Should journalists help catch sources who commit crimes? Pierre Omidyar, Paul Carr, and Sarah Lacy debate (via Pando Daily)
By David Holmes On December 8, 2013Last night, Paul Carr pointed to a tweet by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of a new investigative journalism outlet that employs Glenn Greenwald, that read, “Anybody who publishes stolen info should help catch the thief…
Sorry, journalists — you can’t rely on tech companies for your next big payday (via Pando Daily)
By Hamish McKenzie On October 7, 2013Bad news, journalists. Tech companies likely aren’t going to save you from your low-paying, high-drudgery jobs at newspapers, magazines, TV channels, radio stations, or blogs. If you’re looking for the easy way…
There is a reason why journalists must study journalism before any serious news outlet even considers hiring them. That is because journalism involves more than simply observing and reporting in your own words. However, there are bloggers abound who operate news blogs, or write news blog posts, that never studied journalism and it shows. It may seem harmless, but humans have a nasty habit of believing anything they read at face value. This includes news blogs. These same readers then regurgitate what they’ve read on their own blogs, and the snowball effect gets under way. These bloggers would benefit from learning the following things that every journalist already knows:
This is of prime importance. To avoid perpetuating false information, you must make sure that you have the facts 100% accurate or at the very least mention that your information was of the “to the best of my knowledge” type. In the newspaper industry, multiple people check and re-check all the factual information in a reporter’s story before printing it. Of course, many bloggers don’t have the luxury of an office staff, but a good substitute would be to check at least 2 independent sources.
If you are writing a news piece, you should remain as objective as possible throughout. The intended purpose of news is to offer the reader the facts, so they can then decide for themselves how they feel about it. Stick to the facts, don’t embellish, or sensationalize anything; that is the hallmark of a good news writer and blogger.
Even if you just report the facts, be sure to get facts from both sides of the issue whenever possible. Without intending to do so, you could influence the reader’s opinion by omitting the facts from the other side of the equation. For instance, has there ever been a time where you were bombarded with news about a particular issue and formed a strong opinion just from what you’ve read, but then later on heard new information that made you go “Wait a minute! I didn’t know that, this changes the whole issue”? So, just by reporting one side (even though all of it was factual) of the issue, the writer persuaded you by just omitting facts from the opposing view. Good news writers and bloggers don’t do that.
These 3 core concepts are the foundation of every good news writer and blogger. Just because you didn’t study journalism, if you write any kind of news then you are essentially a journalist. Hold yourself to the same standards, and you will be noticed for it.
How do you reach out to the world when you’re a Japanese journalist who has been captured in Afghanistan? If you can steal away your captors phone you simple send some Tweets letting your followers know you are still alive and well.
According to PC World the reporter, Kosuke Tsuneoka, was held for five months without contact to the outside world, however when a soldier wanted to show off his Nokia N70 Smartphone Tsuenoka took advantage of the situation, showing the soldier how to use the internet on the device via Twitter.
How dumb was the soldier? He actually allowed Tsuneoka to call tech support to activate the phones internet, then allowed him to use Twitter to show him and his fellow soldiers how to reach out to other journalists. [Read more…]
When I was a Media Studies undergrad in the late 90s, I vividly remember assembling clip packets. These were photocopied bundles of my best written work that were shipped off to print media. The goal was to get paid assignments or a full-time job.
Years later, as I made the transition from print media to digital media, physical clip packets evolved into e-mails and links. Not only was it a time saver, but I saved money on envelopes and postage too.
Through the years I picked up more blogging gigs and the world was grand. Who needed newspapers and magazines anyway. The writing seemed to be on the wall: Print was a dying relic, the future of the Web bright. That still might be the case. But suddenly I have the urge to take a step “backwards” and concentrate on scoring more print gigs. Hmmm. [Read more…]
