Journalistic Practice
Submitted by jonathan on Wed, 2008-12-31 12:15
The traditional media is in a tailspin, but can a new generation of visionaries revive the watchdog press?
Journalism, the critics say, is dying. The model of news reporting that has dominated the United States for most of the past century — big, well-funded outfits paying reporters and editors to choose and produce what the public reads or views — is crumbling. The main culprits are media consolidation and corporate cutbacks, but the downward spiral is also being fed by declining readership, competition from the Internet, investor expectations, demographic shifts, self-inflicted wounds, and myriad other factors.
Submitted by jonathan on Sun, 2008-12-21 22:05
The past few weeks have seen the newspaper industry accelerate toward a previously unthinkable collapse. The Tribune Company (one of my former employers) filed for bankruptcy. E.W. Scripps put the Rocky Mountain News (another one of my former employers) up for sale, and might close the 150-year-old Denver paper should no buyer be found within the month. The Wall Street Journal reported that Detroit's two newspapers would stop home delivery on certain weekdays. (Their websites would update seven days a week.) Rumors continue to swirl that the Miami Herald is next up on the block.
Submitted by jonathan on Thu, 2008-12-18 19:31
In light of the Tribune Company bankruptcy and the massive loan the New York Times just leveraged on its own building, the future of daily journalism looks to be on life support. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Weekend America's Ben Adair debunks the top three myths of the media meltdown and tells us why reports of newspapers' demise have been severely exaggerated.
Submitted by jonathan on Tue, 2008-12-16 17:48
The Detroit Free Press announced today a first-of-its-kind plan in the struggling U.S. newspaper industry — emphasizing more online delivery of news and information and cutting back home delivery days.
Detroit Media Partnership CEO Dave Hunke, publisher of the Free Press, said that starting in spring 2009, both the Free Press and the Detroit News — also operated by the partnership — would deliver to homes only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, the heaviest days for advertising and the most popular papers for readers. But the newspapers will remain available seven days a week at stores, newsstands and coin boxes across Michigan.
Submitted by jonathan on Wed, 2008-12-10 14:46
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ARTICLE 19 launches a campaign to protect those that are at the forefront of reporting human rights abuses and informing the public about the state of the world. Sixty years ago, Latin American countries constituted the largest bloc of the delegations responsible for drafting the first international text setting out freedoms, rights and entitlements for all humanity to claim. One such fundamental right is that to freedom of expression: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Submitted by jonathan on Fri, 2008-12-05 12:12
A column that ran in the University of Washington's student newspaper decrying gay marriage — and illustrated with the image of a man standing next to a sheep — has hundreds of students up in arms. But editors of The Daily are standing behind what they say is free speech.
Organizers of the campus group "Students for a Hate Free Daily" say they expect about 300 people to show up for a campus rally today after more than 1,000 signed up with the group online. The Graduate and Professional Student Senate, meanwhile, passed a resolution this week demanding the paper apologize.
Submitted by jonathan on Tue, 2008-12-02 22:05
In an article headlined, “Citizen Journalists Provided Glimpses of Mumbai Attacks,” The New York Times extolled the virtues of micro-blogging platform Twitter in a breaking-news situation like the one that played out in Mumbai:
The attacks in India served as another case study in how technology is transforming people into potential reporters, adding a new dimension to the news media.
Submitted by jonathan on Sun, 2008-11-30 12:25
Blogger beware: Washington State regulators are wondering whether online political activism amounts to lobbying, which could force Web-based activists to publicly detail their finances.
In a collision of 21st-century media and 1970s political reforms, the inquiry hints at a showdown over press freedoms for bloggers, whose self-published journals can shift among news reporting, opinion writing, political organizing and campaign fundraising.
State officials are downplaying any possible media-rights conflict, pointing out that regulators have already exempted journalistic blogging from previous guidelines for online campaign activity.
Submitted by jonathan on Wed, 2008-11-19 11:58
A television news director who was fired by Univision Communications Inc. last year for allegedly slanting the news fired back Monday, contending in a lawsuit that company executives shaped stories to woo advertisers.
Jorge Mettey served for five years as the influential news director of Univision's flagship KMEX-TV Channel 34, which is Los Angeles' top-rated station. He was ousted in April 2007 after the company determined that he breached ethics policies in directing news coverage.
Submitted by jonathan on Thu, 2008-11-13 13:35
In the ever-shifting media landscape of 2008, who, exactly, is a journalist?
That question is at the heart of a lawsuit filed against the Police Department on Wednesday on behalf of three men — Rafael Martínez Alequin, Ralph E. Smith and David Wallis — who say that they were unfairly denied press passes because they work for online or nontraditional news outlets.
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