Does journalism matter? The public no longer reads us and politicians dismiss us, says Kyle Pope.
“Here’s the bottom line,” he writes. “We do these stories because we believe in something even bigger than what will become of them.”
They are important. Readers deserve to know them. They get us closer to truth. They’re the right thing to do.
Feminist fact-finding: Daniel Funke describes a project “going after false claims and online information about gender issues” in Europe.
“FemFacts is aimed at tackling some of the false narratives about women published by European media,” Funke writes.
Twitter pros and cons: A research article by Shannon McGregor and Logan Molyneux reports that Twitter affects journalists’ news judgment, leading to “pack journalism”
Upside is “a wider array of voices into the mainstream news agenda.”
Twitter plays a key role in journalistic practices, they write. “Twitter’s growing centrality in the news process warrants greater scrutiny from journalists and scholars.”
Media focus needed on climate change: Margaret Sullivan writes that a week of dire news conceals the urgency of a United Nations report on global warming.
“Just as the smartest minds in earth science have issued their warning, the best minds in media should be giving sustained attention to how to tell this most important story in a way that will create change,” she writes.
Hostile media effect: John Davis cites a media expert on public bias toward political reports.
“Hostile media effect involves people who are on opposite sides of an issue who both believe the same report is biased against their own point of view,” writes Davis. News consumers should think about political news stories from a less partisan viewpoint.
PBS editor quits, dismayed: Sydney Smith reports that departing public editor Mahulika Sikka found the public does not understand PBS.
“During my time as public editor at PBS,” she told Smith, “I was most struck by the fact that most people don’t understand the system, how it was set up, how it works, the fact that PBS is not a network and doesn’t produce content, and the fact that each station is locally run in order to serve the community it is part of.”
Journalism’s top problems: Jay Rosen lists challenges that torment journalists, including a right-wing populist wave across the U.S. and Europe that views the mainstream press as corrupt and elitist.
“In the United States the president is leading a hate movement against journalism,” Rosen writes. He also finds that discovering a business model that can sustain a quality newsroom is the industry’s biggest problem, but journalism schools are not designed for that.
Toronto Star updates standards: Sydney Smith describes new guidelines that mesh long-standing principles with current digital realities.
New policies call for greater transparency, labels for news and opinion and reluctance to unpublish except for rare circumstances.
The many names of marijuana: Caren Lissner writes that “as more journalists cover the (legalized marijuana) industry, worth billions of dollars, many have had to scrutinize the synonyms and slang they use — often at the urging of merchants.”
Sellers say the word “marijuana” has a dark history, while “pot” is objectionable and “weed” is too informal for a substance with medical applications.
Staying sane in a news storm: Margaret Sullivan gives seven tips to keep your cool in a hot mess, including:
“Take a break. The news never stops, so put down your phone, turn off your TV and do something else for a few hours. Cook a meal, take a walk, go to a yoga class, read a 19th-century novel.
“Of course, there’s a downside. Chances are that when you come back, some fresh mess will have hit the fan. But at least your heart rate will be lower — for a minute — while you catch up.”
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 