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.
Media bullying: Alexandria Neason and Nausicaa Renner comment on media intimidation of Prof. Christine Blasey Ford.
“Journalists spend much of our professional lives wading through justifications for our subjects’ behavior and asking when has it crossed an ethical line,” they write. “This hearing shows the urgent need for us to examine our own.”
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.”
Fact-checking the NAFTA agreement: Daniel Funke writes about concerns over false and inaccurate claims about the North American Trade Agreement and American trade policy. President Trump threatened to end the agreement.
“The goal: Bring more attention to policy issues that don’t get enough attention in a 24-hour news cycle dominated by Trump coverage,” he writes.
Resisting information disorder: Julie Posetti and Cherilyn Ireton write journalists can push back against the scourge of fake news.
“Disinformation and misinformation go beyond challenging journalists’ reputations and safety,” they write. “They question their purpose and effectiveness, and they perpetuate the degradation of journalism to the detriment of civic discourse.”
Covering hurricanes: Kristen Hare and David Beard list ways to prepare for covering dangerous weather.
Such as: Plug in and charge everything you have and keep them charged. Bring pencils. Carry a lot of cash. Bring rubber boots. Wear sunscreen. Rent a car.
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.
Spotting fake Facebook posts: Keith Collins and Sheera Frenkel report that Facebook discovered hundreds of fake pages and user accounts this summer.
The New York Times reporters show real and deceptive posts, asking if you can tell which is fake. It isn’t easy.
The latest influence campaigns imitated post by legitimate pages and groups on Facebook that advocate political beliefs, they report, “amking it difficult to tell what was a genuine post and what was not.” Such campaigns also are known as online disinformation.
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.
Interviewing dishonest people: Jason Schwartz says a pressing question in the Trump era is how journalists should handle powerful news makers who are known to be dishonest.
The issue is complicated “and there are distinctions to be found between interviewing sources with checkered histories off-camera, grilling them on-air on a newsworthy subject and bringing them on simply as a talking head,” he writes.
