ISSUE

Fall 2009

Let's Talk: Journalism and Social Media

From blogs to vlogs, Facebook to MySpace, Twitter to Flickr, Delicious to reddit, words and images bounce around the globe, spreading wide and fast. Journalists are adapting to the ever-shifting terrain carved out of these conversations. In this issue they describe changes in how they work and what they produce, explore emerging ethical issues, and propose principles of active engagement. In Words & Reflections, essays touch on foreign news reporting, Afghanistan, netroots, objectivity, journalists’ political leanings, and Cold War spies.

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Articles

From the Curator

Preparing to Cover a Pandemic: A New Guide for Journalists

‘The idea behind this guide is to provide an accessible, trusted resource in case the H1N1 strain, or any new or known flu strain, strikes in more deadly form.’
Bob Giles
October 23, 2009
Nieman Notes

An Opposing Viewpoint: The Struggle to Be Heard

I have a bone to pick with The Washington Post, particularly the editorial page.The Post has repeatedly opened its pages to the advocacy and analysis of former journalist Tamar Jacoby.…
Jerry Kammer
October 22, 2009
Opinion

The Newsroom’s Disdain for Revealing Reporters’ Political Leanings

A journalist argues that maintaining ‘the veneer of political impartiality devalues reporting and marginalizes the press’s fundamental role in our democracy.’
Reed Richardson
September 28, 2009
Opinion

The Newsroom’s Disdain for Revealing Reporters’ Political Leanings (Extended)

An extended, online-only version of Reed Richardson's essay, "The Newsroom's Disdain for Revealing Reporter's Political Leanings"
Reed Richardson
September 28, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Creating Ethical Bridges From Journalism to Digital News

‘… what appears on Web sites and on blogs is not generally regarded as adhering to standards that govern legacy news organizations.’
Jan Leach
September 28, 2009
Journalist’s Trade Technology

A Reporter’s Toolbag: Reduced to Two—Flip Camera and iPhone

In demonstrating how he uses these digital devices to report, a journalist argues that it's time to replace pen and paper with voice, video and photos.
Tom Regan
September 25, 2009
Technology

Blogging Communities Spurred to Action

‘Coverage of civil rights and social justice issues could be made the core of a digital news organization, national or global in scope.’
Leonard Witt
September 22, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Fall 2009: Introduction to “Journalism and Social Media”

From blogs to vlogs, Facebook to MySpace, Twitter to Flickr, Delicious to reddit, words and images bounce around the globe, spreading wide and fast. Journalists are adapting to the ever-shifting…
Melissa Ludtke
September 18, 2009
Technology

Blogs, Tweets, Social Media, and the News Business

‘Merely because a technology is popular with some users and journalists does not mean that its use will be beneficial to the news enterprise as a whole.’
Robert G. Picard
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Ours, Theirs and the Bloggers’ Zones: Compatible, Yet Different

Over the years, creating community on the Telegraph’s Web site has come to mean a lot more than someone leaving a comment at the bottom of an article.
Shane Richmond
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Engaging Youth in Social Media: Is Facebook the New Media Frontier?

A research project creates experimental applications for Facebook to learn whether the news habit can be fostered online and lead to civic engagement.
Christine Greenhow
September 16, 2009
International Journalism

Internet Censorship: The Myth, Oft Told, and the Reality

Protests in Iran and China have spotlighted the use of social media, showing its power in finding ways to push information past barriers set up by government.
Fons Tuinstra
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Confessing Errors in a Digital Age

‘With accuracy as the foundation of media credibility, setting the record straight is essential to restoring trust that is eroded by errors.’
Scott R. Maier
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Blogging: Taking a Look After a Decade of Growth

Scott Rosenberg’s book, “Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters,” looks at the history of blogging and offers his opinions on what, after 10 years…
Jonathan Seitz
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Closing the Credibility Gap

Web users have developed a set of tools for deciding what to trust online, and now journalists can learn from them.
Scott Rosenberg
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Why the News Media Became Irrelevant—And How Social Media Can Help

‘Only the savviest of journalists are using the networks for the real value they provide in today’s culture—as ways to establish relationships and listen to others.’
Michael Skoler
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Media Users, Media Creators: Principles of Active Engagement

In transforming ‘ourselves from passive consumers of media into active users … we’ll have to instill throughout our society principles that add up to critical thinking and honorable behavior.’
Dan Gillmor
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

The Public and Journalists: They Disagree on Core Values

In considering the modern relevance of Walter Williams’s “Journalist’s Creed,” it was well documented that people who aren’t journalists held increasingly negative attitudes toward news organizations. For example, The Pew…
Esther Thorson
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

The 21st Century Journalist’s Creed

A former newspaper editor urges journalists to ‘let go of the sense that we have control and recognize how much better public service journalism can be when we accept the…
Michael R. Fancher
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

An Explosion Prompts Rethinking of Twitter and Facebook

‘… this explosion was our “aha” moment in experiencing how social media, Twitter, in particular, opens up new possibilities in journalism.’
Courtney Lowery
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Reporting Relies on Questions: Now They Come From Readers

At MyReporter.com, StarNews readers get the conversation going by asking about what’s on their minds, and then reporters respond.
Vaughn Hagerty
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

Inviting the Rise of the Entrepreneurial Journalist

True/Slant is modeling the newsroom of the future by empowering contributors to build their own digital brands—and by changing the role of the editor.
Lewis DVorkin
September 16, 2009
Technology

Dealing With Disruption

As digital media gets ‘better, faster and cheaper. … [there is] little time for long-established human institutions like journalism to adapt.’
Jon Palfreman
September 16, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

What’s Old Can Be New Again—Assisted By Digital Media

‘It’s not a digital update of the newspaper, but it is a digital update of the community connection role I first learned about as a youth in Shenandoah.’
Steve Buttry
September 16, 2009
Technology

An Antidote for Web Overload

With a hunger for explanatory guidance amid the raging storm of Web news flashes, a journalist stresses context to attract digital users.
Matt Thompson
September 16, 2009
Opinion

Technology Diminishes Journalists’ Value

RELATED ARTICLE“Blogs, Tweets, Social Media, and the News Business”– Robert G. PicardIn May, Robert Picard wrote a piece in The Christian Science Monitor titled “Why journalists deserve low pay.” The…
September 16, 2009
Technology

What Is Journalism’s Place in Social Media?

‘Bringing our journalistic values to these environments that have captured the imagination of millions is one of the most promising ways we have of serving that interest.’
Geneva Overholser
September 16, 2009
Opinion

An Argument Why Journalists Should Not Abandon Objectivity

‘… objectivity does not require that journalists be blank slates free of bias. In fact, objectivity is necessary precisely because they are biased.’
Alex S. Jones
September 15, 2009
Technology

Social Media: The Ground Shifts

Social networks serving as Web services, not sites, ‘create new challenges for journalists, news organizations, and media companies that are only now starting to embrace social media.’
Richard Gordon
September 15, 2009
A Photographer’s Journey: From Newspapers to Social Media
Journalist’s Trade

A Photographer’s Journey: From Newspapers to Social Media

An Essay in Words and Photographs
Jim MacMillan
September 15, 2009
Opinion

George Weller Reported on World War II From Five Continents

George Weller was a highly praised novelist who was fluent in a number of languages when the Chicago Daily News sent him overseas in 1940 at age 33 to cover…
Jan Gardner
September 14, 2009
Opinion

Foreign News Reporting: Its Past Can Guide Its Future

America’s tradition of foreign affairs reporting is on full display in John Maxwell Hamilton’s “Journalism’s Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting,” published by Louisiana State University Press.“Since the…
Jonathan Seitz
September 14, 2009
Technology

Digital Media’s Key to Success: Must-Read Content

In observing what enables some content creators to draw steady and good-sized audiences, lessons emerge about the common factors that make this happen.
Brian Reich
September 14, 2009
Opinion

Learning About China’s Changes While Teaching Journalism

A U.S. journalism professor returns to China—after two decades—and discovers from his students all that has changed and what remains the same.
James Ross
September 11, 2009
Opinion

The Netroots: Bloggers and the 2008 Presidential Campaign

From their position in the ‘outermost reaches of the campaigns and the daily news cycle, [bloggers] managed to break into that once-impenetrable world.’ What difference did they make?
John McQuaid
September 11, 2009
Opinion

Spies and Journalists: Taking a Look at Their Intersections

Moscow recruited journalists for their access, insights and confidential information.
Murray Seeger
September 11, 2009
Nieman Notes

Embedding a Reporter With a Shakespearean Production

In moderating a blog and facilitating community reads and talk-backs, a journalist brings new voices and insights to arts coverage.
Alicia Anstead
September 11, 2009
Opinion

Afghanistan-ism: An Apt Metaphor for Foreign News Reporting

When independent judgment isn’t valued in the work journalists do overseas, the consequences for the nation can be devastating.
John Maxwell Hamilton
September 11, 2009
Nieman Notes

Adapting Investigative Reporting Skills to Policy Advocacy

‘My motto remains what it was when I reported on immigration: always hard-headed, never hard-hearted.’
Jerry Kammer
September 11, 2009
Journalist’s Trade

MediaBugs: Correcting Errors and Conversing

The Knight News Challenge describes Rosenberg’s MediaBugs project:All journalists make mistakes, but they sometimes view admitting errors as a mark of shame. MediaBugs aims to change this climate, by promoting…
September 9, 2009