“He said-she said” journalism debate rages

In “How ‘balanced journalism’ helped the climate change deniers,” Will Bunch of Philly.com discusses a New York Times article “about how an interest group heavily funded by the oil and auto industries called the Global Climate Coalition was able to muddy the waters on manmade global warming, overriding scientists who said proof of this “greenhouse effect” was now beyond any doubt.”

Bunch continues:

You shouldn’t surprised that the Global Climate Coalition (nice name, by the way) ignored all this and went ahead and used pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo to create enough “reasonable doubt” on the issue for the public and our elected pols to put off any tough choices on global warming. What’s disturbing (although, again, not all that surprising) is the role that supposed “journalistic ethics” played in spreading this Big Lie, by cluelessly giving these charlatans equal play with the established science on the issue.

Other related articles worth checking out: Jay Rosen’s long “He Said, She Said Journalism: Lame Formula in the Land of the Active User,” which includes a very useful definition of the phrase and includes links to several other related articles and blog posts, including Richard Sambrook of the BBC’s “What’s So Funny About News, Comment and Understanding?”

Ten ways to improve your multimedia production

At Mediastorm.org, Eric Maierson notes that “Often, as multimedia producers, we are given work to edit that others have created. Some things simply cannot be changed, like an out-of-focus photograph. But there are some things we can do right now to improve the work no matter how challenging the original assets may be.” Maierson provides great examples to back up his tips but notes “This list is not meant to be dogmatic. I’ve broken all these rules. They’re offered as a suggested starting point.”

Twitter and ABC create a Tweetable news show

Mashable.com reports that ABC News has created the first hybrid television news -Twitter blend — not as odd as it might first appear. The network’s Nightline news program and anchors are going to host a weekly online news program — called NightTline — that uses Twitter for debate and questions.

According to ABC, the show will take on Nightline’s Face-Off model, which pits two opposing sides on an issue that an ABCNEWS anchor provides and moderates. It’s a model that causes a lot of heated debate and verbal exchanges, perfect for an easily-distracted online audience….

Twitter will be integral to the entire show. There will be a Twitter widget that allows viewers to chime in on the discussion or ask questions during the debate. The Nightline anchors will also use Pixel touchscreen technology to display and interact with the debate occurring on Twitter.

The importance of multimedia storytelling

At EditorsWeblog.org, Emma Heald asks, “Are newspapers making full use of the opportunities that the Internet offers to change the way that they produce their stories?” While her overall answer is “No,” Heald cites some cases where news organizations are working heard to incorporate multimedia into journalistic storytelling, and cites a French school program that is exploring alternate ways of telling stories.

Heald concludes:

It is clear that more innovation in newspapers’ story-telling could only be a good thing, as long as it does not overwhelm a story’s essential message. And given the recent moves that publishers such as News Corp are making towards charging for online content, creating more interesting, interactive websites could even help to ‘save’ the newspaper industry by offering readers an online reading experience that they might be prepared to pay for.

Other good recent articles on the topic include “Storytelling Is Stuck In A Rut—What Publishers Can Do About It” and “New Journalistic Storytelling.”

Journalists’ guide to Twitter

Leah Betancourt of Mashable.com offers a rundown of the many ways in which journalists have been incorporating Twitter into their work. Betancourt surveys how journalists use the microblogging site to gather information, see what other journalists are reading and talking about, follow groups, track topics in real-time by keyword and much more. Essential reading for today’s journalist!

Hoax Leads to questions about journalists’ use of Wikipedia

As more newsrooms relax restrictions on using Wikipedia for background research, every now and then something comes along that should make every journalist cautious about using it.

PoynterOnline reports that in early 2009, a 22-year-old student in Dublin, Ireland, created a Wikipedia hoax that led several major news outlets to publish a fake quote. The quote ran in several obituaries about French composer Maurice Jarre, and the hoax might not have been corrected if the hoaxer himself had not notified the news organizations.

The student claimed he placed the quote on the Web site as an experiment when doing research on globalization. He wanted to show how journalists use the Internet as a primary source.

Where journalists failed, however, MSNBC reports that Wikipedia passed: News organizations “used the fabricated material … even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia quickly caught the quote’s lack of attribution and removed it.”

Guidelines for journalists using social networks

Increasing use of Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites by journalists has some news organizations setting ground rules and others just taking a wait-and-see approach, reports Editor & Publisher. Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, told E&P: “I have asked people to use common sense and respect the workplace and assume whatever they tweet will be tied to the paper….Even when they are tweeting personal information to their followers, they are still representing The New York Times.”

The Wall Street Journal’s guidelines for social media use were regarded by some as completely missing the point of social Media. BeatBlogging.org noted:

This memo should have been titled the 1990s newspaper refrain of the decade, “Don’t scoop yourself!” But this is the Web. No one seriously talks about scooping themselves anymore.

New search engine has appeal for journalists

A new search engine, Wolfram Alpha, recently was unveiled. The Online Journalism Blog notes that “Its use of databases and semantic search should be particularly exciting for journalists because a) it searches parts of the ‘hidden web’ that most search engines don’t reach (i.e. databases); and b) it has the potential to throw up quick answers to questions about relationships and facts that Google is also not great at.” Definitely worth a look for anyone doing research for a story.

Crossing the ethical line with photo retouching

“10 News photos that took retouching too far” looks at notable cases in which “retouching has been pushed too far, changing the original intent or accuracy of the photo ” National Geographic, Time and major news organizations are among the culprits.