Celebrity death hoaxes: Daniel Funke and Alexios Mantzarlis report that celebrity deaths are a popular subgenre of misinformation and offer 15 fact-checking links.
“At a time when we are at pains to distinguish ‘real news’ from ‘fake news,’ falling for these shallow fabrications undermines the argument,” they write.
Taxing tech giants to save journalism: Aiden White writes about a British proposal to fund public interest journalism.
In the end, journalism must rely on combination therapy, he writes, including traditional advertising, public subscription, charitable donations and philanthropic largess and new funds.
Stress management training for reporters: Tiffany Stevens writes that reporters covering tragic events might suffer depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder or greater risk of substance abuse.
“Even journalists who don’t experience secondary trauma may lose enthusiasm for their profession or undergo burnout, leading to less productivity and a decreased sense of well-being at work,” she writes.
Guarding against online trolls: James Ball reports that journalistic thoughtfulness often “goes out the door when it comes to reporting events that begin on social media.”
Online celebrities and people on the internet often are manipulators with agendas, Ball writes.
“And journalists fall into their trap, time and time again; something about online messaging turns off our reporting instincts.”
Images and false portrayals: Rick Paulas reports that KTVU apologized for using an image from a murder victim’s Facebook account.
The news media often treat subjects differently according to race, writes Paulas, portraying black families as living in poverty and being involved in crime. This has “real-life consequences” and sways attitudes.
Public reaction on a heavy news day: Ariel Edwards-Levy reports Huffpost survey results during a day of presidential setbacks.
“Some were raptly following the latest political setbacks,” writes Edwards-Levy. “Others were burned out, overwhelmed or uninterested or just didn’t trust the media.”
To journalists, it was “all-consuming.”
Good news on media trust: Indira Lakshmanan and Rick Edmonds report that trust in media scored higher since last year and “the great majority of Americans trust their local news sources.”
A Poynter Media Trust survey finds “that the president’s attempts to discredit the news may be having less effect a year and a half into his presidency.”
Media audiences drop, except radio: Michael Barthel reports Pew Research Center findings for every major sector of the U.S. news media for 2017.
“Radio was the only sector studied that did not show an audience decline, by several measures,” writes Barthel. Newspapers, cable TV, network TV, local TV and digital-native news were all down by five to 15 percent.
Seven steps for a free press: “Let’s help people imagine, just for a second, a world without their regular news sources,” write Melody Kramer and Betsy O’Donovan, who propose news blackouts.
Rebuild a national belief that journalism is a public service, they write, not public enemy number one. News organizations must work together to do that.
Readers ruffled by New York Times story on Los Angeles: Sydney Smith reports that two New York Times travel editors apologized for painting Los Angeles as “the source of all useless items in the world,” including Jesus statues.
Readers thought the article “dismissive of Latino culture and cliched in its portayal of the city.” This was considered offensive.
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 