As part of the Nieman Foundation’s Watchdog Journalism Project, Nieman Reports is featuring two articles about watchdog reporting. In the first, Deborah Henley, executive editor of The (Delaware) News Journal, writes about her newspaper’s many years of legal struggles … Read more
It’s always been a tug-of-war between secretive government officials and those whose job it is—the press—to hold them and their actions accountable. In peaceful times, no elected leaders, no appointed administrators want their decisions rigorously examined, policies held up to … Read more
Is it possible for truth to exist in journalism? This question resides at the core of “The Press Effect: Politicians and the Stories That Shape the Political World,” a book written by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Paul Waldman. Seth … Read more
“The chasm between medical journalists and physicians appears mostly to be one of ignorance rather than conflicting interests or malice,” writes Terry L. Schraeder, who for 10 years worked as a medical journalist before entering medical school. Now doing her residency in internal medicine, she uses these experiences to highlight the problems between journalists and doctors and ways to close the widening gap of distrust. She is convinced that only when they “understand the other’s professional training, education, deadlines, responsibilities, codes of ethics, and internal stresses” will the chasm narrow. – Melissa Ludtke, Editor Read more
The December election of South Korea’s new president, Roh Moo-hyun, writes In-Yong Rhee, a news commentator for Seoul’s Munwha Broadcasting Corporation and current Nieman Fellow, was a “victory of the Internet, where the driving force of the young generation … Read more
Journalists Testifying at War Crimes Tribunals Should journalists who cover war be required to testify before tribunals in which cases involving those accused of war crimes are heard? A December 2002 ruling by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal … Read more
As New England bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Elizabeth Mehren reports for West Coast readers on the region’s newsworthy events. In her story opening our series of articles about press coverage of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse … Read more
Few topics receive more media attention today than the topic of health. Yet, in the view of some journalists, many of the stories being told about health are not ones journalists want to tell or that members of the public need to hear. As Andrew Holtz, a freelance health reporter and president of the Association for Health Care Journalists, observes, “… stories I think need to be told, are often not the ones that easily sell. My personal frustration is not the issue, but we should be concerned when journalists are inhibited from the work of sustaining an informed and involved citizenry.” – Melissa Ludtke, Editor Read more
“To teach the craft of journalism is a worthy goal but clearly insufficient in this new world and within the setting of a great university,” Lee C. Bollinger, the new president of Columbia University wrote when he suspended the Graduate … Read more
In “Breach of Faith,” the second of two volumes edited by journalists Gene Roberts and Thomas Kunkel, the authors continue their in-depth examination of the consequences of concentrated ownership on journalism and democracy. Frank A. Blethen, publisher of the … Read more
