Does it ever seem like all you see online are topics about who's going to rehab, who got divorced, who wore what to the latest fashion show, or stories about the "bare-foot bandit"? Why have newspapers (both online and in print) chosen to run more articles on seemingly unimportant topics as opposed to the real issues? Because those are the types of stories that sell.
Based on a recent article Washington Post writer Paul Farhi
While anyone can be a journalist nowadays, it doesn't mean that everyone has or understands the core principles of journalism.
The Next Ethics? Media Ethics Workshop, hosted by Kent State University on Sept. 16, gathered skilled journalists, college professors and prospect journalism students to discuss the current newswriting and reporting practices in today's media.
Among the distinguished speakers at the conference was Arianna Huffington,Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief of the Huffinton Post. In her speech, Ms. Huffington acknowledged that journalism practices were changing and, due to the introduction of new technology, forthcoming journalists needed to adapt to a new journalism environment.
Ms. Huffington encourages the new era of journalism through the use of blogs or social media. However, she believes that "today's journalists should re-visit and learn from the old-fashion journalism." In other words, journalists today should keep in mind the true essential ethics behind Journalism as presented by the Society of Professional Journalists:
- Journalists should demonstarte honesty, fairness, and audacity when gathering information and reporting news.
Undetected people may be watching you right now. They may be absolutely anywhere, spying on your every move.
The unusual irony about this is you allow it to happen. You put yourself out there to be detected nearly every single day.
What am I talking about, you ask? I am talking about social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare.
Social networking sites have become ever increasingly popular not only to the public but also to journalists.
Journalists typically use the websites in a professional manner like posting information about journalism or news that may be happening around them.
The public, on the other hand, tend to use the networking websites in a personal manner. They update their statuses multiple times a day, sometimes even including what their location is.
Burglars have been eying in on those statuses, using them to plan their next attack.
Now, you may be thinking, "This can't happen to me." The truth is, "Yes, it can." I'm sure this man never thought it could happen to him.
Burglars are also banding together to create a "burglary ring".
What can you do to protect yourself? Simple, don't post personal information on the Internet or add people you don't know.
If you must post personal information don't include your current location or whether you may be home or not.
To try and counter-act these attacks there is a website called pleaserobme.com. The site is used to inform the public on the dangers of social networking sites.
Now that you have been informed on the dangers of social networking sites, hopefully you will take caution and protect yourself.
Happy networking.
A question in the minds of media professionals is, what is the role of the media in the spread of world events and as a venue of public influence?
The Quran burning event has been a major topic in the media and has sparked the question of what the media should cover when it comes to something that could have a worldwide effect. Many news organizations have refused to print pictures and extended articles about Terry Jones' extremist threats because of their perceived ability to have a harmful worldwide effect.
Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, said in response to decisions to not extensively cover the story, "The freedom to publish includes the freedom not to publish."
The question of the role of media as public influence is hard to answer, especially when extensive coverage of a topic like the Quran burning would exasperate civil or religious extremists world wide and even endanger Americans overseas.
Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief of ProPublica, discussed the idea of media as public influence at the Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop 2010. Steiger discussed how modern news outlets have a goal of promoting stories that have a "high process of going viral" rather than topics that are "thought provoking...or challenging."
The question that the newspapers had to answer was whether the Quran burning story was a harmfully viral story or an important and thought provoking story worthy of public recognition and ultimately a form of public influence. Some decided that this story would become harmfully viral and would endanger the public as it influenced it if the story was printed in whole.
In this case, the reader can judge if these media outlets made the right choice in refusing to print this story. It can be the reader's job to keep the media outlets in check with the values of journalism and also to allow or not allow these media outlets to influence the public.
It comes down to personal judgment and an ability, or inability, to be influenced.
In recent years, the scope of journalism has shifted from the traditional forms of news gathering to a more online and multimedia approach. It's no secret that the majority of the general news-conscious public gathers more than 80% of their information from an online source. Combined with audio, video, pictures, AND shorter articles, journalistic news has made a shift...and so have the people who participate in its production.
With the race to make it online, journalists are learning to use social media sites, and the users of these sights, to their advantage.
Future journalists will be more a part of the community than ever. Bloggers will be relied on for credible sources. Everyone will become a part of social media by reporting what they see.
It used to be the journalists telling the community what they should know. Now it's become an online conversation of news between the two.
Community members have become their own journalists. They are already reporting the news around them using social media. Journalists need to learn how to use this to their advantage. Social media platforms shouldn't be used just as a way to get readers back to your site.
Social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube will become social media platforms for the news. These sites have become like editors by telling readers what's important. Readers are curious about what friends are saying and looking at.
Along with this, a new job will arise for those who can curate all the information flying around. Readers don't always have time to sift through everything. Important information can be pieced together from social media sites into a story. Storyful is currently working on using information from sites like Twitter and Youtube to do just this.
Twitter's launch of 'new' Twitter allows for expansion that will develop essential
With the advancement of technology, newspaper companies are losing their business to people who can get their information online at the click of a button without having to wait for the paperboy.
Chas Hartman of the University of Kentucky is trying to find an exact number, and currently has a survey set up online that you can fill out. It asks whether or not you read news (which if you don't, it won't do much good to fill out the survey), where you read it, etc. You can find the survey by checking out Gina Chen's blog, where she provides a link.
I think the question on journalist's minds is how they are going to make money if they no longer are publishing articles in newspapers that people have to buy. Eric Alterman wrote an essay for The New Yorker back in 2008 entitled Out of Print: The Life and Death of Newspapers in which he talks about the history of newspapers, and how they are slowly disappearing. As we've heard stated, online journalists do not get paid much of anything to write and article.
Ano
ther issue with newspapers going to online is that with social mediums such as Blogger and Twitter, people are able to get short summaries of the news, and from many different sources. There are dozens of different news reporters now online, and each striving to have their blogs and articles followed. While these bloggers and Tweeters may not be news reporters, they are still capable of taking stories and making them their own.
In the end, there will be some people that are willing to pay for news access online, but I feel that more people are going to try to find ways around it. The sites that offer free stories are going to have more people visiting than the one that charge.
Technology is constantly changing. Once you have what you think is the latest and greatest invention; someone bursts your bubble with something better. We want everything fast and free, so our friends at Google helped us out.
Many of us are aware of the new "instant search" that Google now provides. It makes searching even more quick and efficient.
What if YouTube does the same? Feross Aboukhadijeh, a Stanford junior and Facebook intern did just that. How did he do it? Three hours of coding.
If you're like me, you can't code at all and don't know the first thing about it. That is why I am amazed how Aboukhadijeh sat at his computer for three hours and all of a sudden became a famous contributor to the Internet.
YouTube offered Aboukhadijeh a job via Twitter but since he is an intern with Facebook had to decline the offer. So you won't find YouTube Instant on youtube.com.
Although it is still considered Youtube, it's actually called YouTube Instant. You have to go to Aboukhadijeh's site.
Google search for "YouTube Instant", or I'll make it even easier for you. Go to YouTube Instant and try it yourself.
Honestly, I think this is a great idea. The video starts literally starts searching after each key punch. On the downfall, it's only great if you know exactly what you're looking for. Otherwise it can get a bit annoying. Another is you can't click where ever on the stream to play whatever you desire. That option is simply not there. Also, fast internet is a must to get the full effect. My apologies to those who still use dial-up. I strongly suggest an upgrade.
Technology is rapidly advancing, and everyone must evolve with it. Just as radio stars became film stars when television was invented, journalists today must adapt from print to digital.
There are many things that differentiate news blogs from newspapers. The main difference is many news sites do not have enough money to hire a news room full of professional reporters due to the lack of advertising or investors, which leads to less experienced and fewer journalists working for the online site. Bloggers typically consist of newly graduated journalists and interns who will work for less money.
So how is a news site affected by this?
About two months ago when Pastor Terry Jones announced he planned to burn the Quran, the Muslim holy book, on September 11, 2010 the news sparked an international turmoil.
It appears that The New York Times is getting more involved with the growing phenomenon of social news. According to the article entitled "Betaworks and The Times Plan a Social News Service" by Jenna Wortham, The Times is partnering with Betaworks to create a new social news site called News.me.
In the ever expanding world of online social media and news it would seem fitting that a journalism institution such as The Times would be getting involved with social news. My feeling is that as much as The Times may or may not want to, they have to get on board with online social news. Sites like Twitter have forever changed the landscape of journalism by creating this instant source for breaking news that, in some ways, has helped kill off print newspapers: see Seattle Post-Intellingencer and Rocky Mountain News.
This collaboration between Betaworks, who are the creators of TweetDeck and Bit.ly, and The New York Times has been in the works for the past six months according to the article by Wortham. Not many details have been released about the site to this point which keeps the mystery intact.
When you direct yourself to the News.me site there is nothing more than a placeholder as a web page. However judging by the name of the site, one can only imagine the possibilities it may provide to the media consumer.
Initially it is said that News.me will debut as an IPad application and a web version may be introduced at a later date.
You may ask what does this do for newspapers and social media moving forward? It seems to this blogger that News.me is only another exciting tool that is coming available to journalists and the public in general. It remains to be seen what effect this venture and others of its kind will ultimately have on the newspaper industry. However with newspapers getting into the fold, it would seem that they are doing their best to change and evolve with today's ever changing society.
Recently, President Barack Obama announced that the combat mission in Iraq would be coming to an end. Instead of the 170,000 troops that were stationed in Iraq in 2007, there will be 50,000 troops to remain until 2011. The remaining troops will train and assist the Iraqi military.
U.S. Troops will no longer be allowed to perform combat missions unless asked and accompanied by Iraqi forces. This has been all over the news. Obama is making a great step towards doing what is right for the United States.
There have been enough casualties and injuries of United States soldiers over in Iraq. This recent news story may be found online. Since journalism has become more popular on the Internet, the need for printed newspapers has decreased drastically. News articles online are readily available and easily accessible, which is why they are so popular among the public. Plus, reading an article using the Internet doesn't require a purchase to read, such as a newspaper.
Unlike a newspaper, if an online article has a mistake it may be fixed with a few simple clicks. Instead, a newspaper has to be reprinted which takes time, and if people already bought the newspaper before the correcting, nothing may be changed.
I prefer to get my news via Internet especially news about touchy topics such as Obama relaying messages about Iraq. I want my information to be concise and accurate. Printed newspapers seem like The Middle Ages today.
How do you feel about where you get your news from? Also, what are your thoughts on Obama's message to the United States on withdrawing troops?
The formation of a new ethics seal has some journalists objecting to the idea of oversight. The TAO of Journalism seal states that journalists bearing it's seal are to be "transparent about who [they] are, Accountable for [their] mistakes, and Open to other points of view." Deborah Potter wrote in her blog Do Journalists need a new ethics pledge? that transparency, accountability and openness "are among the core values of journalism."
But just how should journalists be made to adhere to these "core values"?
The TAO of Journalism seal is a "promise to your readers" intended to allow "legacy journalist[s]...citizen journalist[s]... independent blogger[s], or anyone else practicing journalism in the broadest sense of the word" to gain credibility and trust from readers. The idea is that while there is no overseeing council in charge of making sure journalists who bear the TAO of Journalism seal adhere to the guidelines of the seal, the public is to be in charge of making sure these journalists do not violate those guidelines.
The aspect that many journalists are struggling with is, why do we oversight? As the editor of the Puerto Rico Sun Communications, Clarisel Gonzolez commented on Potter's article, "They can keep their seal, I don't need a seal to confirm my principles." This new seal, along with other seals like it, cause readers to distrust reporters--in most cases without cause. While meant to give more credibility and trust to journalists, it causes readers to have an ever more cautious and critical eye on a journalist's work.
For some journalists, however, perhaps this ethic seal would do wonders in keeping them in line with Potter's "core values." In the case of Mike Wise of the Washington Post, perhaps bearing the TAO of Journalism seal would have discouraged him from "Tweeting" false news. Wise claimed he was trying to make a point about the declining standards of the media, but "He made that point in the worst way imaginable: by making up a phony 'scoop' and posting it on Twitter."
How do we as journalists, then, figure out when we need, if ever, to prove our credibility? Is it only necessary if doubt falls upon our readers? Or is it our obligation as media personnel to give our readers every opportunity to closely examine our product with the ability to publicly criticize, punish and demand the truth if they find our product to be untrustworthy and unreliable?
It is interesting, but also discouraging to think that journalists might need to be held accountable in order to prove that they are meeting standards and properly incorporating the core values of journalism into their work. What does this say about the current state of our craft?
One of the biggest news this week was Stephen Hawking's release of his new book "The Grand Design", in which he argues that God did not have anything to do with the creation of the universe. In fact, Hawking states that "the 'Bing Bang' was the result of the laws of physics and did not need God to spark the creation of the universe". In other words, the universe created itself out of nothing, an idea known as spontaneous creation. Thus, the debate begins.
As expected, in a world where the majority of people belong to a certain religion, thoughts and comments against physics being the only explanation to the creation of the universe have been quickly spread throughout the web. Tweets on Twitter and video comments on YouTube are two examples of the ways people opt to share their thoughts. While a few comments clearly show support for Hawking's ideas, many others show strong disapproval against him. CNN reported that on Friday September 3rd, the same day Hawking revealed his book, religious leaders immediately responded to Hawking's explanation of existence.
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