News organisations touting for business/sources on here

redux

Because of the number of appearances that Martin himself makes, and particularly the campaigns he is involved in, it's natural that TV company researchers might ask his permission and help in finding examples of people affected in those campaigns.

A commercial company trying to sell its products on here will be frowned on, and the material deleted. Companies posting for customer support type reasons are asked to obtain official permission, and are given to understand that touting isn't permitted.

Do they retain contact details of a number of consultant experts on a range of subjects? Yes. Do we expect companies to send teams out on the street or to the scenes of what is happening and gather vox populi? Of course.

But what of a news company posting on here? Is this a grey area? After all, news companies are competing for audience as well as gathering stories. But touting for story sources or trying contact people affected by certain news items, is that allowed? Posts only, or PMs as well?

I'm not making any moral or journalistic judgements. I just think you might need to be aware it's happening and think about it.

fermi

Hi.

This is already covered in the forum rules:

MSE_Martin wrote: »

MSE TEAM PERMISSION: TV COMPANIES/ NEWSPAPERS/ RESEARCHERS

Any TV company, newspaper or researcher that wants to use the boards to ask for case studies needs to specifically have permission. We need to know in order to legitimise it. If approved there will be a note from the MSE team. If you see one without a note please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL] with a link to the post.

Plus also covered here on the main site:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/site-contacts

Looking for case studies/want to contact someone on the Forum?

If you are a TV or Radio company, magazine or newspaper looking for a case study from the MoneySaving community using the site's Forum or want to use the forum for press purposes, please understand you must first have permission.

Permission is only generally given to post on the forum where the post either tangibly benefits users or the site, or helps the site gain a wider reach. Neither may you private message someone without checking with us first.

To request it please email [EMAIL="press@moneysavingexpert.com"]press@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]. Any posts asking for case studies without permission will be removed and no further requests from that company then considered.

If you see it happening without official permission, then as the above says, it needs to be reported.

redux

Thanks. I suppose I instinctively suspected that, and should have searched.

But even so, I felt slightly guilty and that I might be over-reacting if I reported.

On the other hand, these organisations are guests like all of us, and ought to have the sense to be polite enough to ask permission even if they hadn't checked the rules either

fermi

I suppose I can understand that, but in the end it's best to just report it if you can and let Martin's official team check it/them out.

I'd rather that a legit journalist/researcher is slightly inconvenienced by having to prove to MSE that they and their motives are what they claim, rather than leaving it and wondering............

dmg24

There is someone claiming to be a Channel 4 News producer who keeps posting about the BA strike. You would think that she would know better!