New tool for journalists is unveiled

By: Allison McNeal

Journalists use a variety of tasks and functions to get the inside scoop on a story.

Since many companies use different tactics, organizations like the World Wide Web Consortum (W3C) have started to develop semantic tools and language to integrate these functions.

Web 3.0 recently was introduced to showcase semantic tools, which are applications that are used to show different formats and can be understood by new applications that are used in reporting.

"The semantic web is an engineering solution that will allow [new applications] to be meshed and available for use by machines globally," journalism.co.uk said.

With this new tool, projects like OpenID, Friend of a Friend, and Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities have started to open up.

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different Web sites, and allows users to have control of their login.

Businesses also benefit by allowing a lower cost of password and account management, while drawing in new web traffic.

Friend of a Friend gives makes it easier to share and use information about people and their activities like photos, calendars, and weblogs.

It also can be used to transfer information between Web sites and to automatically extend, merge, and reuse it online.

Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities can be used to enable community sites to merge their data and enables new kinds of usage scenarios for online community site data.

This organization also allows innovative semantic applications to be built on top of the existing social World Wide Web.

According to journalism.co.uk, an individual could do a search on Facebook and get results back from within that site, but also blog results from Technorati, comments from Flickr albums, and YouTube videos.

"In the semantic web, it is not just people who are connected together in some meaningful way, but documents, events, places, hobbies, pictures, you name it!" said John Breslin, the founder of the Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities project. "And it is the commercial applications that exploit these connections that are now becoming interesting."

Even though these corporations believe that the Internet will allow individuals and different systems to interact with each other, will consumers want to embrace this new tool?

If a consumer searches Facebook or MySpace, will they want to be have results pop up from other Web sites?

While there may be no clear answer, only journalists and consumers will have to put this new tool to the test in the months and years to come.

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Journalists lie to tell the truth

By: Kathryn Lisk

Last week, my blog was centered around the idea that journalists must ensure that they get their story right before running it.

 Most people would assume that telling the truth to everyone involved in the story would be included in this. But is it?

On The Media examined several cases where journalists went undercover and lied about their identity to their sources in order to cover a story. 

Nellie Bly used her theatrics to fool workers of an insane asylum. She spent 10 days as a patient and once she was released, she wrote a two-part story about the unethical conditions. Her efforts led to more funding within the facility.

On the other hand, Ken Silverstein took undercover reporting to the next level. He called himself a consultant in the market for a Washington lobbying firm and was equipped with a new suit, fake glasses and even false business cards. 

I understand that certain stories cannot be written without undercover journalists. In Bly's case, her reporting led to a positive change. However, as an editor, I would never encourage one of my reporters to go undercover. 

If the public expects its news source to be reliable and truthful, reporters must remain truthful to all members of the community. Even to those who may not be honest with reporters.

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