Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Emo Mania

Last week, WDAZ aired a story from reporter Lacey Crisp about the local "emo" scene. Lacey's story was meant to be just a little news story for the local audience. Then again, with sites like YouTube, is there such a thing as a "local" audience anymore? Not in this case! Someone posted the story on YouTube and it has become very popular very quickly.


Click for video and to read comments

As of Wednesday evening, the video has been viewed 130,000 times and there have been over 600 comments. The video is currently the second most viewed video of this week for YouTube's "News & Politics" category. To put that into perspective, the video showing those rats running around that New York City Taco Bell is currently the fourth third most popular for the category. The WDAZ video holds this week's number one position for "most favorited" video within its category.

The huge response to the story doesn't end at the YouTube site, though. The WDAZ studios in Grand Forks have been flooded with phone calls and emails about the video. Hey...is there really such a thing as "bad" publicity?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

have you seen the full report on youtube?

it's even funnier

Rick said...

I don't know if very popular is technically the right word to use. But hilarious nonetheless.

Anonymous said...

Help me catch up. Just what IS so funny about the Emo thing?
Okay...so Lacey missed a couple of interviews with counselors and the like...but she did manage to explain the weird dress so prevalent these days. And, like the goth thing a couple of years back, it could bear scrutiny.

Heck, I think 'DAZ did what they should do---perform a service for the public.

The inane comments by immature people on YouTube actually amplifies the need for awareness of Emo.

Am I that far off?

Rick said...

Just to clarify my comment: all of the feedback is hilarious, not the story.

Anonymous said...

It's embarrassing because the issue is depression, not emo. Emo is a harmless "style" copied by high school kids. It has little to do with suicide or self mutilation. Those are serious problems that Crisp marginalized by boiling a troubled kid down to a stereotype.

She used satirical joke sites that are making fun of the emo style as evidence. Her failure to "get" that is why people are laughing at her. Troubled kids need to be dealt with seriously, not marginalized into some stereotype.

People cut themselves becuase they have emotional issues they need to deal with, not because they are following some fad "game".

The news media has a public responsibility to be correct. This report contributes to the problem of idiot adults oversimplifying a serious issue.

Also, from the professional angle any bush league reporter should know to cover all sides and get input from all sides of a story. So, yes, professionally "Lacey missed a couple of interviews with counselors and the like" is a serious problem.

And no, she did not at all explain why kids dress funny these days, she didn't even touch on the music genre or any pop culture references that may be the source of what is now mostly a fashion style.

Anonymous said...

and where the heck is Eddy County?? Why not get a local police officer's opinion on the issue. GF has two high schools, each with a police officer assigned to them full time. How about one of those, instead of the deputy from BFE?

elucidarian said...

This, on top of the Larimore cop thing, is just more fodder for people to get a bad impression of Eastern North Dakota.

Jason Berberich said...

This was also the most "dugg" video on Digg yesterday. I was surprised to see Milo Smith after starting the video.

The comments on this over at Digg are pretty funny...

Peder Rice said...

anonymous, you're quite right, and it's incredible the lack of understanding of mental health issues facing North Dakota teens and young adults today.

Anonymous said...

Down here at USD working at the student newspaper, The Volante, I am witnessing first hand the lack of understanding these "budding reporters" have for mental health issues.

It has been strange this year, quite a large number of these mental health stories are ending up in our news budgets each week. At every meeting there is always a very ambitious reporter who is willing to dig into the issue, but unfortunately they always come out with an article that doesn't even touch the surface.

Mostly, the reporters get lost in the "binge drinking" angle and some other such nonsense. And what is more unfortunate, the News Editor and the Editor-in-Chief are just as naive (although they are tremendously smart individuals).

I think this goes to show that a good portion of the college population do not live in reality. And when you have never experienced reality, it is tough to report on it, I don't care who you are. WDAZ seems to be hiring a lot of young reporters who fit into that stereotype.

Anonymous said...

Lacey's reporting has a completely different effect on me. When I watched the report, it made me want to dress her in black, comb her hair over one eye, and take her away to a Rites of Spring show.

Anonymous said...

Our newscasts here are..
* Oakland gang shooting
* Bush sucks
* Cheney sucks
* The War in Iraq sucks
* Iran sucks
* Sports - Barry Bonds on steroids
* Weather - we might get rain
* the end

At least WDAZ seems to try to cover local stuff. ;)

Anonymous said...

See did an okay job. A big problem in doing reporting is that MOST people will not talk on camera, which really diminishing the quality of the report.

dale said...

Just wait'll Lacey comes across the anorexia support sites online (hint: they're not supporting recovery.) Then we'll have another bang-up report :-)

(Lacey, try googling "my friend ana" and see what you find!)

GrandForksGuy said...

On tonight's news, WDAZ actually mentioned the response to the emo video. I was wondering if they would...

DrJ said...

I saw the original "report" by Lacey Crisp...OMG what a joke! She had this ridiculous smirk on her face the whole time. Maybe she should change her stage name...her currnet moniker sounds more like one that she made up for a 'porn-star' game.

I find her style very unprofessional overall, and on this story in particular.

Unknown said...

It has little to do with suicide or self mutilation. Those are serious problems that Crisp marginalized by boiling a troubled kid down to a stereotype.


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peter

North Dakota Drug Treatment

johngeorge234 said...

The news media has a public responsibility to be correct. This report contributes to the problem of idiot adults oversimplifying a serious issue
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john
North Dakota Drug Treatment