The Shop Talk panel discusses a recent article in Columbia Journalism Review. It’s about a former reporter, 27-year old Valeria Sistrunk, who has created (as she puts it) “a tool to come and tell the truth.”
She asked friends to write reviews about their stations and news directors. Once she’d collected 10 posts, she went public.
Her site, RateMyStation.com, launched in November 2017, and today receives between 40,000 and 60,000 visitors per month.
It’s similar to the concept behind the Rate My Professor site, though just about anyone can post to that site. Sistrunk appears to do a great deal of checking and research before she will post a review.
Shop Talk is a weekly panel discussion about journalism issues. This week’s program featured Will Buss, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Illinois University and advises the student editors at the Western Courier; Patrick Johnson, who teaches in the Department of Broadcasting and Journalism at WIU and advises Western’s student radio station WIUS/The Dog; and TSPR News Director Rich Egger.
