Steve Myers
Feb. 3, 2012
5:12 pm
A few additional links to read this afternoon:
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Steve Myers
Feb. 3, 2012
2:20 pm
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Mallary Jean Tenore
Feb. 3, 2012
2:06 pm
When Dallas Morning News reporter Tom Benning called a Susan G. Komen for the Cure spokeswoman Friday morning, he got a heads up that something big was about to break.
“I literally called the person who was sending out the press release two minutes before she sent it,” said Benning, who was calling for updates on
Komen’s decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. “I was on the phone with her, and before I could even get a question out, she said, ‘Hold on, we're about to send out something that you're going to want to see.’”
(more...)
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Steve Myers
Feb. 3, 2012
11:48 am
J-School Buzz | Student Press Law Center
J-School Buzz, an independent blog covering the Missouri School of Journalism, has found an ally in
its complaints about the Columbia Missourian's policy forbidding its student reporters to work for other media. Adam Goldstein of the Student Press Law Center believes the Missourian's policy violates the First Amendment, in part because the Missourian isn't a typical student-run newspaper. It's overseen by faculty members, who are state employees. He says the Missourian's conflict of interest policy boils down to this: "a public university imposing limitations on free speech." And he finds the policy ironic considering the more obvious conflicts present at Missourian:
It’s hard to see how an organization edited by people who are full-time paid agents of the entity it most frequently covers, who also happens to be the biggest employer in town, could ever have a conflicts policy that isn’t a joke. (more...)
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Steve Myers
Feb. 3, 2012
10:10 am
Yale Daily News
Diana Li and Christopher Peak compare the New Haven Register, the corporate-owned newspaper reinventing itself as "digital first," and the New Haven Independent, the upstart nonprofit news site. Editors at the newspaper describe how they're opening up the newsroom, hosting online chats, linking to blogs and asking for community input. "They’re doing everything we did, a few years after we started,” says Independent Editor Paul Bass. “It is a golden age in New Haven for journalism. Old media is finding new ways to do the job ... It’s a great time to be a reporter. At least until the money runs out.” ||
Earlier: Layoffs at New Haven Register continue Journal Register’s outsourcing of printing operations (Poynter)
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Steve Myers
Feb. 3, 2012
9:04 am
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Julie Moos
Feb. 3, 2012
8:51 am
The Spectrum
Editor in Chief Matthew Parrino eloquently describes what happened after an assistant news editor for The Spectrum, the student newspaper at SUNY's University at Buffalo, expressed her opinions on tattoos:
Beware of what you write. It can destroy you.
Readers' comments have nearly destroyed her and it's awful. She's my staff member and I can't do much to help her. She's kind and hard-working and always willing to attack a story or take on a tough assignment. She wrote the tattoo piece as a counterpoint to another staff writer's piece on why she gets tattoos. In her zeal to win the argument, perhaps she got carried away. ...
What has baffled me more than anything is how much people care about this issue. Last month, we reported that this university gave money illegally to (then) County Executive Chris Collins' political campaign and that UB President Satish K. Tripathi broke SUNY regulations. We got almost no response.
I respect people's attachment to their tattoos and the personal and emotional value they hold for many. But as a student hoping to make my career as a journalist, I would also like to believe that the public cares about issues that extend beyond themselves.
Related: How to respond when the Internet calls you names (Poynter)
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Feb. 3, 2012
7:54 am
Times ombud Brisbane agrees with readers on unwarranted intrusions:
“In cases where a victim’s privacy competes with the journalist’s desire to get the story, I often side with the victim … Journalists should do more to protect the privacy of victims, and worry less about missing an opportunity to match the story for their own publication. … I advocate erring on the side of privacy because we shouldn’t intrude further on others’ misfortune without a clear and overriding benefit to readers and because The Times’s reputation is better served by placing a victim’s privacy rights above other considerations.”
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New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane
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Steve Myers
Feb. 2, 2012
5:03 pm
The Sacramento Bee has suspended an award-winning photographer
for combining two photos of an egret eating a frog into one image, an ethical violation that Sean Elliot, president of the National Press Photographers Association, called a "betrayal."
Elliot said cases of photo manipulation like this chip away at all photojournalists' credibility with the public.
"If this photographer in Sacramento can diddle around with a photograph of an egret, how can I know that any photograph I look at is trustworthy?" he asked. "It feels like a betrayal. ... It violates a feeling of trust I think we have with all of our members."
The Bee didn't identify the photographer in question; Community Affairs Director Pam Dinsmore told me that the paper wasn't able to do so, or discuss the paper's response, because “it's not yet resolved.”
However, a
local TV station said it was Bryan Patrick, which Elliot confirmed. Patrick took the other images in the
Bee's photo gallery of the Galt Winter Bird Festival. (I was unsuccessful in reaching Patrick by email and phone.)
Kenny Irby, Poynter's faculty for photojournalism and diversity, said after looking at the photo that it wasn't hard to tell that it had been Photoshopped. "The vegetation in the image is what's a giveaway."
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Mallary Jean Tenore
Feb. 2, 2012
4:10 pm
Almost two months ago, the Associated Press launched StyleGuard, a style check plugin for Microsoft Word. The PC-only initial product has been tested by users
, with a Mac-compatible version planned for the summer. The pricing for individuals ranges from $34.99 to $49.99 through March 31. "A few people have commented that if it saved them from making one embarrassing error, it would be worth the money," said AP Stylebook Product Manager Colleen Newvine by email. Our edited Q&A follows.
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Feb. 2, 2012
1:11 pm
A new metaphor for online journalists: “information sherpa”
“The journalist as sherpa guides the info-mountaineer through the dizzying peaks and passes of the mountain of information, finding and presenting just the right information to help reach and stay on top of the mountain.”
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Bryan Murley, assistant professor of new and emerging media at Eastern Illinois University
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Steve Myers
Feb. 2, 2012
12:23 pm
The Huffington Post
A year after
AOL bought The Huffington Post for $315 million, Arianna Huffington has released figures showing how the site has performed in the last year. Monthly unique visits were at 36.2 million in December, an increase of 47 percent from a year earlier. Other figures:
- Comments in the last month: 6 million
- Comments on a single day: 253,331 (Jan 25, 2012)
- New commenters signing up per day: 5,500
- Social referrals in a month: 21.6 million (December 2011)
- Facebook referrals in a day: 1.4 million (January 4, 2012)
Huffington also announced the HuffPost Streaming Network, which "will live-stream 12 hours of original programming, 5 days a week, and repeating overnight. This will increase to 16 hours a day of original live programming by the end of 2013."
The network will be built around segments spotlighting the biggest, hottest, most engaging stories HuffPost is covering at any given moment and using them as the jumping-off points for conversations, commentary, and comedy. These segments will be as long -- or as short -- as they need to be. We won't be limited by the usual time constraints of TV. (more...)
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Julie Moos
Feb. 2, 2012
11:37 am
Everyone has a vote, and Donald Trump will tell the world in a few hours who will get his for the GOP presidential nomination. Speculation started Wednesday when he announced a news conference today. Very quickly, "sources" "confirmed" to journalists that Trump would endorse frontrunner Mitt Romney; "sources" also "confirmed" that he would endorse former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Here's how it looks on
Memeorandum:
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