Writing on the Wall » journalism

Eight Pillars Of Journalism

brandonwall — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:58:49 +0000

Found this post on Twitter today titled “Eight key terms for determining legitimacy in journalism” I liked it enough to pass on and share. This post is mostly a note to myself of these eight aspects of journalism so I never forget them!

Veracity

Tell the truth, no matter what. Tell. The. Truth. This is what your job as a journalist boils down to. If you can’t do this, go into PR (just kidding, PR friends).

Accuracy

This and truth telling go hand in hand. To be accurate is to be respect. If you make an error in accuracy, own up to it.

Transparency

This calls to mind the recent story about the Church of Scientology hiring reporters to conduct investigations. Be honest, be forthcoming!

Intellectual Honesty

Building on the concept of accuracy, don’t misrepresent things in order to further your agenda or to get the point of your story across.

Currency

One of the most fundamental journalistic principles! No, not money (although that’s important) but timeliness. If it isn’t current and relevant to your audience, why are you wasting your time?

Inquiry

Be nosy. It’s easy to write an article to meet your deadline, but have you checked all the closets for skeletons? Look at what was said during your interviews… why did they say that? Be nosy!

Utility

Always remember who you’re working for as a journalist: the public good.

Eight key terms for determining legitimacy in journalism – Jay Rosen: Public Notebook

The Journalist’s Rallying Cry

brandonwall — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:53:19 +0000

Below is a screenshot of a tweet I received over the summer. It’s something that has been stuck in the back of my head ever since.

Is this the modern journalist's rallying cry?

Have fun and stay in trouble.

It highlights two things that have become fundamental tenants of journalism. One, have fun. It’s no secret that the current state of professional journalism is….less than ideal. Okay, that’s an understatement. It is probably one of the worst industries to be getting into.

Never mind the recession, that’s child’s play compared to our industry as a whole. it seems that every month, a new corporation is filing for bankruptcy. It’s easy to get depressed and carry a chip on your shoulder…at this point it’s part of the standard uniform.

Journalism is very much a labor of love. Those that are in the field and are not passionate will not be around long. So lighten up, journalists. It sucks, but we need to have a sense of humor about us before we become hollowed husks of a human.

Two, stay in trouble. Isn’t that just great? It really defines what journalism is all about. One of the biggest failures of modem journalism is the lack of real hard-hitting investigations. Sure, it happens. Big stories like Blago corruption, the Burr Oak Cemetery and other squeamish things like that will always be gleefully busted open. But on the day to day level of basic journalism, I don’t think we are pushing and digging as hard as we maybe should be.

We should constantly be asking questions that others would hesitate to ask. We must constantly be taking it to the next level, pushing just a little bit harder, to tell the whole story. A wise man once told me, “If your articles are pissing people off, you are probably doing your job.“ Not a universal truth, but probably a good indicator of your job performance, depending on what you cover.

I’m going to take these two phrases to heart. I’ve found that it’s sometimes too easy to slip into the monotony of journalism: get your assignment. Do your assignment. Revise your assignment. Submit your assignment. Repeat ad nauseum.

I’ve gone ahead and made two little placards for both phrases, and they now are pinned to the walls of my cubicle.

#WJChat links from ‘Journalist/Coder’ chat

brandonwall — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:12:37 +0000

Updated 18feb10 at 7:13 pm CST

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The folks over at http://wjchat.webjournalist.org/ organize weekly Twitter chats “where Web journalists share experiences, skills, tech, tips and tricks.”

February 17′s chat was about journalism and coding, and a healthy mix of journalists and coders (some were both!) showed up. A LOT of great information was tossed around, and a lot of helpful links were posted. I went through 53 pages of tweets to pull out as many links as I could spot. Here they are, in all their glory!

This is by no means a definitive list, so PLEASE feel free to post links in the comments to any sites that will help enterprising journalists enter the world of coding. Conversely, if you have any good ‘basics of journalism’ links to post for our coder friends looking to get their feet wet, share those too.