Linking in

A couple of years ago, I heard WNBC “tech guru” Sree Sreenivasan recommend the free social networking site LinkedIn as indispensable for journalists. I didn’t join then but I have now, and I’ve discovered a few things. First off, it was easy to create my profile. The hardest part was deciding which information [...]

Aggressive or offensive?

The case of KDFW-TV reporter Rebecca Aguilar should raise questions in TV newsrooms everywhere. Aguilar was suspended after a parking-lot interview she did with a 70-year-old man who had killed two people trying to break into his home-based business in separate incidents.

After viewers complained vociferously, Aguilar was suspended. But the station’s actions are [...]

Declaring war on errors

The founder of the Web site Regret the Error (slogan: Mistakes Happen), Craig Silverman, has a new book out by the same name. It’s not just a compendium of hilarious newspaper corrections, although there are plenty of them, including these winners:
* “We spelt Morecambe, the town in Lancashire, wrong again on page 2, G2, [...]

Working under pressure

Journalism isn’t an easy job anywhere in the world, but in some parts of the world, it’s downright dangerous. Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger, and May Thingyan Hein, a Burmese freelance reporter, have both pushed the limits in their countries by writing about controversial topics at a time when fellow journalists are being censored [...]

Are reporters doomed?

A British newspaper editor is predicting “the end of the reporter” in a new media world. David Leigh of the Guardian envisions a future in which “news bunnies” and bloggers will have a role to play, but not “proper reporters.” His contention is that the real power of reporting does not lie with journalists [...]

No whining on the late shift

At a recent workshop, a reporter complained that she got her assignments too late to do anything creative with them. She worked night side at her TV station and covered a lot of meetings. The assignment desk would tell her what meeting to cover but never provided any background on the topic, and [...]

The hardest part of the job

Reporters call it “door knocking” and most of them hate it. Joe Fryer of KARE-TV in Minneapolis, Minn., is no exception. The one part of his job that he absolutely loathes, Fryer says, is asking family members to talk after someone they love has been killed or murdered.
Even after eight years in the [...]

Crowdsourcing the news

When Wired magazine first used the term crowdsourcing in 2006, it referred to “the productive potential of millions of plugged-in enthusiasts.” It didn’t take long for news organizations to take advantage of that potential to develop and report stories.

The Brian Lehrer show on WNYC, the NPR station in New York, now has regular crowdsourcing [...]

Giving objectivity a bad name

Journalists sometimes miss or underplay big stories by trying to be objective in the wrong way, says UNC’s Phil Meyer. Instead of presenting “both sides” and letting the audience decide, Meyer argues in the new Yale Climate Media Forum that journalists should be objective in their method, not their result.
In other words, journalists should [...]

Lists as sources

Sometimes good story ideas fall in your lap (or show up in your email). The following is a post from the Criminal Justice Journalists listserv on Friday, 9/21/07:
If all goes according to plan, the FBI will put out its 2006 crime stats on Monday, 9/24/07.
Criminologist Richard Rosenfeld of the University of Missouri-St. Louis is working [...]