Get a horror writer to boost circulation: Portland Press Herald strikes a deal with Stephen King — get 100 digital subscriptions and the newspaper will restore freelance-written reviews of Maine books and authors in the Sunday edition. King delivers.
Using Twitter ethically: Twitter evolved from an oddity to a key tool for gathering and reporting news, writes David Craig.
Ethical pressure points: Handling unverified information, navigating between personal and professional boundaries and providing context and narrative structure. From the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives.
The hazards of fact-checking: Three media and law groups join to form the Fact-Checkers Legal Support Initiative to fend off attacks on fact-checkers.
“Many are being threatened with lawsuits and often do not have the resources to defend themselves,” says FLSI.
Threats include online harassment and physical violence by those exposed in the public arena for misinformation.
Morality clauses: Writers find them in their contracts, writes Judith Shulevitz, but “immorality is a slippery concept,” like “public disrepute.” The public is fickle in what it takes umbrage at.
“Times change, norms change with them. Morality clauses hand the power to censor to publishers, not the government, so they don’t violate the constitutional right to free speech. But that power is still dangerous.”
Ethics quiz: If a man tells media that he will jump off a bridge, are journalists obligated to stop him? Is that becoming part of the story?
From Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives. Media mistakes.
Ethics quiz: A managing editor discovers his city hall reporter is having an affair with the mayor.
If you were the editor, what would you do? The editor called the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists for help. We’ve been there.
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.
A symphony way to rescue journalism: Some cities are going to adopt this non-profit, community-based model to rescue journalism outlets or create new ones, predicts Bill Grueskin.
“Symphonies depend on ticket sales and a few retail sales, but they can’t survive without philanthropy.”
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.”
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 