E-Media Tidbits

In case you haven't been following the conversation, there's been an interesting thread of comments to my earlier article, Let's Link to Legislation.

Some papers are doing a good job of empowering readers by citing and linking to legislation. For instance, Chris Hopkins, online news editor for The Olympian, noted: "For the past two state Legislative sessions [we] regularly have linked to the full text of legislation. We also provide a form for people to look up bills themselves."

Hopkins cites this example: 'Stellar' session for environment. Notice that the cites and links to the legislation are not in the body of the story, but in a sidebar section called "Web links." That's a step forward. Personally I think the links should be in the body of the story itself, since that's more intuitive for the reader. Still, this is a positive move.

Meanwhile, Nancy Charron noted that the Wilmington (DE) News Journal publishes a daily Legislative Record for each day the state General Assembly is in session. "The Record includes the bill number, the name of the prime sponsor, a plain English description, its committee assignment, the vote on passage or defeat and how each lawmaker voted and if the governor signed the bill or vetoed it. [It] also directs readers to how they can obtain more information and copies of bills."

Example: The News Journal's June 30 Legislative Record. This also is a positive step forward, although I think it would be even more helpful if the bill numbers were direct links to the bill text.

And Russ Walker of washingtonpost.com noted, "You're right -- it's pretty easy to link to legislation, and the Library of Congress site is close to current (there can be delays of several days or even a week in the availability of a bill's full text). In defense of my employer, we go to great lengths to include links to relevant documents in our stories (see High Court Rejects Detainee Tribunals), and we have a database of every congressional vote going back to 1991."

In a subsequent comment, Walker said, "As for linking to bills, I think it's a great idea. We just need to automate it OR create a process whereby stories are tagged with relevant bill numbers by reporters, editors or the copy desk. We're looking to do more contextual linking in our stories -- links to documents, past stories, other Web sites etc. The key, as I said above, is making it a routine task at both the print and online operations."

I agree: the key is making it a routine task. Which shouldn't be that hard, right? I mean, reporters already have to routinely check the spelling of names and party affiliation of representatives and senators, so why not note the correct bill number while you're at it?

Maybe consider it a simple but powerful way to spread the spirit of Sunshine Week year-round.