Media jumping to conclusions: The story about an encounter between Covington Catholic students and a Native American elder went global, and many in the media got it wrong.
“What responsible journalists do in such instances is exactly what they did here,” writes Kelly Hawes. “They keep reporting. They keep asking questions. They keep searching for the truth. When they’re wrong, they admit it. And they set the record straight.”
Justifying photos of death: New York Times photos of a terror attack on a Nairobi hotel, leaving 21 dead, were called distasteful, writes Eyder Peralta.
The Times responds that “it is important to give our readers a clear picture of the horror of an attack like this,” adding that the pictures were not sensationalized but give a real sense of the situation.
Vanishing media ombudsmen: The Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists laments the loss of sharp-eyed ombudsmen and media writers like Margaret Sullivan.
“You’d think an ombudsman would be most useful in a time of change, especially in a time of budget-cutting and layoffs — just to be sure the public interest is served, and the quality of journalism is strong,” says a story in AdviceLine’s archives.
Cloud cyberattacks growing: Businesses can fail to identify risks and control them, writes Aseem Rastogi.
“While cloud service providers are responsible for protecting the cloud infrastructure,” he writes, “customers must monitor other vulnerabilities as attackers will look for easy targets…. Integrated or unified solutions that provide visibility across the organization’s services could be the best defense.”
Editors acting unethically: A web editor tells the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists that her boss is pressuring her to mention an advertiser in a story. She is thinking of quitting.
From a story in AdviceLine archives by David Craig.
New media funding strategies: Media seek editorial independence with grants, donations, cryptocurrency and investors, writes Jack Kelly.
“Decreases in advertising revenue have left media organizations looking for new sources of income and, in some cases, turning to completely new funding models,” he writes.
Sponsored content: All newspapers struggle to survive, observed Tom Rosensteil in a story appearing in the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives.
Sponsored content might be the future of newspapers trying to be creative about finding new sources of revenue, he says.
Dubious polling: Poll results last year on presidential approval, the Mueller investigation, elections, politics and other issues were suspect, writes David W. Moore.
“Getting the news organizations to change their copious coverage of polls would be as difficult as…well, rolling a boulder up a mountain,” he writes.
Protecting sources: Best practices to minimize risks to whistle-blowers require new tactics, writes Joshua Benton, including a mix of digital and “human” practices.
He cites “The Perugia Principles for Journalists Working with Whistle-Blowers in the Digital Age.”
Reporting data with integrity: When inspecting raw data and statistics, writes Stephen Rynkiewicz, these are questions to ask:
Is it accurate? Is it timely? Is it relevant? Is it complete? Is it trustworthy?
From the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives.
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 