Who is Florida Man?

[Jason]

 

[CitizenVectron]

I've never thought of it that way, but it's true. I'll have to reevaluate how I view these stories.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/episode-75-the-trouble-with-florida-man

[RedSoxFan9]

Episode transcript 

 

https://link.medium.com/c35gs0AefX

[Bloodporne]

Well yeah. Clickbait in all forms is exploitative National Enquirer bullshit. 

[Keyser_Soze]

I thought this was going to be like that ICP song, “What is a Juggalo” except “Who is Florida Man” but if you think about it that song could apply to Florida Man 

[CayceG]

For a few months now, I've become very weary of Florida Man stories. Because it is nothing but exploitative. And some of my coworkers--one of whom is from Florida and revels in these stories--are in love with these for their absurdity. 

 

News stations use sunshine laws for clicks. These stories generate clicks because of the ridiculous details (SLAPPED WITH A GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH FOR NOT USING EZ CHEEZ) that wouldn't appear without the sunshine laws. And it's always people that are drug dependent, generally poor, homeless, and underserved. 

 

It's fucking atrocious to me. It's exploitative. I hate these "guess the state" threads when it's clearly preying on the disadvantages these people have. I want these reports to stop. I want there to just be compassion. Among news readers, among lawmakers, among citizens. 

 

But these stories, what give rise to them, and the response to them in our culture paint a picture that is so nakedly "American" that I can't help but see it as an illustration of what our society has become. 

[RedSoxFan9]

 

it would be nice if this info wasn’t public 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Oh no not pot

[CayceG]

Local news stations and papers are probably the most at fault here. They're the ones taking these police reports and mugshots and basically just formatting police reports into a news story. No journalistic ethics behind any of this. 

 

Police reports (and the one sided stories they paint) are taken verbatim and used to supplant actual news. 

Because it gets clicks. Because it's cheap. Because accountability to white supremacist power structures is hard and costs money and takes a long time, so newsroom editors don't put all the investment into it. 

 

But the worst part is that the clicks are needed to fund these other investigations. Investigative journalism is vital, and not funded properly.

It's all so despairing. 

[Jason]

8 hours ago, CayceG said:

For a few months now, I've become very weary of Florida Man stories. Because it is nothing but exploitative. And some of my coworkers--one of whom is from Florida and revels in these stories--are in love with these for their absurdity. 

 

News stations use sunshine laws for clicks. These stories generate clicks because of the ridiculous details (SLAPPED WITH A GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH FOR NOT USING EZ CHEEZ) that wouldn't appear without the sunshine laws. And it's always people that are drug dependent, generally poor, homeless, and underserved. 

 

It's fucking atrocious to me. It's exploitative. I hate these "guess the state" threads when it's clearly preying on the disadvantages these people have. I want these reports to stop. I want there to just be compassion. Among news readers, among lawmakers, among citizens. 

 

But these stories, what give rise to them, and the response to them in our culture paint a picture that is so nakedly "American" that I can't help but see it as an illustration of what our society has become. 

 

The author of the piece does allow that SOMETIMES it's worthwhile journalism. He's not saying it should never ever be done, he's saying that the problem is mindlessly regurgitating every single "slapped with a grilled cheese" police report:

 

Quote

 

Some of the reporting of the Florida Man genre is undeniably worthwhile journalism. A guy throwing a live alligator into a Wendy’s drive-thru is undeniably interesting. A naked man stealing a swan statue is newsworthy when the statue is reportedly worth $25,000 and remains missing. And when someone in a full Easter Bunny costume is caught on video in a street brawl during the holiday, you simply can’t not show it.

 

But Florida has no monopoly on strange events, drug addiction, or mental illness, the lifeblood of the form. What it does have is strong public records laws that make obtaining mugshots and arrest reports easier than in many other states (including California and New York, which aren’t known for their lack of eccentricity, either).

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

There - that's much better.

[SaysWho?]

2 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

There - that's much better.

 

I was wondering why I couldn't upvote @Chris-'s fantastic post.  

 

EDIT: Although even with the posts deleted, he still has a very good point with what remains!

[SaysWho?]

On 6/4/2019 at 12:04 PM, CayceG said:

Local news stations and papers are probably the most at fault here. They're the ones taking these police reports and mugshots and basically just formatting police reports into a news story. No journalistic ethics behind any of this. 

 

Police reports (and the one sided stories they paint) are taken verbatim and used to supplant actual news. 

Because it gets clicks. Because it's cheap. Because accountability to white supremacist power structures is hard and costs money and takes a long time, so newsroom editors don't put all the investment into it. 

 

But the worst part is that the clicks are needed to fund these other investigations. Investigative journalism is vital, and not funded properly.

It's all so despairing. 

 

Goes even further than that: the reason they don't have time is because there aren't enough producers who make the shows and reporters are expected to turn stories everyday, not do long-form. In my position, I have the luxury of taking my time to do non-urgent stories, so I can do something like a piece on climate and extreme weather and research it, but the vast majority of reporters don't. 

 

And part of the reason is that the attention span of people is small. A billion focus groups can be done, and they'll show that most people tune out if a sound bite is more than X amount of seconds. Think of the amount of times you tried to show someone a video and they couldn't keep quiet for a full minute or two. That's why more shows aren't long-form news magazines and that shows that go more in-depth like PBS News Hour or 60 Minutes aren't plentiful.

 

fyi: Guess the State was started to show that weird stories or stories about racist people happened in other places, including the northeast and west. I've conducted interviews with local mental illness organizations, did a two-part story of a woman who overcame postpartum psychosis, and helped raise money for said organizations as well, along with pushing for donations toward veterans programs that help those who are mentally ill; things revolving around helping and spreading awareness about the mentally ill have been important to me and having a position where I could do something about it has been amazing. 

 

That's why it's important to actually do something past sharing tweets, which would be helpful to some of our board members. This is a wonderfully thoughtful piece from the CJR, though, so I'm likely going to be way more conscious as to what the subject of the thread is going forward.

[Keyser_Soze]

Guess the State: Man helps people from the state that you guess.