MetaFilter posts tagged with journalism and news

Fox "upset-the-White-House-won't-call-it" News

ADoubtfulTrout — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:34:57 -0800

Fox News's bent on the news is well known, but recently the White House has begun actively excluding the network, including skipping Fox's Chris Wallace on a recent round of Sunday morning news shows. “We simply decided to stop abiding by the fiction ... that Fox is a traditional news organization.” says White House Depty Communications Director Pfeiffer (as has Press Secretary Gibbs and others). The responses range from concern about an attempt to control the media to a feeling that it's about time. Is it just about Fox's anti-Obama pundits, or is it also about Fox's consistent errors and misinformed viewership? Or is the White House attempting containment so that Fox's ratings-gold style and ideas don't take over the rest of the press?

Eric Schmidt on journalism and the future of newspapers

reenum — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:20:05 -0800

Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a talk at the Newspaper Association of America convention on April 9, 2009 in San Diego. He speaks about how Google and newspapers might co-exist in the future. Here is a transcript of Schmidt's April talk. Schmidt also spoke at length with Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land recently about Google's responsibility to newspapers.

The Terrorist Within

reenum — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:32:10 -0800

The Terrorist Within is an in-depth look at the story of Ahmed Ressam. There's an interesting look at the lives of Ressam and other would-be jihadis and the way the authorities dealt with the information obtained about Ressam's activities.

The futurity of science journalism?

albrecht — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:04:34 -0800

In response to the declining quantity and quality of science journalism in U.S., a group of 35 universities have created their own online wire service called Futurity.org to distribute research results directly to news sites like Yahoo and Google News. The hope is that this new model of science journalism can avoid the budgetary and "equal time" issues that newspapers face, which have contributed to Americans being less informed about science issues than people in other Western countries.

Long form journalism on the Web is "not working."

thisisdrew — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:17:20 -0800

Long form journalism on the Web is "not working." - TIME.com Managing Editor Josh Tyrangiel ..Among the detractors of this statement is David Sleight, Deputy Creative Director of BusinessWeek.com: "Really? It’s 2009 and we’re still having this conversation?" Scattered industry advice on this topic varies from moderate to extreme, and while web analytics paint a convincing picture of web readers, some wonder if long form journalism has EVER worked. Of course there seem to be other factors at play, like methods of presentation and quality of content.

Liberal media? Free press? Journalistic integrity? How quaint.

mek — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:40:04 -0800

The NYT reports that GE has brokered a deal between MSNBC and Fox News to "reconcile" Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly, preventing further criticism of each other or GE. The deal went into effect June 1, the very same day Olbermann declared he was "quarantining" Fox, avoiding discussion of the channel in the future. Mr. Olbermann, who is on vacation, said by e-mail message, “I am party to no deal.” Glenn Greenwald breaks down the political consequences of the deal.

Can the New York Times and Washington Post survive on a pay-wall business model if they do it together?

dyslexictraveler — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:35:24 -0800

In a new essay entitled Build the Wall, David Simon (who was a Baltimore Sun reporter before he produced The Wire) argues that if the larger newspaper industry is to survive, The New York Times and Washington Post must start charging readers for access to their websites (preferably done as a single action in concert with each other) — John Gruber, Dave Winer, and the folks at Gawker disagree, and Steven Berlin Johnson argues that while the future for newspapers might be quite bleak, the future for journalism and high quality analysis is actually quite bright. Meanwhile, the Times is currently doing market research to see if it's readers would be willing to pay $5 a month for online access, and the Associated Press announced it's intent to build a new news DRM system that will enable users to “consume, mash up and share AP content based on rights”.

"Oh Dear"-ism

homunculus — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:18:52 -0800

Adam Curtis on the rise of "Oh Dearism" in television news. [SLYT, Via]

Online Visual Journalism

netbros — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:45:33 -0800

They call themselves Visual Journalists. Prime among them is the Bombay Flying Club, a group of photo-journalists who are using the latest web and flash technologies to frame their online news gathering and documentary storytelling. The Afghan Diaries is a three-part documentary about Danish soldiers who put their lives at risk in order to defend our "peace loving nations" against global terrorism. Life After the Tsunami. Four years have passed since that horrible South Asian disaster. See the results of relief efforts. Bucharest Below Ground follows people living in the abandoned heat pipes behind the Casa Radio building. Children call this home. In a fast paced world where time is money and materialism is more important than anything else, some people give up everything to live in harmony with nature. Into the Wild is the portrait of a man who owns nothing, yet is happier than most. Wave after wave, they formed a veritable river of humanity that flowed onto the banks of the Ganges to celebrate the greatest spiritual festival ever held in the history of the world, the mighty Kumbh Mela. And from the San Jose Mercury News, Left Behind, a visual journey through some of Mumbai's worst slums areas. Shot around Bandra East, Mahim and Dharavi, there's also some great footage from the Deonar dump site situated on the outskirts of this mega city. All this, as insight into some of the video and multimedia pieces that we will be seeing a lot of coming from visual journalists in the near future. With the new Canon 5D Mark II at hand, productions like these, will inevitably be a lot easier to produce.

Now you read it, soon you won't.

adamvasco — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:16:48 -0800

The death of the news.

What is really threatened by the decline of newspapers and the related rise of online media is reporting -- on-the-ground reporting by trained journalists who know the subject, have developed sources on all sides, strive for objectivity and are working with editors who check their facts, steer them in the right direction and are a further check against unwarranted assumptions, sloppy thinking and reporting, and conscious or unconscious bias.

Facts, Opinions, Tools, Advice, and Connections

netbros — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:40:10 -0800

The Canadian Journalism Project (CJP) and its websites, J-Source.ca (English) and ProjetJ.ca (French), provides a source for news, research, commentary, advice, discussion and resources about the achievement of, and challenges to, excellence in Canadian journalism.

Pushing to the Future of Journalism

netbros — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:10:36 -0800

The Nieman Journalism Lab is a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age. At Harvard they are working with the Business School on new business models, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society on understanding online life, and the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations on one potential path for news organizations.

Hey Honey, Has Juniors T-Ball Score Come in From Bangalore yet?

Xurando — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:09:19 -0800

We should have known it was inevitable. Your local newspaper being written in India. Get ready for the outsourcing of journalism. Maureen Dowd doesn't like it.

Frozen Scandal

homunculus — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:37:57 -0800

"Scandal is our growth industry. Revelation of wrongdoing leads not to definitive investigation, punishment, and expiation but to more scandal. Permanent scandal. Frozen scandal." [Via]

Sunday Paper Pledge Drive?

Miko — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:30:22 -0800

Can nonprofit news models save journalism? The advertising-supported, for-profit institutional model of journalism (skip this ad) is on the wane. Except for a few large and successful outlets, investment in comprehensive reporting has suffered from a shrinking bottom line, even as the hoped-for development of citizen journalism has been generally underwhelming. But some see a solution taking shape in not-for-profit, independent, citizen-supported online news organizations that would employ skilled professional journalists. Pointing to the encouraging recent growth of NPR and PBS as news outlets, many industry thinkers are starting to agree that "The only way to save journalism is to develop a new model that finds profit in truth, vigilance, and social responsibility." Editors are beginning to experiment with models like that of Paul Stieger's ProPublica (a sort of reporting clearinghouse), Geoff Dougherty's ChiTown Daily News, The NYC Center for an Urban Future's City Limits, and Scott Lewis' Voice of San Diego. Great idea - will it work?

At least they still have the Mapparium

Horace Rumpole — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:48:38 -0800

Newsfilter: "After a century of continuous publication, The Christian Science Monitor will abandon its weekday print edition and appear online only, its publisher announced Tuesday." Coverage from the New York Times, Editor & Publisher, Poynter, HuffPo.

Talking Points Memo: How it began

adamrice — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:13:36 -0800

…if you are the single newspaper in San Francisco or Kansas City or St. Louis, you are just highly constrained about how rigorous you can be in the accuracy of your reporting. Because the whole model is: You are appealing to everybody. Because the whole model is: You are appealing to everybody. … That's why the existence of an independent media sector is so important.

Talking Points Memo is one of the more notable successes in independent journalism and using blogs as a format for journalism. It has broken at least a couple of stories that got picked up by the mainstream press: The Duke Cunningham bribery scandal, and the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal. It's grown from being a one-man shop in 2000 to a staff of ten today. Josh Marshall talks about how it came to be.

Exiled

muggsy1079 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:52:26 -0800

The Exile is back. Iconoclastic Moscow-based web-rag The Exile, having recently been shut down by the Russian authorities for its often less-than-complimentary views on all things to do with the motherland, is back, having relocated to Panama. A victory for the spirit of Gonzo.

Times Archive,

languagehat — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:50:55 -0800

Every issue of The Times published between 1785-1985, digitally scanned and fully searchable. (Via Wordorigins.org.)

"I'll blow yer f**king head off!"

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:31:04 -0800

The dangers of being a TV news reporter. A guaranteed context-free three-minute montage of television field reports gone awry.

The Saddam Sessions

kliuless — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:33:50 -0800

Saddam's Confessions - Given Saddam Hussein's central place in the American Consciousness over the last couple decades and particularly in recent years, I found 60 minutes' interview with FBI interrogator George Piro pretty fascinating.

Everyblock: local news for everywhere

mathowie — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:07:46 -0800

Everyblock has launched. It's local news culled from (any and all available) services, including photos, news, restaurant inspections, classified ads, and civic announcements. Sounds pretty dry, but looking at my old neighborhood in San Francisco, there's a wealth of hyperlocal information that you can't get in one place. They're currently in three major metro areas of the US with many more to come -- their launch announcement has more. This site was spearheaded by Adrian Holovaty, a pioneer of the intersection between journalism and computer science, and winner of a $1million grant last year to build such sites.

Are we recording all this, Nick? I hope we are. Right here we go...

feelinglistless — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:13:58 -0800

Are we recording all this, Nick? I hope we are. Right here we go... In 2005, the BBC's royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell was preparing a "two-way" regarding that year's VJ Day 60th anniversary commemorations. He and the interviewer Richard Evans just couldn't see eye to eye as to how the story should be covered. Luckily for us, their tetchy conversation and the fall out with the producers was recorded (transcript/mp3). Despite the vintage, it's a rather revealing behind the scenes record demonstrating the process that's often gone through to decide how news is best communicated to we listeners.

...GE had long done business with the bin Ladens. In a misguided attempt at corporate synergy, I called GE headquarters...

amberglow — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:31:03 -0800

"You Don't Understand Our Audience" --what John Hockenberry (formerly of NBC, now at MIT Media Lab) learned about network news--good guys and bad guys, the "emotional center", synergy, facts, and why fewer and fewer watch nowadays.

We regret the following:

gingerbeer — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:45:58 -0800

Once again, The Year in Media Errors and Corrections. Correction of the year: "Following the portrait of Tony and Cherie Blair published on 21 April in the Independent Saturday magazine, Ms Blair’s representatives have told us that she was friendly with but never had a relationship with Carole Caplin of the type suggested in the article. They want to make it clear, which we are happy to do, that Ms Blair “has never shared a shower with Ms Caplin, was not introduced to spirit guides or primal wrestling by Ms Caplin (or anyone else), and did not have her diary masterminded by Ms Caplin.” Previously. Also.