Getting an assist
The University of Oregon, led by star Sabrina Ionescu, has a pretty good women’s basketball team. But it took an upset of No. 1-seed Mississippi State to make the Final Four. Now it’s taking some quick thinking and ingenuity for the school’s independently-run student newspaper to send reporters across the country to cover the team as it goes for its first national championship.
The paper started a GoFundMe page, hoping to raise $1,500 to send three reporters to Tampa, site of the women’s Final Four. In less than 24 hours, it had already well surpassed its goal, although cost of the trip is piling up.
“It’s so rewarding that people responded,” Maggie Vanoni, who has covered the Ducks all season as a sports reporter of the Daily Emerald, told me. “It’s really great that people responded like this for women’s basketball.”
Vanoni will attend this weekend’s Final Four, along with associate sports editor Shawn Medow and reporter Sierra Webster.
Oregon’s first two victories came in their own gym, meaning the student reporters, all seniors, didn’t have to travel. The next two victories came in Portland, close enough for them to drive. Before their team beat Mississippi State on Sunday, the reporters purchased three airline tickets to Tampa before fares went up. The tickets cost $600 round trip. Counting airfare, hotels, food and incidentals, Vanoni estimates it will cost the paper about $3,000 to cover the Final Four. The paper already hosted a fundraiser earlier this year at a local pizza parlor and raised $700.
“We’ve been covering this team all season,” Vanoni said, “so it will be nice to cover them in the Final Four. We’re thrilled to be going and it’s the right thing to do.”
April 2 > April 1
Today is International Fact-Checking Day. Here is Poynter’s Mel Grau:
Farewell, April Fools’ Day. Today is International Fact-Checking Day, and the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) is once again coordinating activities and amplifying resources that empower global citizens of all ages to sort fact from fiction.
“In our interconnected society, misinformation knows no borders,” said Baybars Örsek, the new director of the IFCN. “International Fact-Checking Day is all about teaching the tools and methods that fact-checkers use to fight for the truth to the average person so they can be more critical consumers of information.”
The hub for International Fact-Checking Day activities is FactCheckingDay.com, with more than 170 fact-checking resources in 15 languages. Poynter’s two other fact-checking organizations — PolitiFact and MediaWise — will celebrate with special fact-checking content on Reddit, YouTube, Snapchat and Facebook. Follow along using #factcheckingday.
North to Alaska
NBC’s Al Roker, reporting from Utqiagvik, Alaska. (Photo courtesy NBC News)
NBC’s Al Roker is in Utqiagvik, Alaska covering climate change. He was there for Monday’s “Today” show, as well as this morning’s.
“We’re going there because Alaska is warming twice as fast as the rest of the continental United States,” Roker said in a statement. “It literally is ground zero for where climate change is happening.”
Utqiagvik is the northern-most city in Alaska. When Roker arrived there March 30, the temperature was 33 degrees, which was a record high for that day and 36 degrees above average. NBC said that would be like Miami being 117 degrees on the same day.
“We’re going to be taking part in scientific experiments,” Roker said, “and looking at how … the folks there in Utqiagvik may become the first climate change refugees in our country because the landscape is changing so quickly.”
NBC isn’t the only network focusing on climate stories. CBS’s “60 Minutes” traveled to the Siberian Arctic to report on efforts to bring back “pieces of the Ice Age” to combat climate change.
Open Florida
“Florida man” stories: catch-alls about some of the bizarre things that happen in Florida with headlines that usually feature a “Florida man” doing something wild, such as getting in a fight over a straw or throwing an alligator through a drive-thru window. The rest of the country gets a big kick out of Florida’s strangeness, but Poynter’s Al Tompkins wrote last week that Florida man is not always all that funny.
There could be another reason behind the flood of “Florida man” stories, according to Treasure Coast Newspapers columnist Gil Smart. Florida has some of the most open public record laws in the country and an abundance of really good journalists. Smart writes that documents, photos and videos created by a public agency are readily available to the media.
Smart writes:
“When I came to Florida and realized what journalists could get, I was astonished. You mean, law enforcement provides you with this info as a matter of course, without complaining or throwing roadblocks in your way or claiming it’s crucial info in an investigation?
Yep.
And this, more than any other reason, is why ‘Florida man’ exists.”
Maddow’s big quarter?
According to MSNBC, Rachel Maddow’s show was the No. 1 cable news program among the valuable demographic of adults ages 25 to 54. From Dec. 31, 2018, to March 28, 2019, Maddow’s show averaged 552,000 in the 25-54 category, compared to 542,000 for Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
But Forbes reports MSNBC might have jumped the gun in declaring Maddow’s first-quarter victory.
Growing weary
Here’s Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds:
2019 is a year when many households are evaluating how much they spend monthly on subscriptions and cutting back. The focus is not only entertainment sites like Netflix and Spotify. Publication expenditures are likely to get a good look, too. Not a happy development for newspapers and magazines counting on reader revenues to grow as print advertising declines continue.
Equal Pay Day
Today is Equal Pay Day and the NewsGuild-CWA continues to ask why women and people of color, on average, are paid less than their white, male counterparts at news organizations.
In a Guild memo to Poynter, several members commented on the pay disparities.
“It was stunning news to find out that my pay isn’t comparable to some of my colleagues,” said Melanie Burney, education reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Absolutely stunning. Initially my concern was personal. But this is one of the most pressing civil rights issues of the day for women and journalists of color. We want to be paid based on the content of our journalism and not the color of our skin. We’re still fighting.”
In a statement, the Guild wrote, “Pay inequities have contributed to a surge in unionizing at news organizations over the last few years, including at publications as varied as the Chicago Tribune, the Hartford Courant, the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Massachusetts.
“Reporters, editors, photographers, and other news industry employees have learned that one of the best ways to fight for equal pay is to join a union. Collective bargaining gives workers a way to stand together, share information, and address inequality in their workplace.’’
Daniela Altimari, politics reporter at the Hartford Courant, said, “The whole issue of pay is shrouded in mystery. That’s an advantage for the company. It’s hard to assess if we’re being paid fairly and whether there are discrepancies based on gender. Not knowing is the big issue.”
Journalists under attack
The One Free Press Coalition, a group of prominent editors and publishers, has issued its “10 Most Urgent” list of journalists whose press freedoms are being suppressed.
The list, in no particular order, includes:
- The late Miroslava Breach Velducea, correspondent at La Jornada, Mexico
- Maria Ressa, founder of Rappler, The Philippines
- Tran Thi Nga, prominent human rights blogger, Vietnam
- Azimjon Askarov, award-winning journalist, Kyrgyzstan
- Rana Ayyub, an independent journalist, India
- Miguel Mora and Lucia Pineda Ubau, journalists at 100% Noticias, Nicaragua
- Anna Nimiriano, editor of Juba Monitor, South Sudan
- Amade Abubacar, radio journalist, Mozambique
- Claudia Duque, a veteran investigative reporter, Colombia
- Osman Mirghani, editor-in-chief of Al-Tayar, Sudan
Check it out
I normally despise April Fools stories, but you gotta admire Los Angeles Times food columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson for this takedown of New York City and The New York Times.
CNN’s Oliver Darcy on Facebook’s plan to launch a trustworthy news section.
Ever think of pitching a story to Deadspin (or any other outlet)? Deadspin’s Tom Ley tells you how to do it.
A fan was attacked and severely injured outside of Dodger Stadium over the weekend. Tuhe San Francisco Chronicle’s Ron Kroichick just last week wrote about Bryan Stow, a Giants fan who suffered brain damage from a 2011 attack outside of Dodger Stadium.
Editor & Publisher’s list of 25 under 35 in newspapers.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
Upcoming Poynter training:
- Digital Tools to Improve Your Workweek (webinar). April 11 at 2 p.m. ET
- Broadcast Writing 101: Write Like You Talk (webinar). April 18 at 2 p.m. ET
Want to get this briefing in your inbox? Sign up here.
