"Infotainment not information"
Sunday, September 11, 2011
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The latest in news-industry issues, as written by multimedia journalism and integrated marketing communication students at Simpson College.
To be or not to be...a journalistic company? A recent article posed this question to some of the largest corporations in the world. Sam Diaz, a technology and business blogger, begun to explore the role and responsibility that that these Internet companies now hold in our society in one of his latest posts.
There are many varied interpretations of the journalistic phrase "off the record". To some it means the comments can be used as long as there is no attribution. To some it means that anything said can only be used as indirect background information, without attribution or direct quotation. And still to others it means anything said during an interview is unable to be used in any form whatsoever.
With the variety of definitions, how can anyone ever be certain what a source means when they want to be interviewed "off the record"? A good practice is suggested on JournoWorld, which states:
if there is any doubt at all about the status of a conversation then you should clarify it.Jamie McIntyre, a former senior pentagon correspondent for CNN, wrote that he often begun off-the-record dinners in the pentagon in the same manner. "Just to be clear and so there is no misunderstanding," he would proclaim in a somber voice, "when we say off the record, we mean not for reporting in any form, (pause for effect).. unless it's REALLY, REALLY good."
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