Students

Download Chapter Quiz

If you’d like to be inspired by works of journalism, try exploring the Pulitzer Prize winners at http://www.pulitzer.org/.

To examine the roots of “The Elements of Journalism” cited in this chapter, see http://journalistsresource.org/tip-sheets/foundations/principles-of-journalism, the result of a task force of journalists in the 1990s.

Former New York Times reporter Doug McGill writes on his website, “In the 2010’s, my growing interest in meditation and Buddhadharma led me to an ongoing project to reconcile journalistic free speech with the moral imperatives of right speech.” Read more at The McGill Report, http://www.mcgillreport.org/.

As you consider independence from sources, see the NPR ethics guidelines under “Impartiality” at https://www.npr.org/ethics.

Fact checking is one key to moving beyond a journalism of assertion and on to verification. http://www.factcheck.org/ is a project of Annenberg Public Policy Center to verify claims made in public. The organizers will take your questions at http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/#. And if you wonder about news coverage of science, try http://www.factcheck.org/scicheck/.

Edited by Craig Silverman, “Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting” includes how to verify digital social media such as photos and videos.
https://datajournalism.com/read/handbook/verification-2

Barnidge, Sandra Knisely, “Misinformation & The Mysterious “Dr. P”: The Strange and Unresolved Tale of the Alabama COVID Parties.” Medium.com, July 5, 2020, https://medium.com/@skbarnidge/misinformation-the-mysterious-dr-p-the-strange-and-unresolved-tale-of-alabamas-covid-parties-20adbad93122.

CBS News, “Military housing contractor ignored dangerous filth and misled Air Force, investigation shows.” CBSNews.com, June 18, 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/balfour-beatty-mold-ant-infestations-and-leaks-inside-homes-managed-by-one-of-the-militarys-largest-housing/.

CBS Evening News, “Investigation finds military housing contractor ignored dangerous conditions.”CBS.com, June 18, 2019, https://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs_evening_news/video/U3PqHeUjjk7eczM5LI6jcehsO67BXxLb/investigation-finds-military-housing-contractor-ignored-dangerous-conditions/.

CBS This Morning, “New evidence of military housing fraud.” CBS.com, November 20, 2019, https://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs_this_morning/video/dKcK0R_WMwVyKYVL22sKs_ahEz2X8d7I/military-housing-company-falsified-records-as-families-lived-in-terrible-conditions-former-employee/.

Farrow, Ronan, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2019.

Farrow, Ronan, “From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories.” The New Yorker, October 10, 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories.

Kantor, Jodi and Megan Twohey, “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades.” NYTimes.com, October 5, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html.

Kantor, Jodi and Megan Twohey, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, New York: Penguin Press, 2019.

Kwiatkowski, Marisa, Mark Alesia and Tim Evans, “A blind eye to sex abuse: How USA Gymnastics failed to report cases.” IndyStar.com, June 24, 2020, https://www.indystar.com/story/news/investigations/2016/08/04/usa-gymnastics-sex-abuse-protected-coaches/85829732/.

McGill, Doug, Jeremy Iggers and Andrew R. Cline, “Death in Gambella: What Many Heard, What One Blogger Saw, and Why the Professional News Media Ignored it.” Journal of Mass Media Ethics 22 (2007): 280-299.

Pell, M.B., “Ambushed At Home.” Reuters.com, July 19, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military/.

Pell, M. B., “Special Report: Air Force landlord falsified records to boost income, records show.” Reuters.com, June 18, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-maintenance-specialrepor/special-report-air-force-landlord-falsified-records-to-boost-income-records-show-idUSKCN1TJ18E.

Pitts, Jr., Leonard, “Why Citizen Journalism Doesn’t Measure Up.” The Dallas Morning News, October 6, 2010, https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2010/10/06/leonard-pitts-why-citizen-journalism-doesn-t-measure-up/.

Povilaitis, Angela, “Read prosecutor's statement at Larry Nassar sentencing.” CNN.com, January 24, 2018,
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/us/nassar-sentencing-prosecutor-full-statement/.

Shirky, Clay, “The Columbia Report on Rolling Stone's Rape Story Is Bad for Journalism.” The New Republic, April 7, 2015, https://newrepublic.com/article/121475/columbias-journalism-school-didnt-need-issue-report-rolling.

Ugland, Erik and Jennifer Henderson, “Who is a Journalist and Why Does it Matter? Disentangling the Legal and Ethical Arguments.” Journal of Mass Media Ethics 22 (2007): 241-261.

Download Chapter Quiz

On https://engagedjournalism.com/ you can explore the Engaged Journalism Accelerator, a program by the European Journalism Center that offers many resources in regards to engaged journalism.

Explore the output of The City’s Open Newsroom in New York, NY (https://www.thecity.nyc/the-open-newsroom), the City Bureau in Chicago, IL (https://www.citybureau.org/) or Curious Texas from Dallas
Morning News in Dallas, TX (https://www.dallasnews.com/news/curious-texas/).

Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting has a website that offers a host of engaged journalism output, including articles, podcasts, and videos: https://revealnews.org/.

Spaceship Media (https://spaceshipmedia.org/) uses a method they call dialogue journalism. Explore their site and the ways in which dialogue journalism differs from engaged journalism.

Electionland is a project by ProPublica where newsrooms from across the US work together to reveal issues with voter suppression: https://www.propublica.org/electionland.

On https://trustingnews.org/, Trusting News provides many resources on trust in news and the relationship to news audiences, including courses, handouts and case studies.

The Engaged Journalism Lab: https://medium.com/the-engaged-journalism-lab.

The Listening Post Collective: https://www.listeningpostcollective.org/.

2018 Edelman Trust Barometer: https://www.edelman.com/research/2018-edelman-trust-barometer.

Blatchford, Taylor, “What ‘Engagement Reporting’ Is And Why It Matters,” January 22, 2018, http://mediashift.org/2018/01/engagement-reporting-matters.

Hefty, Jennifer. “How the Coloradoan Reports on Crime,” February 8, 2018, https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2018/02/08/how-coloradoan-reports-crime/317804002/.

Joy, Mayer, “A More Nuanced Understanding of Journalism is Desperately Needed,” Medium.com, June 29, 2018, https://medium.com/trusting-news/a-more-nuanced-understanding-of-journalism-is-desperately-needed-and-we-need-our-communities-7863334f9dbb.

Knight Foundation, Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy, February 5, 2018, https://medium.com/trusting-news/knight-commission-report-calls-for-radical-transparency-in-journalism-trusting-news-can-help-95e3a7bd044f.

Oplinger, Doug, “This is Akron: Journalists and Community Members Discuss Local Solutions,” April 29, 2019, https://jefferson-center.org/this-is-akron-journalists-and-community-members-discuss-local-solutions/.

Somm, Marcus, “Small is Beautiful,” Shorenstein Center Reports, June 3, 2019, https://shorensteincenter.org/small-is-beautiful/.

Download Chapter Quiz

Read about the generational divide in terms of how journalists think about objectivity: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/objectivity-neutrality-not-option-some-journalists

The American Press Institute has a page with suggestions for how journalists should manage their bias: https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/bias-objectivity/tools-manage-bias/

Some articles on the relationship between objectivity and transparency:

• https://theconversation.com/journalism-needs-to-practice-transparency-in-a-different-way-to-rebuild-credibility-111474
• https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2020/06/18/objectivity-vs-transparency-let-journalists-be-opinionated-on-social/
• https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2019/03/journalism-needs-to-practice-transparency-in-a-different-way-to-rebuild-credibility.html

Cline, Andrew, “Media/Political Bias,” http://rhetorica.net/bias.htm

Deto, Ryan, “Pittsburgh Post-Gazette removes a Black reporter from George Floyd protest coverage, says union,” Pittsburgh City Paper, June 4, 2020, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/pittsburgh-post-gazette-removes-a-black-reporter-from-george-floyd-protest-coverage-says-union/Content?oid=17403485.

Hefty, Jennifer, “Is the Coloradoan biased? We answer your coronavirus coverage concerns,” Coloradoan, May 26, 2020, https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/trusting-news/2020/05/26/coloradoan-biased-we-answer-your-coronavirus-coverage-concerns-covid/5221951002/.

McBride, Kelly, “NPR Should Have Revealed Totenberg-RBG Friendship Earlier,” NPR, September 24, 2020, https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2020/09/24/916057100/nprs-should-have-revealed-totenberg-rbg-friendship-earlier.

Red Cross series and responses
Elliott, Justin, “10 Serious Problems With ProPublica NPR Reporting on Red Cross,” ProPublica, https://www.propublica.org/documents/item/1669928-10-serious-problems-with-propublica-npr.html.

Elliott, Justin and Jesse Eisinger, “Red Cross Demands Corrections to Our ‘Misleading’ Coverage. Here’s Our Response,” ProPublica, February 18, 2015, https://www.propublica.org/article/red-cross-demands-corrections-to-our-coverage-our-response.

Elliott, Justin, Jesse Eisinger and Laura Sullivan, “The Red Cross’ Secret Disaster,” ProPublica and NPR, October 29, 2014, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-red-cross-secret-disaster.

NPR “Special Report: The American Red Cross,” https://www.npr.org/series/377506201/special-report-on-the-american-red-cross.

Download Chapter Quiz

You’ve read about ARLnow in the textbook, now read the hyperlocal news organization’s news coverage directly at https://www.arlnow.com/

The ProPublica Nerd Blog shares “secrets for data journalists and newsroom developers.”  https://www.propublica.org/nerds

Digital innovations can enhance journalism. Journalist Austin Keating describes how “Three communications fields turn to 3-dimensional visualizations” in his article on Medium, yet another innovative site:  https://medium.com/@akeatin/three-communication-fields-turn-to-3-dimensional-visualizations-b833f024b6b0#.1dfzqgko1

Legacy news organizations find themselves with gaps in news coverage. The Pew Research organization explains, “In 21 states, local newspapers lack a dedicated D.C. reporter covering Congress.” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/07/in-21-states-local-newspapers-lack-a-dedicated-reporter-keeping-tabs-on-congress/

After decades of a familiar distribution system for newspapers and broadcast news organizations, the companies have to navigate the “new” digital distribution methods. A study by the American Press Institute reveals how some news organizations have decided about paywalls: https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/research-review/paywall-decisions/

Read up on DocumentedNY and explore their resources: https://documentedny.com/

Abernathy, Penelope Muse, “News Deserts and Ghost Newspapers: Will Local News Survive?” Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, accessed August 21, 2020.
https://www.poynter.org/locally/2020/unc-news-deserts-report-2020.

Adgate, Brad, “How Hyperlocal News Websites Are Surviving The Coronavirus Pandemic—And Some Are Even Profitable,” Forbes.com, April 27, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2020/04/27/some-hyperlocal-media-websites-are-profitable/#359a1a785d9a.

Briggs, Mark, Journalism Next: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing, Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2010.

Gillmor, Dan, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. North Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Books, 2006.

Grueskin, Bill, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves. The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism. New York: Tow Center for Digital Journalism, 2011, https://www.cjrarchive.org/img/posts/report/The_Story_So_Far.pdf.

Shirky, Clay, The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, http://www.cjr.org/the_business_of_digital_journalism/.

Sullivan, Margaret, Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy. New York: Columbia Global Reports, 2020.

Waldman, Steve, “Curing Local News for Good,” Columbia Journalism Review, March 31, 2020, https://www.cjr.org/analysis/local-news-rescue-plan.php.

Download Chapter Quiz

Bob Woodward is interviewed on 60 Minutes on his interviews with Donald Trump: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-bob-woodward-rage-60-minutes-2020-09-13/

The official website of the Honeyland documentary: https://honeyland.earth/

Columbia Journalism Review’s analysis of the coverage of the shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/christchurch-shooting-media-coverage.php

Katie Couric interviews Jayson Bair: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/brian-williams-talks-to-matt-lauer-in-first-interview-since-suspension-468065347576

Radio Television Digital News Association Code of Ethics: http://www.rtdna.org/content/rtdna_code_of_ethics

Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.

National Press Photographers Code of Ethics: https://nppa.org/code_of_ethics.

NPPA Special Report: Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography: https://nppa.org/node/5127

Ethics cases
http://ethics.unl.edu/ethics_resources/online/journalism.shtml 
https://ethicscasestudies.mediaschool.indiana.edu/  
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/cases.cfm?fam=MEDIA  
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2003/tip-sheets-ethics-1994-2010/ 
http://www.spj.org/ethicscasestudies.asp  

Codes of ethics
Radio Television Digital News Association http://www.rtdna.org/content/rtdna_code_of_ethics 
Society of Professional Journalists http://spj.org/ethicscode.asp 
National Press Photographers Association https://nppa.org/code_of_ethics 
Online News Association http://journalists.org/resources/build-your-own-ethics-code/ 
NPR Ethics Handbook http://ethics.npr.org/ 
The New York Times http://www.nytco.com/who-we-are/culture/standards-and-ethics/ 
American Society of Magazine Editors https://www.asme.media/editorial-guidelines

Download Chapter Quiz

The Newseum in Washington D.C. showcases the journey of the press and its First Amendment protections. Even if you can’t visit in person, you can peruse the online exhibits at http://www.newseum.org/exhibits/online/

Where better to explore the First Amendment than the First Amendment Center at https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/first-amendment-center/about-the-first-amendment-center/

Even music has First Amendment implications. “Freedom Sings” is a program of the First Amendment Center. Here’s a sample of the program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P67QIPFETdY&feature=youtu.be

Explore allegations of espionage with PBS: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/spc/multimedia/espionage/

Daniel Ellsberg is the man behind the Pentagon Papers. Read his biography at https://www.ellsberg.net/bio

See a documentary called “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” by New Day Films. Read about it at: http://www.pbs.org/pov/mostdangerousman/film-description/

View significant historical events, court cases, and ideas that have shaped our current system of constitutional First Amendment jurisprudence, presented by the Freedom Forum. Also stories, commentaries and roundups of First Amendment disputes: https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/first-amendment-center/

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press maintains online “publications and topical guides on First Amendment and Freedom of Information issues.” Current stories, plus archives and much more: www.rcfp.org

Bollinger, Lee, The Tolerant Society: Free Speech and Extremist Speech In America, New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Lewis, Anthony, Make No Law, New York: Random House, 1991.

Middleton, Kent R. and William Lee, The Law of Public Communication, 8th ed. New York: Longman, 2011.

Pember, Don R. and Clay Calvert, Mass Media Law, 16th ed. Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill, 2009-2010.

Download Chapter Quiz

Daphne Caruana Galizia who was killed after covering the Panama Papers. Her blog contains much information on the Panama Papers and her coverage: https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/

The Panama Papers were covered extensively by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/

The Biden administration acted quickly to undo Trump’s changes to the Voice of America:
https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/01/21/959290221/trump-ally-at-voice-of-america-replaced-by-news-executive-he-recently-demoted

The story of Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks also highlights themes discussed in this chapter. The “CitizenFour” documentary tells his story: https://citizenfourfilm.com/.

Information is vital to an objective method of inquiry. Project Vote Smart provides a way to investigate political candidates: http://votesmart.org/.

While it has some fun with its “truth-o-meter” graphics, Politifact is a fact-checking site that has won a Pulitzer Prize. http://www.politifact.com/

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one,” said A.J. Liebling.  “The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords” is a documentary that describes some of the history of African-American publishers. Read about it at http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/index.html.

Fact checking is one key to moving beyond a journalism of assertion and on to verification. http://www.factcheck.org/ is a project of Annenberg Public Policy Center to verify claims made in public.

Edited by Craig Silverman, “Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting” includes how to verify digital social media such as photos and videos. http://verificationhandbook.com/book2/

The Center for Science in the Public Interest “has long sought to educate the public, advocate government policies that are consistent with scientific evidence on health and environmental issues, and counter industry’s powerful influence on public opinion and public policies.” See more at http://www.cspinet.org/.

Barnhurst, Kevin, “The Interpretive Turn in News,” Journalism and Technological Change: Historical Perspectives, Contemporary Trends, pp. 111-114, Ed. Clemens Zimmerman and Martin Schreiber, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.

Cline, Andrew, “Media/Political Bias,” http://rhetorica.net/bias.htm

Fink, Katherine and Michael Schudson, “The Rise of Contextual Journalism, 1950s-2000s,” Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism 15(1), pp. 3-20, 2014.

Graves, Lucas, Brendan Nyhan, and Jason Reifler, “Why Do Journalists Fact-Check? The Role of Demand- and Supply-Side Factors,” Midwest Political Science Association, March 30, 2015.

Murphy, Dan, “Joe McCarthy, Glenn Greenwald and Me,” The Christian Science Monitor, January 16, 2014, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0116/Joe-McCarthy-Glenn-Greenwald-and-me.

National Public Radio, “This is NPR. And these are the standards of our journalism,” NPR Ethics Handbook, ethics.npr.org

Justin Elliott and Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica, and Laura Sullivan, NPR, 2015
“The Red Cross’ Secret Disaster.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-red-cross-secret-disaster

“Red Cross Demands Corrections to Our ‘Misleading’ Coverage. Here’s Our Response.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/red-cross-demands-corrections-to-our-coverage-our-response

“Special Report: The American Red Cross.”
http://www.npr.org/series/377506201/special-report-on-the-american-red-cross

“10 Serious Problems With ProPublica NPR Reporting on Red Cross,”
https://www.propublica.org/documents/item/1669928-10-serious-problems-with-propublica-npr.html.

Scott, A.O., “Intent on Defying an All-Seeing Eye,” The New York Times, October 23, 2014,
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/movies/citizenfour-a-documentary-about-edward-j-snowden.html?_r=0.