Multimedia can add diversity

“Multimedia has the power to reach a more diverse audience.  Mastering these new communications tools is how African Americans can ensure they will continue to have a voice in government and advance their own personal power.”
Speaking to an audience at Virginia Commonwealth University on October 10, the executive editor for Black Enterprise magazine, Derek Dingle, said [...]

VNR: FCC says pay for play doesn’t matter

The Federal Communications Commission says just because you’re not getting paid to air it, doesn’t mean you get a free ride when it comes to identifying VNRs for viewers.
According to Broadcasting & Cable, the FCC has issued four more proposed fines against Comcast for airing four video news releases (VNRs) on non-controversial topics for which [...]

Maintaining independence

Being a good journalist does not mean you can’t have personal opinions; you just can’t let those opinions creep into your reporting. But how do you stay independent from what you are as opposed to what you think? By being a journalist first, says Tom Avila, a staffer for the National Lesbian & [...]

FCC News: VNR fines and minority media-ownership

Here’s another good reason to avoid using a Video News Release (VNR) without proper attribution: You could be fined!
According to the Hollywood Reporter, for the first time ever, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau is calling for a $4,000 fine against Comcast for showing a VNR without telling viewers they got paid for it.
Comcast says that airing [...]

Do your homework

How can you avoid being suckered by sources or stampeded by the competition? Do your own homework. That’s the advice from Stuart Taylor of the National Journal. His book about the Duke lacrosse case, “Until Proven Innocent,” says the news media blew it. “Read the damn motions,” Taylor–who is also [...]

Ignore the “if only” voice

“If only his eyes were open…” “If only that clock were not behind his head…” Jack Zibluck, who teaches photojournalism at Arkansas State University, says the only way to deal with these musings is to say “No.” Just because you can make a photo better by asking a subject to move or [...]

Golden age of photo ethics?

There’s good news and bad news when it comes to photo manipulation. David Perlmutter, associate dean at the University of Kansas school of journalism, believes that by some standards, this is the golden age of photojournalism ethics. “If you are caught faking a picture today, you are fired,” he told American Journalism Review.
Fifty years ago, [...]

Conflict of interest

Should you ever get romantically involved with a source? The answer is clearly no. Los Angeles anchor Mirthala Salinas has been suspended without pay for two months for covering the city’s mayor while they were having an affair. The news director at the Telemundo station also was suspended. He knew [...]