Forum - View topicSurvey: Should ANN Review its own Simulcasts?
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crunchycat
I do Marketing for Anime Companies
Posts: 138 |
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I say reviewers have it tough because of course everything is based on their own opinions, so no one could ever be happy.
Reviewers have to be honest and upfront with the anime and will try to give a fair critique to a show/game but just because someone reads it doesn't mean they have to fully believe it. What if I reviewed a new season anime like Panty and Stocking and said, "it was like watching an old school Cartoon Network show on the Cartoon Cartoon block with its animation, but the story was in no way anything you would expect to see on any of those cartoons, this is a show you have to experience for yourself to see if you like it or not, but personally I think it's going to be a hidden gem this season." Some people would agree others would disagree because everything was based on my opinion. I say ANN should be able to review their own anime because they themselves are fans, so why not give them a right to express there thoughts? |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Another analogy just occurred to me; movie chat/review shows on cable channels like IFC or AMC, like Dinner for Five.
Often on these shows they will directly discuss/critique movies that frequently air on AMC or IFC. But there's a disconnect, because it's just a cable channel - they didn't make those movies, they're just providing a place to watch them. I see some parallels to that scenario here. Just a thought. |
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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They say, "I didn't like this about it, I didn't like this about it, I was OK with this about it". What are the odds they'll still do that, even if its streaming on ANN? As long as ANN's editorial policy is the same as today, kind of 100%, because at present, being a shallow cheerleader for a show just because its on ANN seems like it would end up losing them their reviewing gig. A company that is behaving sensibly is streaming their work at ANN to get to the existing ANN audience, and behaving in a way calculated to anger and alienate that audience would be foolish behavior from a marketing/PR perspective. |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2175 |
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It's a conflict of interests but I don't hold internet-only reviewers to the same standards that I hold professional reviewers and their opinions impact me even less.
I say go ahead. I don't think anyone who matters will care about the conflict of interest. |
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Banden
 Posts: 140 |
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The conspicuous difference though, is that AMC isn't a journalistic organization and when they dabble in commentary/criticism they make few if any claims about editorial independence. It's not their core competency and the viewers have low expectations. Similarly, when Comedy Central ventures into political satire nobody balks if they don't cover every angle in their treatment of a given topic or personality. Tempest said in a recent ANNCast that ANN was founded in the spirit of serious news organizations like the New York Times... perhaps that's changed and Comedy Central is more the business model current site staff desire to emulate? I feel like I'm only belaboring the issue at this point though, given the tone of your and Tempest's recent posts suggesting you've already made up your minds. I'm guessing the OreImo review(s) will be online pretty soon after the simulcast begins? |
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PMDR
Posts: 141 |
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Most journalism outlets, whether online or in traditional media, have picked one side on the other: either they are "news" or they aren't.
ABC News is separate from ABC Entertainment and ABC Sports/ESPN. This sort of firewall has proven to be useful. When stories break, you report them without regard to their impact on the non-news divisions. Suppose an actor gets sick. You report that because it's news, regardless of whether he or she is in a show on the same network. News is news warts and all. ANN, on the other hand, has shown that while it has "news" it its name, it is not a "news" organization and much more aligned with an entertainment site. When an anime actor gets sick, ANN quashes the story because it's more interested in being friendly and respectful to the actor than in reporting the news. Think Entertainment Tonight of anime. So I think reviewing its own shows is perfectly fine. ANN is not a true news agency and should not be held to the traditional standards. What should happen is that the name ought to change to reflect what ANN is actually about and what it is choosing to focus on in the future. Clearly there's a lot more going on here than reporting news. ANN is out making news, importing content, distributing content, and doing other stuff and seems bent on doing more of the same. Again, that's fine. But that's got nothing to do with news reporting. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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No decision has been made and it isn't my decision to make, it's Chris's, based on a variety of factors. I'm working through some of my thoughts on the issue here, that's all. As someone who has nothing whatsoever to do with the video streaming, any of the decisions made there nor am I privy to the details or the meetings where this stuff gets decided (both by choice and design), my personal take is that we should at least cover these shows in the preview guide, with a disclaimer that the shows are streaming on ANN courtesy of Aniplex USA. But again, it isn't up to me to make that decision. |
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Sandstar
Posts: 196 |
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Maybe the answer to this is to have say, 3 reviewers take a look at a series, maybe say, the first 5 episodes, and only simulcast shows that 2 out of the 3 of them like? Or would you like to be in the position of having your reviewers say "This is crap" while your ads say "Watch this show!" I know most publications don't do that, but they're not *selling* the product (as you are, even if you aren't charging for it). My point is that I think the bigger issue is what are *you* going to do if one of your reviewers gives a hosted show a bad review? Are you going to continue to host it? Obviously, not everyone agrees with everyone else, and some people might like a show, while another wouldn't. But it seems to me that, by hosting a show, ANN would be, in a way, endorsing it. If you host a program that isn't good, this could damage your brand, which seems to me would do way more harm than whatever "conflict of interest" might come about because you're reviewing your hosted videos.
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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But backing that up even further mostly all channels will have researched a series thouroughly in order to find out if it will "bring in the numbers" before it is even acquired, (sadly that's what holds back anime on our channels is the fear of tanking and being the one who wasted the money acquiring it. I still have black and blues from banging my head on my desk over that one.  ) So everything is done to avoid having a stinker series for the "critics" to rail about in the first place, however that's still no gaurantee that won't happen anyway. Now Simulcasting is a whole different kettle of fish chowder, because none of what I just described is possible in such a short time without prior screening before transmission, so if it reeks like last weeks fish dinner in Tokyo, it's stands to reason it's going to pong in Montreal just as much an hour later, unless a "technical difficulty beyond our control" stuffs it in the bin where it belongs. Tough call really.
Last edited by Mohawk52 on Wed Oct 06, 2010 12:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Raneth
Posts: 271 |
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I hope you do review them. Perhaps it's impossible to avoid subconscious bias, but ANN is a review site, and whether or not I agree with their subjective opinions of a show, I assume the staff is pretty professional about things like this. You have, after all, reviewed shows that are available on ANNtv, so I don't see much of a difference between that and simulcasting.
If you wrote/produced the show, that's one thing. But simply streaming it? Maybe I'm ignorant about this, but I don't see a problem. |
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Leebo
 Posts: 660 Location: Somerville, MA |
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Think about what you're saying... you want the production company to send ANN 5 completed episodes in advance of the first broadcast? Chris said they weren't even given an opportunity to watch the first episode of Oreimo before they committed, so this is flat-out impossible. And either way, even if you could do this, it's a rather silly way to solve the problem... you're still left with a situation where if you think they had pressure to like the show before, now there's pressure to have split opinions. Either we trust them to be honest, or we don't. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2243 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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I think you should have a space or link on the guide for the two shows, and instead of reviews they contains the official show summary and a link to episode 1 (when it's up) that says something like "Form your OWN opinion of episode 1, watch now"!
and perhaps a link to a specialized forum thread where people can discuss the episodes. Your reviewers could, perhaps, post their own views unofficially and unedited within the thread. |
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LUNI_TUNZ
 Posts: 809 |
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You know what a "screener" is right? The whole purpose of them is to be reviewed. If a company stopped giving ANN screeners, because they... reviewed them, then that company has bigger problems than just producing crappy animation. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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Bingo. There should be an expectation from Aniplex ANN will review this series either during and/or after the simulcast. Before, of course, would be awkward to explain. However, something to throw into the mix since Zac is doing major pondering: If the issue is a conflict of interest, wouldn't this have already been violated as ANN posted it's own news of this simulcast? By doing this, it just posted the same "conflict of interest" as though it had written a good review, meaning, it's drawing in an audience for the ad-supported revenue. Sorry about that, but it just popped into my head just now. |
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Shichimi
 Posts: 349 |
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I'm not sure that I'm seeing your point, PJ. All that ANN has done is simply release statements that they are streaming two shows; by anyone's definition, this is certainly of interest and newsworthy.
It's not like the statements hyped up the shows to be THE MOST AWESOMEST ANIMES EVAR, it was just the usual business of providing background info and such. |
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