Light & Offbeat News (1 Viewer)

[MoonlightSonata]

Hello and welcome to the Light & Offbeat News sub forum.

This area is intended for less discussion-worthy news items, usually consisting of obscure, quirky, humorous, strange-but true, or run-of-the mill news stories.

This forum is intended as a filter so that the primary discussion-worthy news items have priority and so that people can easily view more important news stories. This area is not intended as a non-school alternative, and spam will not be tolerated. As such, any thread started in this forum must reference and link a news article.

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I have included an extract from one of my posts, below, on why some items such as murder stories might end up here. Also included are some guidelines for considering where to place homicide stories.

Purpose of the subforum

The "Light and Offbeat News" forum does not necessitate "light-hearted" news. While the name may be deceiving, it was never intended for simply comical news stories. Simply because something is put in this forum does not mean that it is any less grievous. "Light" is used in the sense of a contrast with "heavy". Not in an emotional severity sense, but in the sense of importance in news discussion.

This forum is for less controversial, less news-worthy items. It was created so that people viewing the main forum could seek access to the primary news discussions without having to weed through the obscure and mundane.

This is not to say that those alternative or more common news items do not have a place in our forums - they do. That place is in Light & Offbeat News. This is not a non-school subforum and I have removed things from this area before, or moved them into non-school. One of the ways in which we try and keep this area credible is to require the linking of a news article for everything within Light & Offbeat News.


Where to report news of homicide

Now, with regards to the present thread, homicide is a tragic and horrible affair. Of course we feel for anyone involved and hate to see such phenomenon. The worst side of mankind manifesting in such a way as to take someone's life is a gruesome and awful thing to hear about. I truly feel for anyone who knew the victims.

However, as PwarYuex said, sadly murder happens all the time. There are lots of murders in the world. It is a dreadful but ironically mundane phenomenon. Such news items are not of primary importance. That is why such stories belong in Light & Offbeat News.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Some murders are very notorious, extremely controversial and big stories across the nation. An obvious example would be the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance. It may be hard to distinguish on some occassions whether a murder story is sufficiently outside of the general guideline.


Elements of the guideline

As morbid as this may be, I will therefore lay out a guideline for future considerations. When deciding whether a murder story should be placed in the main area or the Light & Offbeat News area, consideration should be had as to:

(1) Whether the news story is major. Front-page news reports and extensive television coverage will be indicative of this.

(2) Whether the news story is unique from ordinary cases. This involves any unusual circumstances and important features that are striking and controversial.

(3) Whether the news story raises important issues for discussion. If the news story is backed by points for discussion - such as the rate of violence or sexual assault in Australia, etc. (Additionally, the topics raised should not already be actively in discussion in a dedicated thread.)

If the above elements are met in the affirmative, then it will be likely that the news story should be in the main area. If after having regard to the above elements it is very unclear as to what area the story should be posted in, then one may err on the side of the main forum.

 

[ur_inner_child]

For those who have been concerned about this forum and how 'insulting' it can be towards murder/suicide victims:

No, this is the appropriate forum. It's not what you think it is. Light and Offbeat refers to currents event and just happened news. The main forum is more for discussion of current affairs and larger ongoing news topics. But many people make the link you did.