of what I had written about this world called Dinokids. Instead of pay-for-play it was free. And, not only that, but they have additional parental involvement and controls that had not been visible to me before – something my review readers should definitely be told about so they can take full advantage.
Now, I’ve got to go back and rework a large portion of what I’d written. It’s more work, and my post will be later than anticipated, but going out with such inaccurate information could have been very detrimental to this new virtual world just getting its start.
I won’t flatter myself into thinking that I’ve got tons of people ready my material, but I do know the long life of anything that is published on the web and the long reach of Google’s spiders. Someone asked by their child to let them join Dinokids is very likely to Google it before giving an answer and my inaccuracies would have influenced their decision.
So, I’m just putting this out there for the record and as a reminder to other bloggers: Just because we don’t work for The New Yorker doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take the time to get our facts straight.
LPT 