5th July 2016
By wp-admin-ss88

Ethical Journalism Network Newsletter – 5 July 2016

NEWS

THE TRUTH ABOUT BREXIT DIDN’T STAND A CHANCE IN THE ONLINE BUBBLE

A political system that abandons facts and a media ecosystem which does not filter for truth asks too much of people.

Read the full article here. (The Guardian)

Reporting the EU referendum – Three of the UK’s top journalists debate impartiality, balance and difficulties of exposing untruths

The EU referendum has been a defining political moment in the UK’s history. For top political journalists, it’s presented its own set of challenges – balancing claims, giving parity to arguments, and staying across the latest lines from all parties has been key for reporters on TV and radio. Steve Hewlett talks to three broadcast journalists who’ve been on the coal face during this campaign; Allegra Stratton, National Editor for ITV News, Faisal Islam, Political Editor for Sky News, and Channel 4 News Political Editor Gary Gibbon.

Listen to the episode here. (BBC Radio 4)

WHY WE TRUST, AND WHY THAT’S CHANGING ONLINE

In less confusing times, reliable news brands served as guideposts—and to some degree, they still do.The American Marketing Association defines a brand as any feature that distinguishes one seller’s product from another’s. That’s not limited to the qualities of the product, but also includes anything that contributes to its public perception. Consumers of journalism aren’t expected to accept a news article on its face but, rather, in the context of the outlet’s reputation. As the late New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger once said, “You’re not buying news when you buy The New York Times. You’re buying judgment.”

Read the full article here. (CJR)

BRAZILIAN EDITOR LAUNCHES STUDIES ON THE EFFECTS OF THE INTERNET ON JOURNALISM AND WARNS ABOUT DANGERS OF MEDIA FRAGMENTATION

Media fragmentation in the digital environment carries risks for journalism and for citizens in democratic societies, warns Brazilian journalist Ricardo Gandour, director of content for Grupo Estado and visiting scholar at Columbia Journalism School. The finding is the result of a study whose preliminary results were presented by Gandour at the World Editors Forum organized by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) on June 14 in Cartagena, Colombia. At the time, Gandour showed a video with animation that he produced describing the causes and risks of fragmentation and suggesting what can be done so that journalistic rigor is preserved. The study will be published next month by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Read the full article here. (Knight Center)

COVERAGE OF THE ISTANBUL BOMBING PROVES ONCE AGAIN THAT AMERICAN MEDIA CARE LITTLE ABOUT MUSLIM LIVES

It’s becoming increasingly challenging to believe that U.S. media actually care about Muslim lives. Why do I say that? Simple: they don’t cover terror attacks carried out or planned against Muslims with the same zeal as attacks against others.

Read the full article here. (The World Post)

Press Freedom in Turkey

OSCE media freedom representative welcomes release of journalist Erol Önderoğlu in Turkey

#FreeErol: Journalist, IFEX member arrested over “terrorist propaganda”

WHY FACEBOOK IS SO TERRIFYING TO MEDIA COMPANIES

Facebook is the most powerful media company the world has ever seen. It is also the most worrisome for traditional journalism companies because of how it has redefined “news.” On Wednesday, Facebook acknowledged something that folks in digital media have been seeing for a couple of months in the form of decreased referrals: It is changing the composition of the Facebook News Feed to favor more posts from friends and relatives — baby pictures, status updates — instead of news articles or entertainment posted by media companies.

Read the full article here. (Business Insider)

At long last, Facebook articulates a set of news values

Journalists have long torn their hair out and stamped their feet as Facebook — which has a symbiotic relationship with news organizations — declined to spell out the intricacies of its influential News Feed.

Read the full article here. (Poynter)

CHINA TO BAN NEWS WEBSITES FROM USING STORIES GLEANED FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

China’s internet regulator will launch a crackdown on the reporting of news gathered from social media, as part of what the government calls a campaign against fake news and the spreading of rumours. In a statement late on Sunday, the Cyberspace Administration of China said that online media cannot report any news taken from social media sites without approval.

Read the full article here. (The Guardian)

DEFAMATION: ‘PRESS COUNCIL SHOULD APPEAL AGAINST SUPREME COURT ORDER’

Expressing concern over the implications of the Supreme Court order upholding criminalising defamation, the former media adviser to Prime Minister and retired Director of Press Information Bureau, S. Narendra, said the Press Council of India (PCI) should appeal against the order in the interest of press freedom. Speaking after inaugurating a discussion on “Criminalising Defamation” at a programme organised by Mysuru District Journalists’ Association (MDJA) here on Saturday, Mr. Narendra said PCI should come to the rescue of the media by approaching the Supreme Court against the verdict. If need be, PCI should implead itself in the case.

Read the full article here. (The Hindu)

Reporting under duress: Journalists in India work amid increasing danger (Hindustan Times)

Every journalist isn’t killed for his writing, as the media projects: PCI chairman (Hindustan Times)

THE BEST AND WORST JOURNALISM OF JUNE 2016

CJR’s monthly review of the best and worst of journalism is worth a read.

THE BEST

The Washington Post spotlights Donald Trump’s charitable giving, or lack thereof

Palo Alto Online, BuzzFeed, and CNN give the Stanford rape victim a voice

The Tulsa World puts state crime numbers into context

C-SPAN finds a way to broadcast Democrats’ gun-control sit-in

THE WORST

Pro-Brexit British newspapers

CNN hires Trump’s former campaign manager

MISLABELED AS A MEMOIRIST, AUTHOR ASKS: WHOSE WORK GETS TO BE JOURNALISM?

Suki Kim spent 10 years researching and visiting North Korea. In 2011, she spent six months teaching at a university in Pyongyang — and working undercover as a journalist. During that time, Kim secretly documented the lives of 270 of North Korea’s elite — young men who were being groomed as the country’s future leaders — at the center of the country’s regime change. Kim’s reporting turned into the book Without You, There Is No Us, which — much to her dismay — was marketed as a memoir. She wrote in The New Republic recently that the book was not only miscategorized as a North Korean Eat, Pray, Love — a memoir of self-discovery by the writer Elizabeth Gilbert — but it was also trivialized. Kim argued that her investigative reporting would not have been confused for a personal narrative account were she not Korean or a woman.

Read the full article here. (NPR)

JOURNALISTS AND ACADEMICS COLLABORATING? IT’S PAYING OFF FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS IN CANADA

Great works of journalism often begin with a compelling character — a victim of corporate malfeasance, a whistleblower within government, a globetrotting renegade with a story to tell. But Peter Klein, director of the Global Reporting Centre and associate professor at the University of British Columbia, says he’s increasingly finding a difference source of inspiration for his team’s projects: the bookish academics who work down the hall.

Read the full article here. (MediaShift)

ACTIVITIES

SECOND EUROPEAN MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY FORUM

The Ethical Journalism Network’s director, Aidan White, will be participating at the Second European Media and Information Literacy Forum in Riga, Latvia from 27 June 2016 – 29 June 2016. Watch the EJN’s Director, Aidan White, speaking at the first event in the series in Brussels here.

Read more information about the event here.