xdan0920
Think for yourselfer
I saw Lucky at AK a handful of years ago. Very cool tech, but not a truly remarkable or magical experience.
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Disney Imagineering Testing Dragon
- Thread starter Crush Dude!
- Start date
I saw Lucky at AK a handful of years ago. Very cool tech, but not a truly remarkable or magical experience.
GLaDOS
Well-Known Member
From twitter, it looked like bloggers, even the locals who didn't need a room, were all at AoA. And it looked like everyone was treated to a spa day at one of the resorts after the grand opening hoopla and before the Test Track event.
And it's impossible to take any of their opinions seriously when they get all this free stuff. Give me a reviewer paying his own way into the parks any day.
Monsterfan99
Active Member
Maybe it's me, but my basic 101 level media classes covered never taking anything free in a review. Or if you do, you list everything that received during the review. Heck, isn't/wasn't there a law to address that which is never used anymore.
GLaDOS
Well-Known Member
That's a great point. If people were outright admitting they were get perks up front, it would be a lot easier to at least give them the benefit of the doubt.
But I think the minute bloggers start doing that, they start looking like frauds to readers. So it'll never happen.
Well a shame for you, that you won't likely be seeing it again in that form.
dreamscometrue
Well-Known Member
And if it works, that's genius.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
They need to justify the $1.5 billion of NextGen spending with tangible items, regardless of the frequency of use.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
Apparently you don't understand the concept of an escort service.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
That's fantastic.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
The reality is someone like Len Testa and Tom Bricker have found their niche and it makes more sense for the Miami Herald to reach out to these niche "experts" then send a "real" reporter. It's like a beat writer for a sports team. That same beat writer isn't going to be writing political articles but if you want to know what's going on in the clubhouse they're your best bet for information and quotes beyond going straight to the source.
I will agree with this, but it's also a sign of the times. No training is required to set up a website. A site like this has integrity because Steve gave it integrity. Steve knows how to protect the source of his information while others on the web don't know, or don't care about this aspect of reporting. There's also a bit of feeding the monster though - traditional media is dying in many areas. Newspapers could have been converted to online blogs and back the equivalents of bloggers. I'm not trying to bait you with this comment, but that's exactly what Huffington Post is doing with Jim Hill.
That's reacting like a fan, not a member of the media - 100% agree. Having said that, it looks like a tweet I would make mocking fanbois #WhyDidn'tIGetAnInvite
I disagree here. Ricky asked them questions related to the topic of the evening. A while ago I asked Jason Garcia why he didn't ask Disney about the Yeti in one of his article's and his pointed response was that it wasn't relevant in the conversation. Again, I've seen Ricky ask questions like this and more often than not you get a very guarded answer that's not worth reporting. I can't speak to whether or not Ricky asked any of the questions you asked (I'm guessing he didn't ask about Splash Mountain, but wouldn't be surprised at all if he asked about new projects). But his tweets that you posted above were presentation's of facts with no spin from him. There's certainly spin from Phil Holmes and Chris Beatty (as we've seen in his Disney Parks Blog interviews).
To me, the problem is that Phil, Chris and many people in Disney have more PR training then the people asking the questions. The interviewers are either unprepared for the interviews, don't know how to get a source to give them information, or are simply unwilling to because all they're interested in is being part of the celebration. This, as you say is a huge problem. It's why the primary value of the Disney Parks Blog is the photos because all of the text content is very guarded and very deliberate.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
We should start calling this Lucky the Dragon.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
(Trying not to make a virgin joke, trying not to make a virgin joke)
WDW1974
Well-Known Member
Many of them don't. Or they have tiny audiences. For all the talk about a big fish like Mongello, during his live broadcast from the MK party (where one of his co-horts was obviously on some type of drug and Lou wanted to mingle with the VIPs and NOT actually report to his minions) he had no more than 500 people watching.
Now, take that to some Mommy Blogger in Colorado that Disney flew in (with her family for four days or a week) ... how much influence does she have? And on whom?
People like this are not driving growth in WDW's business despite what the Voce consultants (very well paid, I'll add) tell them.
I find it astounding that people buy into the whole 'social media is the ONLY way to reach your customers in the 21st century' and that Disney, a media company, has fallen for it.
Oh, and Disney doesn't need anyone to be a gateway to its own 'net presence. If Joe Q Tourist from New Jersey is thinking about taking the family down for President's Day week and hasn't been since childhood, he can very easily go to an official Disney site.
I get amused ... it's sorta like the 8,976 Disney specialty travel agencies (most operated out of a home office) that exist because making a Disney reservation is so tough that in this day and age you need someone to do it for you ...
WDW1974
Well-Known Member
The thing is no one ever pays for these things. Even real media (your employer pays if they won't take freebies and you get a discounted rate ... you know, if you're paying $72 a night for the Poly -- something real media was doing at a late 90s event I was at -- you aren't exactly having the real experience) gets discounts and special access to the parks, parties and execs (get your 5 minutes with Tom Staggs or your 10 with Eric Jacobson with Disney handlers sitting there ready to end things as soon as you ask a real question!)
You want real opinions that are from people paying their own ways? Get them here.
WDW1974
Well-Known Member
nytimez
Well-Known Member
Disagree with your disagreement. Doesn't matter what the 'topic of the evening' is. You don't let the subject tell you what the story is.
You ask, you always ask - even when they tell you not to ask, you ask anyway.
But that's why Ricky and Lou and the mommy bloggers get the invites - they don't ask. They never ask. And even if/when they do ask, they're happy to accept a non-answer answer and quickly move on to happier topics.
Get enough of these people at your event, and even a handful of people who really will ask the real questions won't be heard over the noise.
flynnibus
Premium Member
I make no claims about knowing the makeup of these groups in terms of who is there or not.. so unless we start talking specific names (Ms No-Ones who get travel+lodging+food complementary with their invitation) its pointless to engage over the specific impact. But even without a wide reach, those bloggers funneling their stories to Disney helps with search rankings and drowning out other noise.
While it's a no brainer to find Disney's core sites.. when one starts talking specific like 'Art of Animation Reviews' - the search engine is king and you aren't going to find that easily starting at disney.com.
Well setting that expectation would put it directly in 'advertising' - but are such efforts really about advertising to get new eye-balls? Or are they more PR - and about shaping and maintaining the company line on the topics? PR influence on perception and media noise through crowd-sourcing and drowning out the other voices? You can be successful at the latter without driving traditional ad metrics.
flynnibus
Premium Member
You're talking idealist - and in the real world trenches - it doesn't go down that way, even in traditional media. There are rules of engagement, and there are times and places for things. If you start ambushing people.. you will find yourself on the outside. Usually trying to ambush someone in the spotlight doesn't do you any good anyways.. just because you ASK the question doesn't mean you'll get an answer. And you've burned your bridge in the process. Investigative journalism doesn't break the story by asking the President of the company during a press event about it.
WDW1974
Well-Known Member
No, you misunderstood. The Herald's Travel Editor (Marjorie Lambert, I believe) went to WDW and experienced the area. And Bricker wasn't quoted, just a photo of his appeared. Testa was quoted multiple times. I'm not sure I understand what you're driving at.
That is true to a point, which is worrisome for so many much more important reasons than coverage of theme parks. You need real, unbiased, professional journalists/reporters in a true democracy. Bloggers and 'citizen journalists' will never cut it. ... I'd rather not comment on Jim Hill. I don't think much of his work professionally and he seems to think I have personal animus toward him, which is ridiculous since we've never met or had dealings.
I will say about the Huff Po overall that 98% of the people who work for them either are not paid or paid what amounts to a pittance. They are always looking for more content and while they cast a wide audience for some of their content, much of it is barely read.
That's what many of these folks are. Fans. From what I gather by his anti-WDW Press and Publicity quotes, Scarlett's new BF wasn't credentialed for the event and feels he should have been because the folks in Anaheim were dumb enough to fly him out to the Cars Land event.
But if you read enough of the tweets, then you see a pattern of hostile, vile, sometimes obscene, often passive aggressive tweets that should scare Disney away from these folks for good.
Doesn't matter. A REAL reporter when given the opportunity ASKS the tough questions. He/she doesn't let a company's PR department or the subject of the interview dictate what will be discussed.
Ricky went over company talking points and got the PR answers. He could have simply taken them from a press release and saved the trouble and had some more free booze during his brief interview period.
Agreed. I wasn't questioning Ricky per se ... I was putting up Tweets to show what a waste the whole event was and that having social media just represents more waste.
Totally agree.