CNN Source Agreement Odd, Not Blackmail
Screenshot of President Donald Trump’s Twitter message. Post updated Monday July 5 to include CNN’s statement. CNN announced an unusual anonymity agreement with a source Sunday. After tracking down the...
View ArticleThere Is a Role for Public Editors
SOURCE: Flickr Creative Common On the same day The New York Times announced a round of buyouts, the paper said it’s also eliminating the position of public editor. The decision to eliminate the role of...
View ArticleThe Secret to a Successful Journalism Career Is Strong Ethics
Joseph Pulitzer’s bust is displayed alongside his quote in the lobby of Pulitzer Hall at Columbia University in New York City. That might sound old school or boring but for me it is true: developing,...
View ArticleStreamed Crime: A Challenge for News and Social Media Companies
Jason Howie/Flickr Creative Commons Social media ignited Sunday afternoon when news broke that a man in Cleveland streamed a video of himself on Facebook allegedly shooting an elderly person. The crime...
View ArticleWhen Past Meets Present
Screenshot of The Courier-Journal’s controversial story about Dr. David Dao. People’s pasts are littered with publicly available stories. How far should journalists reach back when a person finds...
View ArticleFacebook Tackles Fake News
Jason Howie/Flickr Creative Commons Facebook announced last Wednesday changes to its trending topics section, which is the box of subjects users see on the top-right corner of the screen. The social...
View ArticleSocial Media Ethics Must Be Taught
Jason Howie/Flickr Creative Commons Social media remains at the center of news consumption for audiences. The platforms have become ubiquitous with news consumption, as they become publishers and media...
View ArticleCanary in the Coalmine: Trust in Media Hits New Low
Less than a third of American adults trust the media at least “a fair amount,” according to a new Gallup poll. The finding is the most dismal since Gallup started taking the poll in the 1970s. More...
View ArticleWhat Should Journalists Learn From Gawker’s Demise?
Gawker launched in 2003, but didn’t come into my orbit until three years later during my first year of college. I don’t remember the first Gawker post I read, but the website quickly became one of my...
View ArticleThe Daily Beast Wins Nothing At Olympics
The Daily Beast sent a reporter to cover the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Instead of a story on the numerous important issues affecting the region, the website decided to publish a report that is...
View ArticleEthics Week: Are Social Media Ethics Codes Needed?
Jason Howie/Flickr Creative Commons The Online News Association announced April 1 that it was introducing an ethics code for newsgathering practices on social media. The ONA Social Newsgathering Ethics...
View ArticleHo, ho, hoax – Marie Christmas
@JewyMarie’s Twitter Posts Social media is a proverbial gold mine for journalists, but it’s also filled with landmines. A number of eyewitness accounts were sent out on Twitter as news about the mass...
View ArticleONA Unveils Ethics Project
The Online News Association (ONA) unveiled this week its much-anticipated project that allows people to “Build Your Own Ethics Code.” ONA’s website features a tool that allows people to add specific...
View Article#SPJ4ALL
Seaman standing in Times Square. After days of deliberation, I sent off a $350 check to the small private college that I thought would be my home for the four years following high school. A large...
View ArticleTransparency, Civility and Respect in Ethical Debates
Photo courtesy Flickr Creative Commons (http://bit.ly/1GRn5wn) Journalists who joined the Society’s conversations about ethics last week noticed some interesting posts popping up on Twitter. Many of...
View ArticleEthics Week 2015: Reporting from the Internet
Illustration Credit Sean MacEntee In today’s journalism world, obtaining and sharing information can be instantaneous. Especially in breaking news situations we can find ourselves, as journalists,...
View ArticleEthics Week 2015: Minimizing Harm in Times of Conflict
Photo Credit/Robert Kuykendall Freshman journalism students are often asked to define the word journalist. The lesson at the end of the exercise is that the definition varies from person to person....
View Article#Pointergate Revisited Revisited
The chairman and chief executive officer of Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc., which owns KSTP-TV in Minneapolis, responded to the #Pointergate statement made last month by the Society’s Minnesota Pro...
View Article#Pointergate Revisited
(via U.S Library of Congress) (Updated on November 21, 2014 to include information from a statement made by the Society’s Minnesota Pro Chapter.) On Tuesday night, I published a blog post about a...
View ArticleSome Points on #Pointergate
KSTP, the ABC affiliate in Minnesota’s Minneapolis- Saint Paul metropolitan area, got skewered over the past week thanks to a story about a photo it says shows Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges standing...
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