Journalists prefer the neutral “said” to attribute a source’s statements, opinions, and emotions. Using “claimed” generates doubt. Using “explained” confers trust. Flowery alternatives compete with the unbiased reporting of facts.
Similar:Being a deaf lipreader during a pandemic means increased social anxietyEven social events are a minefield. The …AcademiaI'm no longer surprised, but still want to document.This is really noteworthy. Today the Pre…Current_EventsHong Kong: journalist permanently blinded in one eye amid increased police violence A rubber bullet shot by the Hong Kon…Current_EventsSlashes in Legal WritingI’m…
Sometimes when I find myself putting more than a usual amount of creativity into a comment on a student paper, I take a break from churning through papers to make another meme.
“In the past, people fabricated content. There were ‘midnight flyers,’ which were pieces of propaganda usually sent out by candidates and put on the windshield of your car or under your door at home. And there were forms of content that contained serious misinformation in them. Sometimes they looked news-like and sometimes they didn’t,” explains…
A journalist’s response to President Trump’s early morning caps-imbued assault on the FAKE news media. Let’s be clear about what Trump is suggesting here. He wants the Senate intelligence committee to open an investigation into the “Fake News Networks” to get to the bottom of why so much of the news is “just made up.”…
Great behind-the-scenes story of the hard work that went into breaking the Tom Price private travel story. The first tip came from a casual conversation with a source back in May: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was using private jets for routine travel, possibly in violation of federal travel rules that allowed such flights…
In an opening lecture, I briefly listed the five freedoms Americans are guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Then I moved on. I quizzed them the next week, and they didn’t do too well. They did a little better when I surprised them with a follow-up quiz. After that,…
Jerz > Writing > Journalism Using the inverted pyramid structure is one of the major differences between a news story and a personal essay. Similar:Comments on: A vane Osama bin Laden shown in new videos – CBS News Comments on: A vane Osama bin Laden …AmusingYou come very close to successfully combining argument and explication here… I recently came…
It’s also a disservice to readers to report on Spicer’s post-White House life and not mention how unusual and controversial his tenure was. This is a guy famous for meeting with reporters near the bushes on White House grounds, for coining the phrase “Holocaust centers,” for creating the necessity for courtroom sketch artists in the White House briefing…
In an opening lecture for my journalism class, I listed the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. I’ve referred to the importance of the First Amendment several times, but I haven’t listed the freedoms in class. One week after the opening lecture, I asked students to list those freedoms on…
Kim Ash teaches the Newseum’s “Fighting Fake News” class. Whereas teachers once feared that teenagers would fall for everything they read online, now they’re concerned young people won’t believe anything they read. —Washington Post Similar:Mesmerizing Video of a Printer Terminal Running "Adventure" on a PDP-11/45After spending several days clicking but…AcademiaThe 19th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition…
Similar:Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe. —Thomas JeffersonEducationMy students seem increasingly confused by the difference between journal title vs. article… Sometimes students will submit bibli…AcademiaFascinating details in reports about Trump's Russian retractionWe’re all still reeling from Trump’s sta…Current_EventsThe intelligence coup of the century: For decades, the CIA…
Shad and co say bots play a particularly significant role in the spread of fake news soon after it is published. What’s more, these bots are programmed to direct their tweets at influential users. “Automated accounts are particularly active in the early spreading phases of viral claims, and tend to target influential users,” say Shao…
After using examples from Warsaw and Prague, the 2007 edition of my journalism textbook predicts: The threat is no longer simply from government censorship. With new technology, government is more likely to subvert the press by trying to discredit its integrity and dilute its influence. It has more tools to do that in the twenty-first…
The journalist chose to spotlight a little girl who’s both a Trump supporter and an aspiring journalist. This is how journalists can be creative — by choosing what details to focus on. “What happened in Charlottesville strikes at the core of America,” Trump said, appearing to read from the teleprompters placed on stage. “And tonight,…
A judge has ordered Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte to be photographed and fingerprinted for assaulting a reporter in May, opening the door for the congressman’s mug shot to be plastered in opponents’ campaign ads in next year’s election. […] The day after the assault, Gianforte defeated Democrat Rob Quist in the special election to replace Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke…
Donald Trump’s persona as a man who doesn’t like to be told what to do feeds into the spread of this image of him staring directly at the eclipse without protective glasses. I’ve seen it portrayed as if an aide warned Trump not to do it, and then he immediately did it anyway, on impulse.…
New instructional web page — Verify or Duck! Confirm all details you didn’t witness. #fridaynight #partylikeaprofessor. Similar:‘Heil Trump’ and an anti-gay slur were scrawled on an Indiana church right after Trump’s e…A well-written news story, covering a se…Culture'Robot Journalist' Out-Writes Human Sports ReporterSports journalism is full of colorful fi…GamesPeople Thought an AI Was Brilliantly…
Towards the end of my year-long radio news internship, I scolded a local TV reporter for filing a one-sided fluff story about ice cream at a summer festival. “Maybe you could have gotten an opposing view from someone in the natural foods store,” I said. “Or interviewed someone who’s lactose intolerant.”
“Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
I first heard that quote from a newsroom mentor. It’s now one of many pithy sayings I often used in my journalism classes. As I was prepping for this fall, I realized I had never researched its origin. Boy was I surprised!