Reporting tragedy — the “death knock:”
“Each person a journalist contacts may react differently: slam a door in their face, break down in tears or welcome the chance to speak about a loved one,” writes Laura Hardy. “A journalist needs to be prepared for every possible scenario.”
Editorial cartoon ethics: iMediaEthics noticed a growing debate over cartoon ethics, and published 11 controversial cartoons of 2018.
Four of the cartoonists were fired. Publications apologized for some of them, and stood by others. The cartoons focused on politics, sports and tragedies.
The truth sandwich: Repeating a lie helps it to live on, writes Craig Newmark.
“I predict that, in 2019, news organizations will start to institute new reporting methods to avoid being complicit. Tactics may include adopting the ‘truth sandwich,’ which means covering a lie by presenting the truth first and then following that lie with a fact-check, as well as increasing newsroom capacity to check claims for accuracy in real time, prior to publishing a story.”
News dying, not journalism: News is losing its cultural relevance after two centuries, writes Hossein Derakhshan.
“The challenge for journalism in the years to come is to reinvent itself around something other than news, whilst resisting the seduction of propaganda and entertainment,” he writes.
“Innovation in journalism should not only be about business models or technology, it should be also about radically new culture forms and representation formats.”
Social media tops print as news source: For the first time, more Americans get news from social media than print newspapers, says the Pew Research Center.
Overall, television still is the most popular platform for news consumption, writes Elisa Shearer. Age gaps widen in media preferences. Print’s popularity persists among ages 65 and older. Younger Americans are not wed to one platform.
Advice to aspiring journalists: “Most journalists are, whether they think of themselves this way or not, explainers,” writes David Roberts.
“They are in the business of making sense of the torrent of information constantly deluging us all.”
Bottom line: “There are many different ways to do good journalism, but there is no way of becoming a good journalist that does not involve learning, trying and practicing: Doing the work.”
Scalp headline an ethical lapse: Native American Journalists Association criticizes a newspaper for reference to genocidal practices.
“Referring to the act of scalping Indigenous people violates the dignity of men, women and children that were victims of the practice,” says the association.
“More importantly, such language downplays crimes now defined as genocide by human rights observers and glorifies such racially-motivated acts by ignoring context at the expense of Indigenous people.”
Feeling trapped in media filter bubbles: We’re not, writes Laura Hazard Owen.
“We use our consumption of certain media outlets as a way of signaling who we are, even if we A) actually read across fairly broad number of sources and/or B) actually don’t read all that much political news at all,” she writes.
Denying coverage to Nazis: An Arkansas television station thinks about the news value in covering a Nazi rally, then decides to “give them silence,” writes Al Tompkins.
News director learns the protestors are not local, protesting an issue of no local importance.
A future technology guide: Farhad Manjoo offers three maxims for surviving the next era of technology.
Look at who’s making a product, choose the indie brand and don’t jump on the newest thing. “Go slow.”
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 