Why the alarm bells sound with some journorequest responses

I talk a lot about utilising #journorequest in my webinars, workshops and course, but I know as a journalist you also have to be wary of some of the responses to these. I see the same people responding to many of them. Does that person really have a story about joining a book club/being bullied/or having a comment on the latest row [or insert every niche request a journalist throws out there]….or are they lying to simply land press coverage?

I remember one particular request I put out on Twitter a while back. I’ll change it so it’s not possible to find and identity the person, but say it was along the lines of wanting to speak to someone who only buys secondhand clothes now. A woman responded saying this was something she was doing but when I checked her social media, I knew this was a lie as there were pictures and content around the purchase of new clothes. 

Most of the time journalists – especially in the face of mounting cuts to budgets and teams - have a quick turnaround on stories and it’s about getting that story out there so many stories like this are not fact checked. To a certain degree, you have to believe people. Though there might be a request for evidence, depending on the journalist and the title. And then other times you have to be cynical, especially when you see the same names being quoted in articles.

Sure, we might all be able to comment on a lot of #journorequests but sometimes seeing the same names again and again makes me suspicious, especially if I look on their timeline and they’re responding to lots of them all the time.

There’s some people I have simply banned in my head from using as I believe there’s elements of fabrication. I spoke to someone the other day for another story who’d spotted my #journorequest. I called her and I could see that she was changing her story to fit into my brief.

So please, be honest. Don’t fabricate or mould your story just to get in the press. Some journalists will see through this and they may well warn others.