Thursday, August 30, 2007

News Preferences

Thursday, August 30, 2007

A recently released Pew Research Center study that monitored audience interest in 19 news categories from 1986 to 2006 showed growing interest in two areas---Washington Politics and Money. In the late 1980s, 17 percent of those polled closely read stories about national politics, while coverage of money was closely monitored by 23 percent of the audience. In the 2000-06 period, Washington politics had risen to 24 percent, while strong interest in news about money soared to 40 percent.

Interestingly, the Tabloid News category didn't gain in reader interest during the two decades studied by Pew. Stories about celebrity gossip, non-political scandals and popular culture were closely monitored by 21 percent in the 1980s and 18 percent in the final years of the survey. Coverage of natural disasters drew the most attention in the 1980s, while the Bad Weather category topped the preference list in the 1990s. Since 2000, U.S.-linked War/Terrorism scored the highest preference.

Full results can be found here.

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No Laughing Matter

Thursday, August 30, 2007

The Committee to Protect Journalists recently warned that China remains stubbornly backward in allowing its people open access to news. Crackdowns on press freedom are especially prevalent in online reporting. Now comes word from the Associated Press that government officials in Beijing will start monitoring the Web on Sept. 1, using animated police officers who will pop up on a user's browser. The cartoon alerts will appear every half hour on 13 of China's most popular portals. By the end of 2007, the Public Security Ministry said the web patrols will appear on all Web sites registered with Beijing servers.

AP said the cartoon cops are designed to startle Web surfers and remind them that Communist Party authorities closely monitor online activity. The government claims its Internet meddling is designed to thwart morally threatening nudity, profanity, gambling and other illegal activities. Although journalism is not singled out, the 137 million registered online users in China are routinely blocked from accessing overseas sites and domestic sites deemed obscene or subversive.

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Friday, August 24, 2007

ICFJ Names International Journalism Award Winners

Friday, August 24, 2007

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) named its 2007 Knight International Journalism Award winners today. This year’s winners are Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger, and investigative reporter May Thingyan Hein of Burma.

Abbas’ win marks the first time a blogger has received the award. His blog, Misr Digital, has covered stories such as police brutality and corruption—topics that many mainstream media normally don’t—and has attracted so much attention that it’s encouraged the media to begin reporting these subjects. Despite beatings and arrests, Abbas says that bloggers are “the last independent voice,” and are “necessary” for protests to be heard in Egypt.

May Thingyan Hein, who is a freelance journalist, also tackles controversial topics in her investigative reporting. In Burma, stories must be submitted to officials before being released and her coverage of the spread of bird flu into the country was instrumental in forcing the government to take action against the epidemic.

ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan says that Abbas and Hein are “blazing the path in their countries with extremely bold coverage” and that others should follow their example.

The Knight International Journalism Awards are given by the Knight International Journalism Fellows, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Fellows strive to lead the news media into making societies more accountable to citizens.

For more information, visit ICFJ online, or visit The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation online.

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Thursday, August 23, 2007

White House FOIA-Free?

Thursday, August 23, 2007

The White House Office of Administration claimed in court filings this week that it's not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, according to an article by the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202441.html). The legal motion is based on a civil lawsuit that is "seeking the release of internal documents about a large number of e-mails missing from White House servers," the article notes.

Hilariously, the article reports that the filing is at odds with the own White House Web site, which at the time of publishing listed the Office of Administration as subject to FOIA.

It comes as no surprise, as the current administration hasn't exactly been considered FOIA-friendly. According to an early August report by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, the FOIA backlog at 30 federal agencies with the most requests has reached record highs at 39 percent. That means nearly two of five requests didn't get processed within a year, CJOG notes. You can view "Still Waiting After All These Years - An In-Depth Analysis of FOIA Performance from 1998-2006" by visiting:
http://www.cjog.net/documents/Still_Waiting_Narrative_and_Charts.pdf.

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Monday, August 20, 2007

Do we just see ‘the tip of the iceberg’ of newspaper errors?

Monday, August 20, 2007

The average newspaper should expand by a factor of 50 the amount of space given to corrections, according to an item posted by Slate editor-at-large Jack Shafer. Shafer’s column cites a recent study by Scott Maier, an associate professor at the University of Oregon, that also found that fewer than 2 percent of factually flawed articles had generated newspaper corrections. The study explored data from 10 dailies by sending stories to sources to check on the articles’ accuracy. About 69 percent of 3,600 news sources completed the survey, spotting 2,615 factual errors in 1,220 stories. Shafer takes the discussion a step further – discussing the merits of fessing up to errors and pointing out that papers might actually take pride in posting more corrections rather than assuming that an increase reflects growing negligence. To see Shafer’s column, click here: http://www.slate.com/id/2172283/nav/fix.

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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Who's Steering the Ship?

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Stop the presses: Journalism and Mass Communication schools are run predominantly by older white males, at least according to a recent study released by the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. This despite the fact that two-thirds of j-school student enrollees are female.

The Knight-funded survey of 165 JMC administrators found that 90 percent of respondents were white, 64 percent were male and their average age was 55 years old. The study was designed "to take a snapshot of the nation's JMC administrators and learn more about some of the key issues and pressures they face—among them the growing expectations to raise private funds, adaptation of their schools’ curricula in a digital world, and faculty hiring challenges."

For more data from the study: http://www.journalism.umd.edu/newrel/07newsrel/jmcsurvey07.html

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Friday, August 10, 2007

UPDATE: Journalist's Murderer Arrested

Friday, August 10, 2007

A 19-year-old bakery employee was one of seven people arrested on Friday, August 3, a day after the shooting death of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey.

Devaughndre Broussard, who worked at Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland, told police that he killed Bailey because he was angry about stories Bailey had written about the establishment and its workers. The bakery was founded by black muslim leader Yusuf Bey over 40 years ago and is currently run by his son, Yusuf Bey IV, who was also one of the seven arrested.

Further reading:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6544355

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_218142506.html

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Thursday, August 9, 2007

The City That 'NETworks'

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Community Media Workshop (www.newstips.org) recently hosted a lively – and timely - Community Media Summit at Columbia College in downtown Chicago. The forum featured speakers such as media consultant Richard Somerset-Ward, Julia Stasch of the MacArthur Foundation and Sandy Close of New America Media. The provocative issues discussed included:

 What role can local media play in community life?

 What is the role of collaboration in community media?

 How will access to broadband affect community life?

The event highlighted the work of a number of community media leaders from groups throughout the Midwest such as Radio Arte, Grand Rapids Community Media Center, the Twin Cities Media Alliance and We the People Media. To see video segments from the summit click here.

The event featured release of the long-awaited report from the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Closing the Digital Divide, “The City That Networks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence.” To see it click here.

The Benton Foundation, a key sponsor of the summit, recently released a report “What’s Going On In Community Media?” To see it click here.

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Friday, August 3, 2007

“You Know You’re A Journalist When…”

Friday, August 03, 2007

Ever seen the Society for Professional Journalist (SPJ)'s answers to the question above? (They’re hilarious.) “At weddings you take notes on the sermon.” “You shoot B-roll for your vacation videos.” “You’re not a social drinker. All drinking is work-related.” Etc.

Well, you can add being extremely unpopular to the list. As if newsroom working stiffs didn’t have enough to deal with these days with low pay and long hours - a Harris Poll measuring public perceptions of 23 professions has placed the field in the Bottom 10. What do farmers, lawyers and priests have in common? They’re all more popular in the popular mind than journalists. At the top are fire fighters, teachers and scientists. Hovering at the bottom – even below evil reporters - are bankers, actors and real estate agents. Go figure. Click here to see the study http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=793.

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Thursday, August 2, 2007

California Journalist Murdered

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Chauncey Bailey, who was recently named editor of the Oakland Post, a weekly newspaper in Northern California serving the Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond communities, was killed this morning by an unidentified gunman. Witnesses say that the gunman fired on Bailey, then fled the scene. Police have no suspects in custody yet, but have said that the killing appears to be a “deliberate hit.”

The killing comes during a year that has been cited by the International News Safety Institute as the deadliest yet for journalists worldwide.

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Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Dialing in to Local TV News

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

When it comes to local news in Chicago, one channel is as good as another, at least according to more than 1,400 TV-news viewers in the Chicagoland area. This finding, among others, was revealed in a new study "The Local TV News Experience: How to Win Viewers by Focusing on Engagement," conducted by the Medill School of Journalism and Media Management Center at Northwestern University.

The study - released on July 20 - reported that a majority of respondents felt that "No program causes its viewers to react or feel differently than others," according to an analysis by Broadcasting & Cable magazine (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6463856.html&referral=supp). The study provided examples from newscasts on local channels for analysis. The goal was to give TV news directors "tools to increase local news viewing by enhancing viewer engagement and provide broadcast leaders insights to help them think strategically about the position of the station and its role in the local community," according to the study.

In general, the study found that viewers had higher confidence in the integrity of TV news as compared to newspapers. It also noted that stations could benefit from increased diversity in newscast soundbites, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

To view the complete study, visit: http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/localtv/

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