The task behind the task - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

Over the years, I have had more than a few conversations with loyal readers of this newspaper about the sheer amount of work that goes into an issue. People are often amazed at the number of stories that carry a byline from myself or my cohort in the editorial department - now Scott, then Denny.

 

Late last week and early this week, I couldn’t help but think about what we could all accomplish if we spent all of our time producing content for the newspaper and its online iterations. 

 

Earlier this week, Publisher Deb Sholdice was plugging away at a grant application for several days, taking up the bulk of her time and attention. However, she had to take a day away because of a new compatibility problem between our computers and a program update. 

 

On my end and on one early morning in particular, I had to stop and realize just how much of my paid time had been wasted on tasks that had nothing to do with producing content for this fine newspaper. But, The Citizen is nice and always takes the time to help people out. I remember years ago, before everyone had a smartphone in their pocket, that Jill Roulston would be the go-to hub for phone numbers and addresses. People would just call her like she was their hotel concierge for information like that about the community and she would always oblige.

 

So, back to the day in question. First there was a message sent to our Facebook page from someone looking for a reproduction of an article. After a few back-and-forths, the person in question asked about the article in question, which had been published in a different newspaper. Once that discovery had been made and I suggested reaching out to the newspaper that published the article, I was asked if that newspaper had a Facebook page. I did not know that information.

 

Then I fielded messages from at least three young mothers looking for pictures of their kids in pictures taken from a recent day of minor hockey in Brussels. If I could find any pictures (within the 1,000 taken) from this particular game with this particular player who wears this particular number, they would love to see them. I declined to spend hours combing through the pictures looking for particular children, wasting company money and my time for pictures that, no doubt, these folks would have wanted for free. (That’s the other thing: the way people bristle at being asked to pay a nominal fee for a picture taken by a paid, professional photographer who was being paid to cover an event. Like, “How dare you?”)

 

The last task that occupied (and wasted) my time was monitoring a Facebook post about No Hate in Huron’s cabaret event, you know, because denouncing neo-Nazi ideology isn’t as straightforward in 2024 as it used to be. But mostly it was the comments from people who have apparently been in a Rip Van Winkle-like slumber for the past 18 months and don’t know that news outlets can no longer share links on Facebook and Instagram. No lady, our link is not broken, but thanks for taking the time to comment instead of searching for the story. Hey guy, thanks for posting the story in the comments, ensuring we secure no website traffic whatsoever from the post. Helpful! No, I won’t be answering your question in the comments that’s addressed very clearly by the story I wrote. I’m not your Ask Jeeves.

 

I guess what I’m saying is that for every story we write, there’s just as much time being wasted behind some useless task that could be solved by simple media literacy or respect for what’s being done by community journalists.