The Society of Professional Journalists links to an interview with an MIT professor who’s studying misinformation on social media (which is not the same thing as bad journalism — some bad actors take journalism out of context in order to deceive). Responsible journalists are aware that sensational headlines can harm the public. The truth is…
CNN’s Stephen Collinson praises the president’s Monday press conference. This version of Donald Trump will save lives. The President offered Americans something they have rarely seen from him in his latest and most somber press conference yet on the coronavirus pandemic on Monday. He dispensed unimpeachable information based on fact. He called for national unity and…
Those mean fake news people at the Washington Post are at it again, this time pushing a series of four simulations that vividly illustrate the impact of social distancing. Where do they get off, creating clear and informative graphics to illustrate a scientific principle? What do they think they’re doing, some kind of public service?…
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People typically think of soap as gentle and soothing, but from the perspective of microorganisms, it is often extremely destructive. A drop of ordinary soap diluted in water is sufficient to rupture and kill many types of bacteria and viruses, including the new coronavirus that is currently circling the globe. The secret to soap’s impressive…
Traditional journalism aims for neutrality. My social media feed includes voices attacking journalists for for unfairly criticizing a president they support, and voices attacking journalists for uncritically repeating what the president says. But part of journalism does include sharing opinions (in editorials, roundtables, etc.). And part of journalism does call for neutrally reporting what newsmakers…
A Chinese media personality with over half a million followers reports on the Coronavirus outbreak from inside Wuhan. Gripping audio news reporting. What happens when a Chinese man—just a guy, not a journalist or dissident—decides to go to Wuhan and investigate the country’s response to coronavirus? Reporter Jiayang Fan brings us the story. Similar:Tolkien v.…
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Fascinating, and very sad, story behind an iconic National Geographic photo. McCurry wanted to take more pictures but Sharbat Gula fled. No part of the written story mentioned her narrative or even her name (which McCurry did not care to find out). He did not take her consent or her father’s to publish the image.…
People who caught the sites plagiarizing began speculating about the motivations of whoever was running them. One person noticed that their Google Alerts for Julian Assange were flooded with results from the sites, leading them to warn that “cyber marketing tools are being used in the propaganda war against #WikiLeaks.” One researcher labeled the network of sites…
Here’s an editorial by someone who feels a heck of a lot more optimistic than I do right now. The free press fostered and protected by the genius of the First Amendment has let Americans know the truth, if they wish to. They can see the facts and the process, and they will be shaped…
Peter and I spoke to a reporter from EpochTimes.com after the Shen Yun show yesterday. I said I was interested to hear the group’s message in favor of religious freedom, and was surprised to encounter the anti-Communist stance. After I found this picture on the EpochTimes.com website, I scanned through its news feed and noted…
My social media feed was full of people mocking the White House yesterday for publishing a photo titled “First snow of the year!” on a day when Washington had clear skies and freakishly warm weather. What was the Trump administration trying to pull? Why would they publish such a blatant lie? It wasn’t a lie.…
After FB crowed about this super-upbeat story, a notice appeared saying it was a paid editorial, and then the story disappeared. This looks very bad for Teen Vogue, and very bad for democracy. Read story on Boingboing. Similar:Another 10 sq cm of #steampunk control panel. Trying to add a subtle pattern to the light-…One of…
Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy. Some basic concepts: What is Newsworthy? Recent events that are unusual, nearby, have widespread/significant impact, or involve celebrities are more newsworthy than events that are stale, distant, have limited/trivial impact, or happen to average people. (9 min audio.) Objectivity: Traditional journalism reports fairly…
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Critical thinking skills and basic textual analysis are increasingly important in a cultural landscape where the powerful are counting on the average person not caring about such things as the truth. Biden opened by talking about how English common law in the 1300s allowed for husbands to beat their wives, and then said that we…
It was supposed to be a county budget meeting in Chattooga County, Ga., last Friday — but before it could even begin, the county commissioner’s wife stormed in and dumped a soda on a reporter’s head. The shocking moment, captured partially on video, stunned the room into silence. Chattooga County Sole Commissioner Jason Winters’s…
In December 1999, I was blogging about: The death of Joseph Heller (author of Catch-22, which invented the term) “On the Internet, every page is hot off the presses… or could be, if editors and publishers simply realized that ‘[i]nteractive media eliminates the holy deadline.’ What’s left over feels more like gardening.” Dot-coms hiring journalists,…