Posts with the tag Journalism

Scary Chart for the Week: Copywriting Edition

Jake Blumgart — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:33:11 EST

Earlier this week, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) released a study which questioned 665 magazines about their online presence. The report is quite comprehensive covering everything from profitability to fact-checking, and the resultant data is fascinating. It will certainly give more fuel, as if more were needed, to the raging debates over journalism’s future. (One particularly interesting finding shows little correlation between accessibility and profitability—those websites that hide their content behind a paywall, don’t make any more money, on average, than their freebe competitors.)

But the study’s most disturbing revelation relates to the copy-writing habits of web magazines: namely, they don’t seem to have any. (Or should I say, we don’t seem to have any.)

48 percent of magazine websites copy-edit their content “less rigorously than print content”. 11 percent don’t copy-edit their online content at all. This doesn’t include the blogs that are attached to these sites. If blogs were included, those numbers would probably be even worse (that is certainly how CP works, plenty of editing on articles, not as much on blog posts). Your favorite magazine is probably included in this damning figure. Sites with 50,000 or more readers are less likely to copy-edit rigorously, as are more profitable outlets.

The New York Times has a neat summary here, including extensive quotes from the man behind it all. “There isn’t yet a generally accepted set of norms for this new medium,” said Victor Navasky, chairman of CJR chairman and publisher emeritus of The Nation. “There’s chaos out there.”

As a grammatically-challenged, yet strangely frequent, contributor to online magazines I issue this plea to all those editors and publishers out there: start copyediting rigorously! Readers deserve it and writers, specifically this writer, need it.

Quick Hit: Bloggers To Get Press Credentials In New York

Erin Rosa — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:42:27 EST

(Flickr/Waldo_Jaquith)

Via Slashdot, there’s a report that features some exciting news for citizen journalists and online outlets working in New York City:

In a nod to the growing influence of online journalists, New York City said Tuesday that bloggers and others who publish on the Web will now be eligible for press credentials.
The move comes as a result of a lawsuit filed in 2008 by three Web journalists who were denied press passes. In New York, journalists with press passes are typically allowed to cross police barricades at public events.
…
Longtime civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel, who represented the journalists who sued, says the city will now decide who a journalist is by looking at the type of work they do, and not the organization they write for. "This addresses one of the major issues with regard to a online journalists," he says. "Bloggers should be treated equally to television, print and radio journalists."

While the decision will no doubt be a let down for “legitimate” mainstream media outlets in the city, it’s also very practical in a news sense, considering many in the mainstream continue to have fewer resources to cover the news each day after layoffs and budget cuts.

The New York Times Takes a Stab at Remaining Afloat

Lisa V. Gillespie — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:20:06 EST

The New York Times announced yesterday that they will start charging patrons for online content on a metered system in 2011. The journalistic idealist in me hates this. The journalist that would like to make a living writing in me thinks it is not such a bad idea. When I graduated from undergrad a little over a year ago, I was very much still a journalistic idealist. I believed that journalism's purpose was to expose issues of great importance that would otherwise not be on public consciousness.

A report is supposed to broaden someones understanding of an issue or break open a social or political injustice. The vessel of this used to be print. Now, it's changing. Just like I studied in school the great path makers of film, newspaper and radio, journalism students of the future will study the journalists on the frontier of the Internet. The New York Times takes a stab at becoming one of these history-makers with it's decision.

Written-word journalism (what used to be called print) must vamp up the depth and content if it is to remain viable. After applying for journalism jobs for eight months while waiting on tables and getting advice from former journalists to pick another occupation, I am finally making a living with interviewing others and writing. The topics I choose to write on are ones that I don't see covered in depth in other places or at all. And with my writing, I hope to reach out to potential readers. I imagine that a great many of these readers probably could not afford to pay for my writing and I want them to be able to get the same level of knowledge as someone upwardly mobile.

At the same time, my ability to report is based upon my ability to pay rent. We've all got to make a living. Journalism should be a service to the public, not sensationalist or costly. But if choosing costly journalism over no journalism at all, I choose the former.

Won’t Somebody Think Of The Poor, ‘Professional’ Journalists?

Erin Rosa — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:54:05 EST

In what has got to be one of the most backwards and regressive editorials ever written by a bunch of gray-haired, Caucasian journos, The Digital Journalist, a monthly web-magazine, provides a stunning example of hubris and elitism, boo-hooing what it clearly sees as the unwashed riffraff of journalism—namely, citizens who dare participate in the news making process.

There are citizens and there are journalists. Everybody can be one of the former, but to be called a journalist means that you are a professional. Either you have been schooled in journalism, or you have "paid your dues," rising slowly through the ranks.
…
Those who write or photograph for the sheer joy of doing so are amateurs. It comes from the Latin, "those who love to do." However, they are not professionals.
…
The Digital Journalist, even though it is purely a Web magazine, has been adhering to the core principles of professional journalism since its start. All 30,000 words in each issue undergo grammar, spelling and fact-checking by our copy editor, Cecilia White, who has worked for The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Economist.
Because of declining revenues, newspapers, magazines and TV stations actually think they can get these "volunteers" to replace the professionals. If that is the case, we hope the next step is not to have citizen "editors" start running traditional media, or any media for that matter.

Seems like the authors of this editorial forgot that, in the process of being “professionals,” you are first accountable to the public that consumes your work.

And with these journalists essentially calling everyone but themselves uneducated idiots unworthy of participating in the media narrative, is it really such a surprise that growing numbers of citizens don’t trust the “professionals?”

Stop Media Harassment at the RNC Protests

pdelatorre — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:35:29 EDT

Trouble in the twin cities - police have arrested, detained, and harassed many independent journalists covering the protest on the RNC, including Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! You can read more about what happened here and here.

Free Press has just put out an action alert urging people to take action:

Stop the Arrests of Journalists. Sign the Letter.
Police in St. Paul arrested several journalists during protests of the Republican National Convention, including Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and an AP photographer as they were covering the demonstrations. Police also raided a meeting of the video journalists' group I-Witness with firearms drawn to arrest independent media, bloggers and videomakers. Arresting and detaining journalists for doing their jobs is a gross violation of free speech and freedom of the press. Journalists must be free to do their jobs without intimidation. Please click here to demand that press intimidation in the twin cities ceases immediately, and that charges against the arrested journalists are dropped.

Check out more action alerts here!

Fed up with journalism on your campus?

Thomas Coen — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:29:10 EDT

Tired of the adminstration censoring your voice? Frustrated that the daily paper won't cover certain issues or events?

Then do something about it.

Campus Progress supports over 50 progressive student publications across the country with funding, journalism training, content support, event assistance, and other tools and resources.

We want to help you make your voice heard.

Apply today to become part of Campus Progress's Publications Network either as a brand new publication or an existing one. But don't procrastinate, the priority deadline for applications is June 30th.

This past year alone, Campus Progress has worked with students who have successfully launched new publications at the University of Georgia, Michigan State University, DePaul University, American University, Brown University, University of New England, Kenyon College, and other colleges and universities.

We're here to help you with the great work you're doing on your campus. Feel free to e-mail publications@campusprogress.org with any questions.

Amazing conferences --sign up today!

Thomas Coen — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:17:28 EDT

Registration just opened for the 2008 Campus Progress National Conference. If you thought last year's conference was great, just wait for this year's event. Past keynotes have been Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Nancy Pelosi. And if one day of hearing from amazing speakers, networking with students activists from all 50 states, and building the skills you'll need to transform your campus into a progressive bastion in the fall aren't enough, then don't worry, Campus Progress has you covered.

On July 7th, Campus Progress is organizing with USSA and the Student PIRGs a Grassroots Training Day.

On July 9th, Campus Progress and The Nation present their annual National Youth Journalism Conference. Speakers already confirmed include Eugene Robinson, Asra Nomani, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and Mathew Yglesias.

All of these events fill up quickly so apply to attend today!

Italian Pride Part I: Riots in Italy!!

Tommaso — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:41:41 EDT

According to this article from the NYT, the recent spike in food prices sparked riots in "countries including Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Italy."

Prince Harry and the Press Embargo

Matt Zeitlin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:06:58 EST

In the United States, there's a large and growing problem of elites not serving in the military and, at the same time, the military becoming an institution dominated by the lower middle classes and by families who have a tradition of service. Although America has lower social mobility and lots of hereditary wealth, in Britain, they have a real royal family. But Britain's royals have a long tradition of military service. Prince Andrew, Charles' brother, served as helicopters pilot in the Falklands. And Prince Harry, brother of Prince William and third-in-line to the throne, is serving in the British Army.

Even though he's a royal, he's just a normal soldier and for the past ten weeks, he's been serving in Afghanistan. But we didn't hear about until a few days ago, when the Drudge Report broke the story. It turned out the British government got all the major media outlets in a room and requested that they not report that Harry was in Afghanistan, so he wouldn't endanger his fellow soldiers. The embargo was broken and now Harry is probably going to the Persian Gulf. But was it a good idea for the media to essentially be the lapdogs of the press? I think so.

West Coast Youth Journalism Conference

Thomas Coen — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:41:27 EST

**Update: Check out this great write-up of the conference from a writer of a Campus Progress sponsored publication who attended the conference.

This past Saturday, Campus Progress and The Nation hosted its first West Coast Youth Journalism Conference at UCLA. It was a smashing success with around 300 participants from around California, Arizona, Texas, and other states. We had amazing speakers, small group workshops, and a keynote address by Naomi Klein. Check out the full agenda here, and check back soon for photos from the conference and videos of the plenary panels and the keynote speech. I was heartened to feel so much energy throughout the day from an outstanding group of young progressive journalists. A huge thank you to all of our speakers and presenters. If you want to get more involved with journalism at Campus Progress, we provide funding, training, and other forms of assistance to student publications. You can also write and blog for CampusProgress.org. Whatever great work you're doing, let us know how Campus Progress can help.

2007: Deadliest Year For Journalists

Kay Steiger — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:05:28 EST

It turns out 2007 has been the deadliest year for journalists in a decade. According to a report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 31 journalists were killed in Iraq, along with 12 media workers. This makes me very nervous about the quality of reporting we can get out of Iraq. When it's so dangerous for journalists, many of whom are native Iraqi stringers for western news organizations, are we really going to get accurate information about what's going on in Iraq?

What's also interesting is that three journalists died in Mexico, a country supposedly at peace, and only two died in Afghanistan, a war zone. I read this great piece that appeared in the WaPo this summer that talked about how journalists really aren't doing that much reporting in Mexico because it's simply too dangerous. They've begun dropping bylines, writing styles, and even relying solely on police reports.

Reporting From Iraq is Bleak at Best

Annika — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:48:52 EST

The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), a part of the Pew Research Center, recently released a survey of American journalists’ experiences in Iraq.

Unsurprisingly, the results are grim, a fact made blatant by this chart from PEJ’s summary of the survey:

Lehrer: I’m Boring

Justin Elliott — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:39:08 EST

Following up on some past discussion of PBS anchor Jim Lehrer, this makes me feel somewhat vindicated:

Don't watch my "NewsHour" to be entertained, says Lehrer

Austin American-Statesman | Daily Texan
"You want to be entertained? Go to the circus, please," says Jim Lehrer. "We did 30 minutes [on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer"] comparing naturally grown tomatoes to unnaturally grown tomatoes. Don't ask me why we did it. We did 30 minutes on the Portuguese elections that not even the Portuguese cared about." || Related story.

The Statesman story goes on to quote Lehrer telling an audience, re: the future of journalism, "I believe we mostly have fear itself to fear, to coin a phrase." Actually, I think a larger fear than fear itself is the mindset of journalists like Lehrer, who once described his zombie-like editorial philosophy this way:

"I don't deal in terms like 'blatantly untrue," he averred. "That's for other people to decide.... I'm not in the judgment part of journalism. I'm in the reporting part of journalism."

The Whirling Lehrer

Justin Elliott — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:19:03 EDT

From Romenesko:

Lehrer advises Medill students to give journalism "a whirl"

Daily Northwestern: PBS "NewsHour" anchor Jim Lehrer told a Northwestern University audience that despite the low pay for starting journalists, people should “give it a whirl,” both because of the public good and because of the unique experience journalism provides. "It's chasing fire engines. It's following the sirens and asking 'What happened? Why are all the sirens going off?'"

The thought that Jim Lehrer has been giving journalism “a whirl” on the PBS NewsHour actually repels me from a journalism career as much, much too boring. To paraphrase Apu, stop staring at me from behind the screen with your dead eyes!

Aw, he's all grown up!

Jim D — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:06:59 EDT

Our own Zach Marks, having finished up his internship (though hopefully not his blogging) for us here at CP, has now been given a pretty sweet gig - blogging at HuffPo. Regardless of what you think of HuffPo, they don't pick nobodies to blog for them. His first post went up yesterday (and he then stopped by the office in the afternoon, yet didn't tell us about it...so modest). Our congratulations to Zach, and we hope you show his new blog some CP love.

Also, to read about Zach's culinary skills with a microwave, check out this NY Times story.

The Dying J-School

Kay Steiger — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:43:21 EDT

One of Chronicle's blogs today discusses how journalism schools are slow to adapt to the changing nature of media. At a conference of J-School educators this weekend, "citizen journalism has moved from heresy — a topic to be considered, if at all, only in side conferences and hallways — to something that, while still not widely accepted, is at least of interest."

As a J-School graduate myself, I felt like I started a bit behind the starting gate. It took me a while to acclimate to blogs because in J-School I was taught that they aren't real journalism and we should reject them. This is mainly because journalism classes are taught by more or less retired journalists. The really cutting-edge journalists all have, well, jobs in journalism. Now that blogs have been (rather slowly) adapted to MSM. (Rick Hertzberg is even blogging now, albeit rather badly).

What I was most disappointed about in my J-School education was the way all of my classes basically ignored the fact that the Internet existed. They told us it was better to pick up the phone (it is, although the Internet is a great way to do a lot of background research for a story), go to the library (for what?), and never ever believe anything printed by a blog (!). I didn't learn HTML except by my own initiative. I never learned to write a blog post until I got a job at a magazine.

This makes me wary of the future of journalism, since we seem to have two streams of people entering the field: a group trained in ethics and reporting who think the future is in newspapers (it's not), and a group of people with no ethics or reporting training whatsoever who understand how to write blogs and get them read.

The New York Times Still Doesn't Get It

Jesse Singal — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:19:43 EDT

Glenn Greenwald posted this morning on something that should be receiving far more attention: the Bush administration’s borderline-desperate, last-minute attempts to link the Iraq war to the fight against Al Qaeda, and the media’s alarming pliability on this topic. Greenwald references an important column written by the New York Times’s public editor, Clark Hoyt.

Will you be blogging when you're a grown up?

Zach Marks — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:59:30 EDT

New York has always had a steady supply of budding young writers doing their best to break into the journalism industry. Campus Progress tried to make that break a bit easier to get by hosting a discussion, "Career Tracks: Navigating the Changing Media Landscape," the Newspaper Guild's New York City headquarters, focused on the changes in the industry.

Nader Raids Northwestern ... with free books?

Graham — Thu, 24 May 2007 10:11:33 EDT

Ralph Nader apparently gave the students at my journalism school a gift... copies of Eric Alterman's book What Liberal Media? in their mailboxes. Apparently he just called up Richard Roth, one of my professors, and said he'd be sending over 1,200 copies of the book. A columnist for The Daily Northwestern smells something fishy, though I think he might be reading a too much into this.

Did Nader have an ulterior motive for giving me a book that obviously has an agenda? Probably, but that in and of itself didn't appear that threatening to me. I can deal with people telling me what to believe politically.

It's the free gift part that sometimes gives me problems. For example, several weeks ago, I took a tour of the Miller Brewery in Milwaukee, Wis. The tour, along with the beer samples, didn't cost a cent.

I wondered why Miller wouldn't charge for the tour. That is, until I realized that immediately following my visit, I purchased Miller High Life.

Woah buddy, just because you get a free lunch doesn't mean you have to eat there again! Nader clearly wants to promote his ideology among journalists. So he sent some j-school students a book. This shouldn't change anyone's opinion unless the book is persuasive and someone decides to read it.

Bulletin on Harvard Resumes

Graham — Fri, 18 May 2007 12:08:48 EDT

Being an "editor" of the Harvard Crimson is no rare distinction:

The Crimson currently claims that about 800 undergraduates are Crimson “editors.” That’s because, until recently, it identified anyone who has ever joined the staff as an “editor.” Joining the staff involves writing a certain number of stories (or taking photos or designing pages as the case may be) and attending a few seminars, steps fully one in eight undergrads has taken.

h/t Romenesko.