Summary

The Kraken News station #760 is inviting the public to contribute news stories due to technical difficulties and a malfunctioning teleprompter, encouraging creativity and interlinking of stories with a "passing of the mic" format.

Abstract

The Kraken News, broadcasting from a remote location in the Nevada desert, is experiencing unexpected technical issues causing their teleprompter to fail. In response, they are opening up their platform to the public, asking for submissions of news stories from various perspectives. Participants are encouraged to link back to another author's story within the 'Kraken News' tagged community, and to publish their contributions on Medium or elsewhere. The initiative is presented as an opportunity for fun and engagement, with an example provided to illustrate the desired format, showcasing a humorous report on a confrontation between pigeons in New York City.

Opinions

The news station views the technical difficulties as an opportunity to engage the public in a novel way.
There is a sense of urgency and slight chaos in the newsroom due to the teleprompter malfunction.
The station values community contribution and interconnectivity, as evidenced by the requirement to link back to another author's story.
The example news story provided reflects a playful and humorous approach to the writing prompt, suggesting a preference for light-hearted and entertaining content.
The creators of the initiative, a Mountain Dew-fueled man and his snow-walking friend, are portrayed as spontaneous and community-oriented, embracing the unexpected nature of their project.

The Kraken News — Writing Prompt

Tonight on the evening news…

Kraken News station #760 located somewhere in the Nevada desert — Image generated by author with Midjourney

Good evening and welcome to the evening news. Our top story tonight: [Insert current event or story]. In other news, [Insert additional stories]. And in sports, [Insert sports updates]. Stay tuned for more updates and analysis after these messages.

What a minute… This can’t be right. The teleprompter isn’t working. What’s going on?

What do you mean we don’t have any news to report? We’re a news station. Broadcasting the news is all we got!

Bah!

We’ll have to open things up to the public and let them report on the happenings of the world. Hopefully, this doesn’t backfire…

What’s going on?

We’re experiencing technical difficulties at The Kraken News station #760 so we need your help to keep things moving.

How can you help?

We need you to write news stories from any point of view you want. A camera crew on scene, the fancy half-circle desk in the news station, or even that one poor guy in the middle of a snowstorm that clearly isn’t wearing enough layers for the weather. Like, what was he even thinking showing up with just a jacket?

Are there any requirements?

Yes! You have to link back to a different author’s news story and end it with a “passing of the mic.” Here’s an example:

Thanks, News Station, I’m out here in the middle of nowhere, and believe it or not, but nothing is happening. That is all out here. Let’s see what’s going on in the Alps with our camera crew on the scene.

Use the tag ‘Kraken News’ so that we can easily find news stories to link back to.
Publish where ever you’d like but consider The Kraken Lore
Have fun!

Here, I’ll go first:

“Thanks, Station 760. My name is Chet reporting from New York city. If you look over here,” he said pointing toward an alleyway, “You’ll see a group of pigeons fighting and one of them has a knife.”

The cameraman grunts and shifts the camera’s weight as he tries to focus on the pigeons.

“What do you mean you ain’t got my money?” Frank the pigeon said while pointing the knife at another pigeon.

“I had your money but I lost it,” Tony the pigeon said with wings raised.

“What do you mean lost it?”

“The goose that had the goods blew up. Guts went all over the place. I mean it was bad,” Tony explained. “It was raining goose for a good ten minutes.”

“I see…” Frank mumbled. Then he turned suddenly to face the camera crew. “Hey! You recording this? Aint no body going to narc on Frank. Get over here!”

As Frank began to angrily coo and threateningly point his knife, Chet began to back away from the scene. “Ah, I think that’s enough from us. Let’s check in on our sister station number 342!”

“Cut the camera Jim,” Chet pleaded, “Cut the camera. Cut the damn camera!”

“Agh!”

What does a Mountain Dew fueled man and his friend that spends too much time walking in the snow do for fun? Come up with crazy ideas to rope the Medium community into writing stories. Did we mean to do this? No. Are we going to do it anyway? You bet!