Tag: About News
Student Journalists Shine in Campus Protest Coverage
A student reporter at the Columbia Journalism School who is covering the campus protests there tweeted Wednesday that she was so overwhelmed that she had to quit … giving interviews to professional media. On this story playing out around the nation, it’s the campus media that are leading the way. Read more.
Do You Solemnly Swear to Smile for the Camera?
Very misleading subtitle on MSNBC a few days ago: “World watches Trump hush money trial.”
No, the world isn’t, because TV news cameras aren’t allowed in the courtroom. And they should be. Read more.
Did a reporter really ask that question?
It’s about five hours after a cargo ship hit the Key Bridge in Baltimore, collapsing it and sending six construction workers on the bridge into the water. The city’s mayor is holding a press conference when a reporter asks him: “How long is it going to take to rebuild the bridge?”
Calmly and immediately, the mayor responds: “We shouldn’t even be having that discussion right now. The discussion right now should be about the people, the souls, the lives that we’re trying to save. There will be a time to discuss about a bridge and how we get our bridge back up but right now there are people in the water that we have to get out.”
On social media, the mayor got mostly applause. The reporter got mostly ripped apart. One X poster wrote: “Shoutout to our mayor Brandon Scott for focusing on the people and showcasing empathy, because the nerve of that reporter to ask about the bridge repair. Like, sir read the (expletive) room.”
I understand why many people saw the reporter’s question as disrespectful to the victims. But I don’t have a problem with it. How about you? Read more.
Balance in Journalism Is Good … Until It Isn’t
Two alarming recent headlines:
• “Why the age issue is hurting Biden so much more than Trump” (New York Times, Feb. 10)
• “Public equally concerned about Biden’s and Trump’s classified documents, new poll finds” (nbcnews.com, Jan. 29)
In politics, public perceptions like these arise because many people magnify events that support their existing views and distort or ignore those that don’t. That’s not the fault of the mainstream news media. But in some cases when perception does not match reality, the media are very much to blame. Read more.
Journalists Can’t Let Horrors on the Job Get to Them
This post about the mental health effects of reporting on awful news stories kept getting delayed in favor of other timely topics because I figured another news peg would be right around the corner. A risky assumption it was not. Thursday, five journalists witnessed the state-administered suffocation death of an Alabama Death Row prisoner.
Few reporters go a career without having to report on a horrific event, such as a war, a mass shooting or even a violent crime with a single victim. According to the Columbia Journalism School’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, the psychological toll of seeing and hearing about the heinousness that people are capable of can include sleeplessness, unwelcomed recurring thoughts of the violence, a sense of impending doom and anger. Read more.
Not a Swift Move by Gannett
My application to become The (Nashville) Tennessean’s Taylor Swift beat reporter failed. That’s possibly because, as a person entrenched in his habits, I have never heard a Taylor Swift song*.
This is a real job, to the alarm of many serious journalists in the business. There’s also a Beyonce beat reporter position for hire. Read more.
A Media Ethics Case With a Tragic Consequence
Cynics may be surprised to learn that media codes of ethics exist and take more than 30 seconds to read. That’s because media wield tremendous power — power customarily used for the public good but sometimes misused to disastrous effect.
The Alabama news website 1819 News published a story Wednesday revealing, against his will, that F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station and the pastor of First Baptist Church of Phenix City, posted social media photos of himself dressed as a woman. This included lingerie pictures, and the story also said he offered online encouragement to people considering gender transition. Read more.
In Gaza Hospital Reports, the Crutch of Attribution Failed
Nothing sets up the news media for errors and remorse better than the bad combination of major breaking news and the immediate lack of information about that news. Audiences demand information pronto, and the media have zippo.
This was the case when an explosion occurred Oct. 17 at a Gaza City hospital. The New York Times soon posted this big, online headline: “Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say.” The headline went through several versions, including one that added “At Least 500 Dead.” The “Palestinians” in “Palestinians Say” was the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry. Other media around the globe produced similar headlines, including some with no attribution. Read more.
From a Bad Situation Comes a Powerful Defense of Local Journalism
“Most family newspaper sale announcements bear some variation of stock language regarding the new owner’s ability to ‘assume the families’ stewardship,’ ‘continue to provide strong local reporting,’ and ‘maintain the legacy’ of the selling family. Sadly, we feel that none of that will be true in our case.”
— George Lynett, publisher emeritus of Times-Shamrock Communications
Read more.
AI Spreads in Journalism. Remain Calm, Everyone.
The issue of how artificial intelligence programs will affect journalism is an interesting and complicated one. Some say they could have benefits. Others say they might be harmful. It depends on how they are used.
Did you think this was yet another article about AI for which the writer cleverly asked an AI program to write the lead? Fooled ya! This was actually my trying to write like an AI program.
Either way, pretty lame, eh?
The use of artificial intelligence in journalism is spreading rapidly, and debates over what newsrooms should and shouldn’t use it for are spreading even more rapidly. Read more.
