Plagiarism in the workplace

By: Hannah Pickett

One would think that plagiarism is simply applicable in a college or education setting. Surely no one would be dumb enough to think they could get away with plagiarizing as a professional, right? Nope.

At my job, I rely a lot on e-mail to attain statistics. Area coaches e-mail me their stats and one of my writers, an adult, e-mails her stories in to me as well. Monday, the area football coaches sent me their side of the stats. In one coach's message to me, one of my writers, and the Earlham newspaper editor, he wrote: "Here you go. Not much detail, too many touchdowns to get too wordy. As always, change anything that you see fit."

I then realized that he had attached a document named "newspaper article." This raised a red flag to me as an editor since he had attached an article. I opened it, saved it, and set it aside since I was still waiting on the writer's stories. The other red flag that came to mind was the coach's choice of words-as always. To me, this meant that he had been doing it all season.

The next day I received the writer's articles. I opened her football article, and realized that it was identical to what the coach had sent. The writer had spelled out the numbers, but other than that there were no differences between the two.

I was frankly outraged and shocked that a grown woman would think she could get by with this and still get paid for it. I called my publisher and he was very unhappy too. I sent her an e-mail saying that plagiarism is not tolerated in an education setting and is most certainly not tolerated in a journalism setting. Her pay was cut since she did not write the article and she is on probation.

I think plagiarism is sometimes overlooked in a small town newspaper setting. Typically newspaper plagiarism is taken from more reputable, classier sources. In this case, I would have never caught it had it not been for the e-mail the coach sent. Where is the line of plagiarism drawn between providing useful information on a game and actually writing the article? Or is it even considered plagiarism?

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Publish 2 provides a link to journalism

By: Allison McNeal

Journalists may be able to use a new tool to bookmark Webpages and organize links through an Internet browser window.

The new tool called Publish 2 was developed to promote link journalism in newsrooms.

This site allows links to be tagged, edited, and selected for republication on a news Web site, or on a microblogging site, like Twitter and Delicious.

Publish 2 was designed exclusively for journalists and can be implemented in newsrooms, which can allow reporters can create a list of links around a news item and can create more editorial content for news Web sites.

Along with online journalists, newswriters could also benefit from this new tool.

Print reporters could use the Internet to post blogs easier and to get their information out to the public faster.

"An individual newspaper could get their whole newsroom to this and tap into what everybody's already reading and finding, and essentially create their own different wire service or just to publish these links on their Web site," co-founder and chief executive Scott Karp said.

One key factor to this technology is to obtain editorial control over what links are published.

Many customers do not want to see individuals use links or information that is unreliable, which could pose a huge debate on what information is correct.

"The same fact checking process that is used by newsrooms for stories needs to be developed for links," Karp said.  "Editors can have access and the final say over the links included in their title's news group on Publish 2 before they are republished on a Web site."

A way that journalist can validate information is by allowing a newswire feature, which will compare other journalists sources and information to validate that the story is correct.

According to Karp, other sources of information may be from other competitor's sites, but this mutual linking could have a positive impact on news organizations.

Publish 2 could also help newspapers break away from The Associated Press model, in which newspapers could still provide regional and national news to individuals.

"The AP story is a commodity, because it's published on 1,000 other Web sites too," Karp said.  "If there's a particular story that breaks, a page of links to other interesting reporting [of that story] is probably of more value to the reader than the commodity story that they've already read in all those different places."

With this new tool of technology, will journalists and consumers embrace Publish 2?  

Could this company change the business model of the newswire for publishers?

These questions will have to remain largely unanswered until individuals start to use and understand this new journalism tool.

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Who gets the credit

By: Kayla Miller

Studies are now showing that the color red is driving men wild. Though who is getting the credit for the study?

Reuter's reporter Will Dunham reports that a psychology professor, Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, had founded that red is the color of romance. According to Dunham, Elliot is the only one getting the credit for it.

From looking at NBC's version of the article, they had given credit not only to Elliot but to a woman researcher by the name of Daniel Niesta. Now who is this?

I don't know what Dunham is thinking, but it is necessary to get the facts right. Not giving credit to someone that deserves it probably isn't a smart thing to do.

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Just the facts, Ma'am

by Peter Merchlewitz

I can't tell if it's John E. McIntyre wonderfully droll speaking voice or just his knack for blogging about odd-ball journalism topics, but every Wednesday, I always like take a peek at his blog, whether it works for the BNR class or not. But this week, I just have to comment on this weeks submission.

Apparently, in his blog, McIntyre talks about his police reporter colleague, Peter Hermann, and how cops use their own language when talking to news reporters. Here are a few examples taken from McIntyre's blog:

Exited the premises: “Left the house.” Houses and apartments are always premises. And people, as if they were following stage directions, always exit.

Altercation: “Quarrel” or “fight.” Once someone gets shot or stabbed, the "altercation" has "escalated." Afterward, the “perpetrator” exits the premises.

Ejected from the vehicle: Think “thrown from the car.” It’s always a “vehicle,” not a “car,” even if the officer knows full well that it is a Ford Crown Victoria the size of your parents’ first house.

Discharged his weapon: “Fired his gun.”

The unit block of X Street: Never just “the first block.”

Failed to negotiate a curve: “Ran off the road.”

But the part I love the most about this most recent blog is McIntyre's reference to the old cop drama "Dragnet". Suffice to say, I feel like one of the fortunate one who've actually listened to, not watched!, to this old show. For you see, my grandmother was cleaning out her attic while she was getting ready to move into a smaller house when I stumbled across a collection of old time radio shows containing shows from "Gunsmoke" to "Amos and Andy", "Inner Sanctum Mysteries" and of course "Dragnet", old 1950s cigarette commercials and all.

For you see, listening to these tapes inspired me to pursue a career in voice acting, and thus changing my major from Vocal Performance to Corporate Communications. It's also a little dream of mine before to graduate to start a radio show here at Simpson where my friends and I would act out these old radio shows using old radio transcripts found on the Internet, like "Guy Noir: Private Eye" from Garrison Keillor's NPR show "Prairie Home Companion".

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Newspaper self-flagellation

By: Callie McBroom

Romensko is reporting a new response to "judging a newspaper by the number of copies in the market." That response is that it "makes no more sense than counting the number of television sets to evaluate a TV station," which obviously doesn't happen.

Matt Baldwin, vice president of research for MediaNews Group recently made a very good point. He said, "I'm continually baffled by the newspaper industry's insistence on self-flagellation when it comes to reporting circulation declines and the maddening failure to properly position the reality of media transformation."

He also points out that broadcast television and radio companies never seem to bring attention to the numbers of audience members that are turning away from their services everyday. And he's right. Pointing out the declines only makes things worse.

Additionally, just because circulation is down doesn't mean that other avenues to access newspapers aren't available. In fact, visitors to websites may even be increasing more than readership is decreasing.

Baldwin believes that "telling the whole story is our ultimate responsibility - to readers, consumers and advertisers alike." Because reporting the whole story is the purpose of journalism, it should be a priority for newspapers.

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Buying the Oval Office

By: Kelsey Knutson

It is not news to anyone who has had their eyes open these past few months; the spending that has been going on in this campaign is tremendous. 

From Sept. 8 to Oct. 4 alone the candidates together spent over $28 million. This amount of spending is a 64 percent increase from the spending of the 2004 presidential race. Money clearly equals power. 

Democratic candidate Barack Obama is venturing into a new form of media campaigning by spending just under $2 million for 30 minutes of air time on Oct 29. This has never been done before. This broadcast can be seen on CBS, ABC, and NBC.

In the past, presidential candidates have spent money on long ads on cable networks but never on the national networks. The last time a presidential candidate bought a 30 minute ad was Ross Perot in 1992. 

Each candidate has spend an enormous amount of money. Obama has spent more than McCain; however, that is only because he has raised more. (A lot more) But does the advertising spending really mean anything now? No. The advertising meant a lot more the campaigns six to seven months ago. Even way back to the primaries. People now have made up their minds.

However, the point is that the media has become the main force in these presidential campaigns. It is the most efficient way to get a message across to the country. But don't be fooled - political scientists say that just because one candidate outspends the other doesn't mean he/she will necessarily win. 

Money equals power, but when it comes to elections the people still hold the ultimate power. 

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Colorado newspapers plan to play dumb as the election inches closer

By: Kathryn Lisk

With the election less than a week away, the public is more interested than ever in where each presidential candidate stands on important issues. Generally, society counts on news sources to provide crucial information regarding either candidate and newspapers are dedicated to doing so.

However, 13 weekly papers across the front range of Colorado owned and operated by Colorado Community Newspapers has decided to leave any information regarding the election or either presidential candidate out of their weekly papers to give readers time to establish their own views.

This attempt to prevent media interference on readers is ironic because without including any important information about the election, readers will not be capable of fully establishing their own stance.

I understand that a reader could be offended when a newspaper endorses a candidate that differs from their candidate of choice. 

However, keeping all information from the reader regarding either candidate seems a bit extreme. Newspapers are supposed to provide readers with news. 

In a heated election like this, political news should not be avoided.

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Fading fast

By: Alex Jones

It is not new news that print forms of media are going out of style but which newspaper will be the first to discontinue it's daily print edition?

Christian Science Monitor will be the first nationally read newspaper to discontinue the printing of the paper daily and move to only printing weekly. The more important move for Christian Science Monitor is the shift to the internet. 

Great emphasis is being placed on the paper's Web site which will be updated continuously through out the day. The newest technology is also being researched to place on the Web site which is expected to attract more viewers.

The Christian Science Monitor has been declining in readership for the past 40 years but has high hopes when looking to the future. Implementing this newer form of the paper in April 2009. 

It's only a matter of time when all newspapers move completely to the internet. 

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Unbiased?

By: Sarah Harl

Kelly McBride, columnist for Poynter Online, a source for "everything ethics," speaks her mind on "gotcha" interviewing in a recent column.

McBride is referring to recent interviews conducted with John McCain and Sarah Palin by Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. It was argued by some that these were more interrogations than interviews designed to embarrass the duo, specifically Palin.

McCain described his displeasure with the reporting, saying he felt the journalists were not providing all of the necessary information to make the questions clear and straightforward.

McBride proceeded to give the readers a textbook explanation of deceptive journalism, and how what Couric and Gibson did was not considered deceiving journalism, and was therefore not biased.

Now, it is true that none of these questions were out of order: McBride is correct about that. What she fails to understand is that people find it biased when you drill Senator McCain and Governor Palin about hypothetical situations of country A invading country B, and then you ask Senator Obama what he likes to do with his family.

If Obama had been as aggressively interviewed as the Republican ticket, there probably would have been inconsistencies in his story too. And that is what is unfair about this situation: not that Palin and McCain were asked tough questions, but that Obama has consistently not been asked the same questions.

So McBride could have saved the lecture in fair journalism, because it can simply be achieved by asking both candidates the same questions in the same way.

Unbiased.

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A worry for journalist

By Kellie Green

As a journalist class many of us may be interested in becoming journalist at some point in our lives. Will it become harder to become a journalist than what it was like in before?

The reason I decided to write this blog was because I saw a blog on poynter.org saying that USA Today was laying off a lot of their journalist and workers.

In the article in USA Today it says that Gannett, "which is the largest newspaper publisher" is cutting 10 percent of jobs. There was a fear that some people at USA Today might loose jobs but it was clarified that this wouldn't happen.

What I began to worry about is the future after this cut. We know that newspapers are not making as much as they had in the past, is it going to get worse in the future.

If it does get worse then there might be cuts in the need for journalist. The article doesn't say what exactly is getting cut but it does say that no jobs at USA Today are going to be cut.

It does send a scare to journalist now and future journalists because they are cutting either their jobs or jobs near them. Hopefully a career in journalism will always be around and never be threatened of disappearing.

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It's easy being famous

By: Gabe Gilson

If you were to watch any college football on a Saturday, possibly on ESPN, you would get the analysis of many people that know football. Of course, all the analysis is coming from former players and coaches that played and coached football.

It seems to me like no matter how good of a speaker, journalist, or analyst one may be, if you were once involved with a big time college football program your chance of getting face time Saturdays in the fall on ESPN is easy. Take Lou Holtz for example. Holtz is 71, deafer than a bat and about as easy to understand as Sloth from The Goonies. Whenever he does give an opinion, it is usually something insanely and annoyingly biased about team he used to coach, Notre Dame.

Holtz is not the only example of people hired on ESPN because they “know” football. Mark May, who used to play offensive line for the University of Pittsburgh, Lee Corso, who coached most notably at the University of Indiana and Desmond Howard who won the Heisman Trophy playing at the University of Michigan. All of these “experts” are not very good at providing the most essential information to the college football fan.

Not everybody on ESPN who comes from a football background is horrible at their job though. Kirk Herbstreit, who played quarterback at Ohio State University, does a great job providing excellent insight into the college football world. Maybe it was the excellent education he got but he always seems to have the right thing to say at the right moment.

If I wanted to be a college football analyst on ESPN, I think it would be very hard without doing a lot of coaching or making myself well known in the world of college football. It is really too bad that the only people who are hired these days are they big time football boys.

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Everyone knows who Diddy is voting for...

By: Jessica Hartgers

If any of you have been paying attention to American pop culture you have noticed that Sean "Diddy" Combs is taking every advantage of any publicity he has gotten to promote Barack Obama in the race for presidency.

Diddy, who is one of the most recognized male celebrity, is openly honest with his political beliefs. For example, he sports shirts that say "I heart Michelle Obama." But the question is have any of Diddy's millions of fans asked him why he supports Obama? My guess is no.

While Diddy is clearly not the only celebrity to voice his opinions in the media, he is a very influential person and I wonder how many of his fans see his great support for Obama and decide that they themselves are going to vote for Obama also, without making an educated decision.

The responsible thing for Diddy to do would be to use the journalists and free publicity to educate viewers instead of influence them.

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Swinging the axe

By: Lexie Hagerty

It isn't a surprise these days that newspaper and magazine advertisements are going down. Every other media news story is about a newspaper or magazine that has now cut more employees due to the decrease in ad sales.

However, Mediaweek's article about one specific magazine still came as a huge shock to me.

Rolling Stone had to let go of seven employees in the last couple of days, a cut of less than 2 percent of the magazines 400 full-time employees. It is a slow start, but cuts are inevitable.

The media world should have seen this coming with such an old magazine, but yet it is still so hard to believe. This is Rolling Stone we are talking about. The magazine that any celebrity would kill to be in or even mentioned in.

If Rolling Stone can't overcome the new change in media, there is definately no hope for any of the smaller printed media.

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The Drudge Report’s accuracy

By: Sara Crouse

The Drudge Report has been known to produce high profile stories over the years. The Clinton Scandal first emerged on the Drudge Report. The Drudge Report has also been known to exploit its fair share of baloney.

Rarely, does a local or national paper generate a story idea from The Drudge Report for fear of its contents being too outlandish. Papers and news sources educate the public on current events, and any source that may not give true information is often disregarded.

Earlier today the report published “2001 Obama: Tragedy that ‘Redistribution of Wealth’ not Pursued by Supreme Court.” Fox News was quick to jump on the news, rather than casting it aside as hushed gossip during a drink with a coworker.

Fox News’ hasty decision to pick up the story will come back to haunt them. The attack on Obama’s statement appeared to many as a harsh blow from extreme Republicans picking a fight.

Whoever first reported the statement forgot to recognize it’s origin from a long interview, in which Obama addressed issues concerning civil rights cases focusing on minorities rights. In context to the interview, the term ‘wealth’ meant qualitative wealth, rather than quantitative economic wealth.

Interpretation of the initial quote can be described as Obama’s support for the redistribution of civil rights, but not through economic means only.

It’s important to base reporting interpretations from the entire interview, rather than picking and choosing. While The Drudge Report said Clinton had options, a journalist/reporter has only one option. That option is presenting the truth.

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Deadlines come and go

By: Taylor Browning

One thing I've come to realize it that a deadline is not the end of the world, just the end to your project at hand.

I thought about our stories we are writing in class and thought about the reporters for major newspaper and multimedia outlets. Being assigned a strong project with a short amount of time, on the national news basis, would be really difficult to accomplish.

With the election coming up and newspapers trying to find new angles on the subject, it would be even more difficult to create, research, and write more and more articles on the same thing, but with a twist.

I am thankful we get to relate our stories to Simpson Campus, or else I would probably still be researching and writing my first story!

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NRA gets shot down by Virginia newspapers

By: Erin Floro

The National Rifle Association has proposed to several newspapers in Virginia and other states about wrapping their products in plastic anti-Barack Obama advertisements on Election Day. The plastic wrap would read: "Vote for Freedom... Defeat Obama."

Although the Richmond Times-Dispatch originally told employees they would accept the NRA's deal, they now report that the newspaper's wrapping will not feature the gun lobby's political advertisement.  The Virginian-Pilot also rejected the proposal.

This tactic may be unusual, however the current scheme is not the first time the NRA has employed ads in newspapers. Two years ago in Montana, the gun lobby used a similar technique to support a candidate for re-election in the U.S. Senate.

The newspapers' say they rejected the proposal to prevent appearing as though they only endorse one point of view.  The Pilot's policy, for example, is to sell space on its print pages to candidates or interest groups of varying persuasions.

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Breaking news in Northeast Iowa

By: Quinn Albrecht

There has been some late news coming from Northern Iowa today. A woman and her two children went missing sometime Sunday evening and where reported missing Monday morning.

The three were found about 8:00 am Monday in rural Littleton. 

This would not be such a strange situation, had this been the first time these three have been in the news. In December of 2007 the woman, Michelle Kehoe, and her two sons, Sean and Seth, plunged into the Iowa river in Iowa City. Several people passing by helped recover the three out of the icy waters.

I remember this story very clearly and thought it was fairly odd. No further investigation followed the accident however. The accident got extensive news coverage at the time. This recent accident is receiving a lot of coverage as well, but the Buchanan County Deputies are keeping a lot of information to themselves at this time.

They say that there is not public threat at this time and no warrants have been issued. I am concerned with the large media coverage that is hitting this very small town, but there is no news to report on at this time. When do news stations decided to let something like this go, and move to the next big story.

There are two main new stations in the area, and the one that is the furthest away, seems to have better coverage of the story. It seems that to one station the story is dying before it even gets started.

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MTV: get out the vote campaign

By: Shauna Agan

While watching MTV tonight I saw a commercial where a bunch of young adults, including the members of Fallout Boy, were sitting around having conversations about the election. In this particular commercial, a young man was speaking about how many opportunities Barack Obama is providing for minorities and that this has never happened in a campaign before.

As I continued watching my show and more commercials came on, I saw four more MTV made political commercials. Two were repeats, but two were new commercials.

One of these commercials featured musical artist Pink. Pink was briefly explaining the need to voice your opinion and vote.

In the end of Pink’s commercial, she expressed that she had the right to her opinion just as Sarah Palin has the right to her opinion. To me, this insinuates that their opinions are different, and Pink is an Obama supporter.

The final commercial I saw was another group of young adults in a conversation about the election. While I cannot remember exactly what was said in this commercial, I do remember that the commercial supported Obama also.

These commercials do not specifically tell individuals to vote for Obama, but rather they promote the power of voting. However, every one of these commercials does mention support for Obama somewhere in them.

MTV has a lot of power and influence, especially within the community of young adults. Teenagers and young adults are the target audience for MTV.

By running these ads, MTV is campaigning for Obama and promoting his name to young voters. I do not have any problems with MTV running advertisements for Obama because MTV has a right to voicing the opinion of their company just as any other company has the right to voice their company’s opinions.

The problem I do have with these advertisements is that MTV has always been about getting out your vote no matter which candidate you vote for or which party you are in favor of. These commercials do promote individuals voting, but they also add towards the end of all of them that they are supporting Obama.

If MTV wants to openly endorse Obama, they should do that rather than running commercials that just insinuate they want Obama to win.

Furthermore, I believe that commercials promoting to get out and vote and voice your opinion should be separate from commercials supporting Obama. It is okay to have both, but MTV should keep them separate so it does not look like they are saying get out and vote for Obama.

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New Gen. New Times

By: Adrian Aitken

As technology advances today so must the media to keep up with the times. Newspaper publishers especially need to keep this in mind because the medium has been around for quite some time with little change.

Recently publishers have begun uploading videos onto their respective websites including Simpson's own. Even now this technique alone has become outdated and the New York Times are combating it.

Videos are being uploaded to the Times' website in high definition bringing the company into the latest generation of technology. To usher in the new format the site itself is getting an overhaul.

The entire library is being transferred to the high definition format and given a wide screen format. Also the videos are given their own window to enhance downloads and the quality of the video. Another piece now added to the site includes a "most viewed" videos section for quick picks.

By staying caught up with the times and technology newspaper publishers have a chance of increasing their lifespan a little longer. Also upgrading the site may attract younger people who could become customers in the future which is also need to stay alive.

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The bashing is getting out of control.

By: Katie Anthony

I will begin this by just stating that I am a supporter of Barack Obama and that this blog is going to be extremely biased and it could possibly make a lot of people angry. Somehow, I'll live with that.

Today in class we discussed the scandal that happened over the weekend with the woman that faked the "B" in her face claiming (stereotypically at that) that an Obama support had sexually molested her. Considering the "victim" ended up confessing to doing this to herself (after, of course, realizing that the "B" was backwards) it got me thinking.

This "victim" talked to both Palin and McCain after the alleged incident. Not to mention the amount of "free publicity" she got for McCain and Palin. Now, I'm not saying or implying by any means, that McCain or Palin supported her doing, but are McCain supporters getting desperate?

This evening in Dayton, Ohio, McCain gave a speech at his rally. However, it was reported by Slate that his message could be summarized into one word; "Boo." This headline got my attention because it read "Political Halloween," and those two words normally don't go together.

McCain seems to have fallen back into the Obama bashing, again, grasping at anything he can get his hands on in order to get his number back up. However, and correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe the results were that the more McCain bashed Obama, the lower his numbers got.

Call me crazy, but I think that McCain really is grasping at all straws. I'm not sure what's going on in his head, but I don't understand why they [politicians] find it necessary to bash each other. I realize it may be "part of the race," but I think that the media can find another angle to report on.

For me, the bashing has become old news, and doesn't need to be reported on over and over and over again.

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