Is the online model turning around?

Looks like what's bad for Wall Street was good for online news traffic.

Update

Here's an update to the funeral twittering.

Weekly Ethics Roundup

For this week's ethics discussion, let's look at a few matters of accuracy, taste and decency.
- Chicago Tribune refuses political comment in paid death notice
- Colorado paper uses Twitter at funeral
- campaign ad and issues of sex education
- lipstick and pigs
- should a single advertiser sponsor an entire magazine issue?
- where is the line between strat comm media relations and journalistic sourcing?
- is it OK to alter images in opinion pieces?

KC News Meeting

Hot topics in the news this week. Here's what I've been reading and hearing a lot about. Add your ideas via comments.
- AIG bailout
- Lehman lack-of-bailout
- money market guarantees
- deceptive ad accusations in prez campaign
- train crash in LA
- McCain/Palin visit Wisconsin
- Brewers' losses
- embassy bombing in Yemen
- will tainted Chinese milk lead to recall?
- Dane County smoking ban

Cool lead

A 202-er sends the following:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/14legiswe.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

as a sample of an inviting lead. Thanks for sending!

United Stock

Tribune thickens the plot of the plunging United Airlines stock by blaming Google. Check it out.

Daily Show

So in the volume-challenged and time-elapsing lecture hall Monday morning, I didn't get a chance to play that last video for you.

Go to Comedy Central and watch the video marked "Sarah Palin Gender Card."

So what is the Daily Show? Is it journalism? If so, how so? If not, why not? It matters a great deal because you and your peers watch it more than you consume mainstream news media.

Weekly Ethics Roundup

For your discussions on ethics in lab for the next six weeks, I'll post articles of interest under this header, Weekly Ethics Roundup. I'll include some interesting issues and controversies that have been percolating lately, and you'll discuss them in lab, led by your TA. Feel free to comment here on the blog, as well, or supply other links.

In the realm of responsibility:
- a story pulled from Chicago Tribune archives sends United Airlines stock plummeting
- Steve Jobs' death greatly exaggerated
- rumors about why Olbermann is out of the anchor chair? (first-day story here)
- oops, you're losing your job and I'm letting it slip
- hmmm, should I buy the New York Times?
- is there such a thing as bad fan publicity?

As you go through these, think about:
- the responsibility of the media workers involved
- to whom we're responsible as reporters and marketers (audience? society? bottom line? ourselves?)
- what happens to media credibility when rumors abound?
- when does it make sense to let audience take control of a message, if ever?
- what can be done to regain trust when mistakes happen? does it ever really come back?

KC's News Meeting

Each week in J202, we have a current events section on the quiz. To stimulate your reading and thinking about what is going on in your world, I'll post a few items of interest to this blog. I invite you to comment on these posts, known as "KC's News Meeting," and add items that you read in the news. While I can't promise every quiz question will come from these posts and comments, they're a great place to start getting yourself into the news. So read up and comment (and remember, if I see more than 105 comments to all my blog posts in a week, everyone's quiz score for that week goes up a point).

Here's some of what I've been interested in this week:
- financial crisis at giant Lehman Brothers firm
- candidates and earmarks
- big, fat collider smashing teeny, tiny particles
- a stroke in North Korea
- conflict between Russia and Georgia
- lipstick, pigs and a "Swift Boat" accusation

What are you reading about? Post a comment.

Math & Reporting

Great column by Joel Stein in TIME. Math may defy many journalists, but it can be darned funny. See all the wonderful things Excel training in 202 can get you?

Strat Comm, Journalism and the War in Iraq

Excellent investigative piece in Sunday's New York Times. It covers the Pentagon's efforts to sway public opinion by using military analysts as TV commentators.
This certainly says something about the administration's strategic communication efforts. Are they ethical? But it also says something about our journalism. Are those practices ethical?

Are You Informed?

This piece is worth a read:

http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=QYw8fVKV9Vv4V6kWySfwnJynqhrkzfSg

I am routinely troubled by our failure in getting and keeping ourselves informed. A student asked me a few weeks ago what specific steps she could take to improve her base of knowledge. Our exchange went roughly like this:

What is the home page that opens when your launch your primary Web browser?
Facebook.
Change it to Google News, New York Times or Washington Post. You can still visit Facebook, but you'll see key news every time you launch.

Do you subscribe to a print publication, either newspaper or magazine?
No.
Pick one. I get a local and national. But I'm about to subscribe to a magazine called "The Week" that serves as a digest of key issues worth knowing.

Do you ever talk about current issues with friends?
Not really.
Try once a day to have a conversation with someone about something you read.

Links from Student for Online

Hey Katy,

Here is a great post about newspapers and blogs with plenty of great links to check out and some good comments from the former director of photography of men's journal

http://aphotoeditor.com/2008/03/31/newspapers-and-bloggers/.

And another one called Why Print Will Never Die- (from a photography perspective)

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/magazines/why_print_mags_wont_die_80956.asp#more

Sources Beyond Google

Katy,
I thought you might share this with the students on the blog?
I went to the Midwest Journalism Conference in Minneapolis this weekend and Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute gave a great seminar.
He posted his favorites sites(over 100) for Internet research from his "Beyond Google" seminar.
Everything from voting records to cell phone numbers.

http://atompkins711.googlepages.com/home

Social Networks and Tragedy

The issue we've been discussing has hit close to home. I rec'd this message from a former student:

Hey Katy-

I don't know if you still run the blog for 202 anymore, but if so I thought you might find this situation interesting. Channel 3000 posted a link to Brittany Zimmerman's MySpace page next to her picture and the story of her homicide. I, for one, find this to be completely rude and unethical. Thought it might spark some conversation for your class.

What do you think? Connect this to the earlier post on Facebook at UMass.

Is this Juicy?

I have to hear your opinions on this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/fashion/16juicy.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=fashion&adxnnlx=1206806357-vMRPG2FS2XSd3RHzhng60w
It's a story on the Juicy Campus Web site, of which we are, thankfully, not currently a part. I visited after reading this piece and was astounded.
Where does this fit in the sphere of information? Is it ethical to allow anonymous posts? What are the social implications? What recourse do people have when they are the focus of posts?

Facebook and Tragedy

Check out this blog post at the University of Massachusetts. Be sure to read the comments below it. We've covered this terrain in 202 before, and I wrote a column about it for the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
I'm curious what you think of the practice of reporters and editors going into MySpace and Facebook profiles of people after they've died or been injured. Is it ethical? Necessary?

LA Times Hoax

The LA Times had to apologize this week, acknowledging that its controversial story on the Tupac Shakur slaying relied in part on falsified documents. The Smoking Gun revealed the hoax.
It's a valuable case for you to look at through the lens of our discussions on judging source credibility. Check out this piece in Slate and this one from Poynter on how they might have avoided falling into this trap.

Cover controversy

If you didn't catch it, we've had some chattering this week over a Vogue cover with LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen. Here's one posting, but you can Google for hundreds more.
I thought this note was a great addition to the discussion. Check out the picture comparison.
Do you think it plays to racial or sexual stereotypes? Is it offensive?

Student paper censorship

From a 202er:

Hi Katy,

I realize this is a little outdated, but this Chicago Tribune article delves into a topic you touched on in last Monday's lecture. This Illinois high school teacher was forced out of her position as advisor to her school's paper because of her decision to allow a column with profanity (and a student's thoughts on smoking and dealing pot).
Parents and the administration were outraged, yet her staff, both current and alums, back her fully. According to the article and the students, she did amazing things for the paper, so did she deserve to be fired?