It’s Sunday evening, 9:44 PM. My phone buzzes, and out of the corner of my eye, I see a notification pop up in the Observant group chat. Odd. We’ve long agreed that the chat is off-limits on weekends – unless, of course, the university is on fire, or there’s been another cyber-attack. “Sorry, I know it’s Sunday evening, but I couldn’t resist! The meditation sex space has made national news”, writes colleague WD, attaching a link to nu.nl.
Sex sells
A flurry of digital excitement follows, along with a bit of confusion (“Is this really national news?”) and a stream of congratulatory emojis (grins, flexed biceps and thumbs up) for editor DV, who wrote the article about the "Mindfulnest" at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The meditation cubicle needs be removed because students aren’t just using it for its intended purpose – they’ve been having sex in it, too. A day later, what we considered to be “minor and light-hearted news” has been picked up by half the Dutch press, from NOS, AD, Telegraaf, L1 and Hart van Nederland to RTL, De Limburger and De Nieuwe Ster.
It’s not unusual for Observant articles to be picked up by other media, but rarely on this scale. It seems sex really does sell.
Facts matter
Is republishing stories from other media outlets allowed? Not without proper credit. Standard journalistic practice is to clearly attribute the original source (not tucked away at the bottom). Every outlet did so, which we appreciate. Those who don’t can expect a phone call or email from us. We stick to the same rule when republishing stories from other sources, always giving credit where credit is due.
As we constantly remind our students, facts matter. It’s all too easy for mistakes to creep into a story without you realising. It happened here as well. Some outlets copied the article almost verbatim, only dropping or adding the odd phrase. Others more or less rewrote it, sometimes (unintentionally?) embellishing it. For example, some journalists wrote that the Mindfulnest has already been removed. That’s not true – it’s still there. It hasn’t been replaced by yoga mats, either. And there were no meeting minutes involved, despite what one outlet claimed; DV heard about it during a Faculty Council meeting. As for the claims about “several” or “various” students being involved, no specific numbers were given. We assume there were at least two.
"Fuck pods"
Then there’s the photo. You can’t just publish a photo without permission from, and sometimes payment to, the photographer. Those who do often find themselves facing legal action, as we’ve learnt the hard way. Three outlets asked if they could use our photo. Two asked beforehand, as they should, and one after the fact. Some found their own images, while others just used ours without asking.
On Monday afternoon, DV shares another link in the group chat. Even the satirical website De Speld (the Dutch equivalent of The Onion), saw potential in the story, tying it to the proposed budget cuts in higher education with the headline: “Universities taking drastic measures: cutting back on fuck pods.”