Posting News Online: Same Rules Apply
Journalism may be at the crossroads in its figurative future, but that doesn’t mean journalistic standards are too, especially online standards. In an article entitled Online Standards versus Journalistic Standards, the “Ten Commandments of News,” include:
1) Lie in print or on the air
2) Lie to threaten a source
3) Report rumors or other unverified information
4) Suppress or omit opinion with which one disagrees
5) Show favoritism or personal bias in one’s reporting or writing.
6) Misrepresent oneself or use deception to get a story
7) Plagiarize words or ideas
8) Tap or tape telephone conversations without permission
9) Use one’s positioning for personal gain (i.e. accepting gifts from sources)
10) Do anything that may be construed as a “conflict of interest”
According to the same article, online news confuses the boundary between gossip and news, saying that sometimes reporters are tempted to “blur the lines” so to speak. With the proliferation of blogs and bloggers, many individuals are taking their views to the web. Sad to say, many of these individuals show little regard for facts, posting what they “believe” to be fact, which is in reality only gossip. It’s also sad to say, that these gross misrepresentations leave a bad mark on the journalism profession. So, what’s to be done?
Internet or not, there are still standards to follow. These standards are called “Netiquette”. These rules are for EVERYBODY that considers themselves to be web users. They are as follows (courtesy of Online Standards versus Journalistic Standards)
1) Remember the human
2) Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
3) Know where you are in cyberspace
4) Respect other people’s time and bandwidth
5) Make youself look good online
6) Share expert knowledge
7) Help keep flame wars under control
8) Respect other people’s privacy
9) Don’t abuse your power
10) Be forgiving of other people’s mistakes
Neighbors Go isn’t all Go!
Jason Castro on Neighborsgo.com
The idea? Great! What better way to build readership in a dying industry than to devote content to the events of one’s backyard. It’s like blogging only in print form. That, and it’s more factual. There’s a team of editors that edit the content that those “neighbors” submit to Neighbors Go. The problem starts when those neighbors are doing most of the writing and not the journalists themselves. Sure, newspapers as we know them are an archaic and dying form, but that doesn’t mean that journalism is. After all, a journalist’s job is to “seek the truth and report it.” Yes, there is a thing called “citizen journalism,” but they in no way compensate for the job trained journalists can do. Neighbors Go needs more STAFF writers reporting on stories in the communities. While the idea that ordinary citizens can submit their stories to the newspaper is a new and fresh approach, those stories should be then covered by an experienced professional who will act as the neutral man. When people are submitting only their stories, it defeats many of the standards set in journalism. Conflict of interest and maintaining a neutral stance are a few of the journalism standards that come to mind. After all, they’re submitting stories that THEY want to be covered, which can be a good and bad thing. On one hand, it’s a good way of knowing what interests readers. On the other hand, why does this person want this story covered? So they can scrapbook the article about their little boy losing his first tooth? Save it for the blogs.
Oh Barbie, Barbie? Wherefore Art Thou Barbie?
Pink. That’s her favorite color. Pink stilettos. Pink taffeta gowns. Pink handbags. Pink convertibles. Pink everything.
Pretty in Pink. 2009 Holiday Barbie
She’s the envy of women alike with her perfect waist, long legs, shapely torso, flowing hair and perfectly sized tattas. For little girls, the Barbie aisle was princess land. All the dolls, with their perfectly painted faces and dainty outfits peering out from behind plastic cartons. “Pick me! Pick me little one,” they’d whisper. “I’ll teach you to imagine. I’ll teach you to pretend.”
They taught girls to act out the life they dreamed, the life they imagined for themselves outside of being the odd one out on the playground at lunchtime. As a grown up, somehow the doll aisle doesn’t quite evoke the same feelings. Maybe it’s because as a grown up, we’re acting out real life, as ugly as it may be, we’re living it. As a grown up we realize that the life we imagined for ourselves isn’t always the life we end up with. Bills, full-time career and college loans to pay back aren’t exactly something a 10-year-old imagines as she prepares Barbie for her wedding extravaganza. Those things don’t exist in Barbie land. Happily every after is the only vocabulary Barbie knows. Barbie only knows perfect in her perfect pink ball gown, perfect pink slippers and perfect golden hair.
But if hope is what keeps Barbie as the reigning queen of doll sales, then she must be doing something right. Mattel had the right idea when they invented her in the 1950s.
Elections and the News
The Presidential elections of 2008 sparked “unprecedented interest within the electorate” according to findings in the Pew Internet & American Life Project. According to the same article, 46 percent of Americans used the Internet to get their political news and to share their viewpoints with others. The Pew Internet study compared the 2008 election to the election of 2004, marking key differences between how users got their content and how they shared that content with others. One noteable change was in the growth of social networking. Many interested viewers used Facebook and MySpace for political activity. Blogging was another area to grow.
In light of the 2009 elections, I reviewed the USA TODAY, one of the top 25 newspapers in the United States and analyzed their political news sections.
The article entitled, “Off-year elections will test Democrats’ Influence,” caught my attention for the mere reason that in the 2008 election, younger voters gravitated more towards the Democratic party, according to the Pew Internet study. The article was informative and they had links to social networking sites both along the right hand side of the column and at the bottow of the page. These included links to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, MySpace, Reddit, and many others. At the very top of the page, there were a number of videos relating to the political elections that interested readers could watch. There was also a link to sign up for E-mail newsletters from the USA TODAY which would allow new content to be delivered straight to an interest viewers E-mail inbox.
For the most part, the political news content followed Pew’s recommendations minus the use of charts and graphics. Aside from the links to social networking sites, there weren’t many other interactive tools that were used.
Anchorage Daily News
The Anchorage Daily News, incorporates a variety of multimedia devices into its online site.
For starters, on the “Home” page, there is an entire tab devoted to all things multimedia, e.g. slideshows, video, etc. The slideshows are sorted into different categories ranging from “Wildlife” to “Military”. These pictures are high quality and capitivating. They are rich in action, emotion, detail and they take the viewer to the scene of the action, whether that’s boating with a sea of whales or sitting in the living room of Lauren Bretz, the wife of a soldier deployed in Iraq. In the latter case, the slideshow incorporates narrative that guides the reader from scene to scene, explaining the action as it occurs.
The videos on the site could use some work. With a more “home video” feel, they are lacking in strength and depth of coverage. They footage is rocky, with bad scene lighting and shoddy coverage of the assigned material. Take for instance this video (WARNING! It’s graphic). With better audio, visual details, and camera skills, the video could be vastly improved giving more power to the subject matter. If the videos are weak, than viewers will stray to a site that has more reputable content.
Youth Violence on the Streets of Chicago
It’s coined the name “urban terrorism” and it’s taken Chicago and the youths in it by force.
Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old student at Fenger High School, was on his way home from school when he was brutally beaten by a group of youths.
Derrion is now another statistic to add to the growing rate of youth violence: violence spawned by what’s being called “urban terrorism” or “youth lynching”. This year alone, 40 children under the age of 18, have been murdered in Chicago.
Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune. Copyrighted by Abel Uribe
“There’s a lot of frustration and there’s a lot of pain right now–there should be,” said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. after speaking in a neighborhood where another 16-year-old was beaten to death.
But Chicago’s not alone in the map of teen violence. According to a study released by the Justice Department, this problem extends across the country.
Multimedia Storytelling Giveth Life
Multimedia journalism goes beyond the traditional framework that many newspapers still find themselves mucking around in. It embraces new age media and the web by handing over the remote to the reader. They get to pick what they want to engage in and read.
Take for instance Lansing State Journal and its interactive web series entitled “Unmasking the Violence.” Farrah Fawcett’s bloodied, half-beaten face as she nervously nibbles on her fingernail are in themselves curiosity inducing, especially given her recent death. The multimedia’s series opens with, “The Burning Bed:” the true story of Francine Hughes and the murder that marked a turning point in the crusade against violence.
Picture provided by Lansing State Journal
The narrative in itself is captivating– full of lush and descriptive images, it provides the framework for a journey. Also included in the story are commentary from other violence victims, pictures, statistics, a panel discussion and a host of other interactive tools for readers to become more engaged in the story. Interactive elements keep readers glued to the page instead of searching elsewhere for the information. When the content is relevant, fresh, imaginative, and appetizing, readers are more likely to feast on the banquet you present.
Multimedia storytelling takes away the “skin and bones” structure that newspapers serve up on their silver platter. It takes away the bones and leaves in its place a plethora of meat lathered in the creative juices that good writing aptly needs to be remembered. Multimedia devices allow journalism to shine in all its glory. It takes it back to its roots. After all, journalists are narrators and their stories have the ability to bring about great change in the world. More is needed than just bare “skeleton” stories–life is needed and that’s what multimedia devices bring to the table. They bring that extra “oomph” with pictures, voices, videos, dialogue and music.
Could Crowdsourcing Outsource Professionals?
October 1, 2009
Crowdsourcing, as defined by Jeff Howe, is, “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually and employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.”
With an economic decline that’s been described as the worst since the great depression, more and more journalists are getting laid off at major newspapers. Blogging is on the rise with more people taking their views to the internet, these of which often producing a plethora of fresh ideas. Amateur photographers with only a camera, computer, and photoshop are producing photographs that rival professional’s work. Sites like istockphoto.com, are outsourcing professional photographers by offering quality photographs for pennies below the cost professionals charge. With this new market, how can professional newspapers use this crowd of sources which are only a click away?
As part of this assignment, I reviewed a story published by the Los Angeles Times entitled, “New-car sales fall at Ford, Nissan as ‘cash for clunkers’ ends,” and reviewed the areas where the writer could have used crowdsourcing.
As there were no pictures for the story, the writer could have benefited from the istockphoto.com site by purchasing a few general photos of cars. Included in these photos could have been a shot of cars at a dealership or a couple purchasing a vehicle.
The writer could have also benefited from Twitter by getting in contact with those who had taken their views and experiences from ‘Cash for Clunkers’ to the Internet. There are a lot of people who are eager and willing to relate their experiences and sites like Twitter and Facebook can be a good start.
These are just a few of the many ways that newspapers can harness the power of crowdsourcing, while still maintaining proper journalistic standards.
Crowdsourcing will never outsource the need for professionals because in the end, people still want that trust and accuracy guaranteed by professionals.
