Discussion Does The Media Have A Responsibility To Avoid Spoiling Episode VII (and other movies)?

I voted no, for the same reason I'd say that a reporter who stumbles upon an advance copy of the president's State of the Union address would have no responsibility to avoid reporting on that. If the facts are out there for reporting, it's the reporters' jobs to report them.

I would say, though, that it IS the media's responsibility to report on content that contains spoilers cautiously by letting folks know that there are spoilers contained in the reporting. It's not difficult to include a warning at the beginning of an article or news report that it contains spoilers and those who are looking to avoid spoilers can then avert their eyes. If it's November 2015 and I still don't know the overall plot of the movie, Lord help me if I hear it on CNN or something.

 

I agree completely. I believe if one truly wants to be spoiler free, then the onus is on that person to stay free and clear.

 

No, I'm not saying live under a rock, but you don't have to open the article or story about the new Star Wars movie. You can always change the channel before anything comes on TV. I think the media should warn of potential spoilers, but ultimately it comes down to the individual and how badly they want to be spoiler free as to whether they take the chance by opening or watching something

 

What about when articles pop up in my feed with the spoiler in the title? Hell - I have a Google phone, which knows I like Star Wars, and has sent those articles straight to my home page. My Facebook page is even worse. Sure, I can block all posts from those sites, but I can't do that before the damage is done. Am I supposed to keep my phone on the lock screen and avoid social networking (which is my only form of socialization these days) for a year and a half?

 

I'm a big hockey fan and DVR all the games since I work nights. I've made it two consecutive seasons without being spoiled on the outcomes of the games. If I can block it all out for nearly 200 games, I think someone can block out every bit of news they want to avoid being spoiled about Episode VII.

 

Ah, but how long do you have to wait before you watch that hockey game? A day? Maybe two? Then your life goes back to normal. It's easy to block out social media and other internet stuff for a few hours until you can get home and watch the game. Not so easy for me to block out everything for 452 days. Go two seasons without learning details of a single hockey game or player - then we'll talk about easy.
On top of all of that, the score of a hockey game (which has got to be, what, the fourth most watched sport in America?) is definitely less news-worthy than spoilers about the most anticipated movie sequel of all time. I'm sure you've got your hockey sites and fan pages - which probably send things like the score to whatever feeds you have. You could turn those off. But what if some random news source - not typically known for hockey, started reporting hockey scores? You wouldn't be able to avoid them until after it was too late. I've had to unfollow IGN, comicbooknews, and several other smaller sites, because they threw a Star Wars headline with a spoiler in the title straight into my face in some form or other. Hell - I can't even visit the tfn front page! I can choose to hermit, or I get pummeled with spoilers. So yeah, I think the media has some responsibility to me. They can have all the clickbait they want, but don't spoil it right in the headline.

 

It's the media's job to report on news worthy stories. You cannot expect the media to not do it's job just because you don't want to be spoiled. You obviously wanted all the Star Wars news you could get or you wouldn't have signed up for all those sites. But now that you don't want to know about the upcoming movies, you expect these media outlets to suddenly change for those of you who don't want to be spoiled? Sorry, but it doesn't work that way. Which means it puts the onus on you to not be spoiled. If you're fully capable of finding all the news you had been craving, you're completely capable of ignoring it. It would be no different if you were out somewhere and someone you didn't know suddenly started talking about Episode VII to someone they were with. Should that person ask everyone around him or her if anyone doesn't want to be spoiled before they tell their friend? No, it's up to you to walk away to not hear it.

 

If you have a method for ignoring spoilers in the headline of a post that pops up on my Facebook page (because it'll pop up on my feed without me even following the page sometimes,) I would LOVE to hear it. If your only advice is "just don't look," then you haven't read any of our complaints. I shouldn't have to revert to the 1980s just because journalism today is so ADD that the only way for me to avoid their aggressive clickbait is to simply disconnect myself from the world. Yes, it is a media outlet's jobs to generate clicks - but responsible journalists can do that without putting the spoiler in the freaking headline.

To your analogy, "it's up to you to walk away and not hear it," that's exactly my point - I can't unsee something I've already seen. If two people are walking down the street talking about a movie I haven't seen, you're damn right I would speak up and ask them to give me a chance to walk away before they spoiled anything. I can't do that with aggressive marketing, because I don't see the sites until they've already popped up. In your analogy, it'd be like two people jumping out of the bushes and yelling "Darth Vader is resurrected in Episode VII!" when they've been waiting for me all day because they've been following me around enough to know that I like Star Wars and they're hoping to sell me something. The chances of me hearing something in the wild are so insignificant that I don't even stop to think about them. I've already had what I consider four pretty major spoilers thrust in my face by irresponsible ADD attention-starved "journalists." The rights of your fist end at the tip of my nose.

 

I think a lot of folks are angry at spoilers, and I think 'content purveyors' (the sites with the requisite clickbait) are becoming aware of that. I saw a strange "here be spoilers" thing about Game of Thrones on the "trending topics" on Facebook earlier tonight. I ask the same things you do: No spoilerish headlines or pictures! Plenty of people would click on a Star Wars logo picture promising spoilerific information...I just want the right not to know.

Official information on the other hand...especially provided by the director's production company...yes I stopped right there EHT!

 

I don't think the media has a responsibility to not post spoilery material, but it does make me sad that some people legitimately want to know everything about this movie, and that people inside the production are actually giving away these things. Some of the rumors floating around today (which I haven't read, but I've seen the headlines) actually caused me to finally convert to the NSA forum, and it just makes me saddened that people would dig this stuff out rather than just waiting for the movie. And once those leaks are out, the media can't help by pick it up and run with it. They'd be shooting themselves in the foot if they don't report on it. That being said, I do think they should be mindful of not putting spoilers in headlines (or images that appear next to the headline). Firstly, it's not like they need the hits, people will click on anything that says "Star Wars 7", and secondly, as TheYodaPagoda said, we have the right not to know. And as someone who visits a lot of movie sites because I'm as much of a cinephile as I am a Star Wars fan, it's hugely aggravating to get spoiled just by checking the front page.

 

Bolded statement 1: You're so right. It pisses me off just reading that analogy. Very true.

Bolded statement 2: Do you recall who these 'journalists' are by chance?

I have fought a losing battle with willfully avoiding spoilers but am at the point where I want to go dark. It's so much better to not know anything. I do envy those who have avoided spoilers. I do think that this sites front-page does a good job of giving people the option to avoid spoilers. Like I said, for me it hasn't been easy but I'm committed to steering clear.

 

As far as the media is concerned, it's almost impossible to stop anyone nowadays from revealing what's coming out. If it ain't one news media, it'll be someone else. Time is money, and money is what it's all about.

 

I've already had to unfollow a couple of SW blogs I followed on Twitter because they weren't very discrete with the headlines of their posts that contained spoilers. If you want to write about/post spoilers, that's fine, but at least be courteous and don't just throw it right in people's faces like that.

 

So just curious, have you made the full-time switch over to NSA at this point?

 

I think so. I read one rumor too many for my liking and want to keep the slate clean (as much as I can within my control) moving forward. I'll still pop into 7SA GIL from time to time to say hello to everyone there, but the other threads I'm going to try to avoid like the plague.