Good morning. Critique by “Sid Vicious” not pretty If things had gone differently, Washington would now be gossiping about the role of Sidney Blumenthal within a Clinton White House. A congressional inquisition over his much-publicized emails with then-Secretary of State Clinton, his longtime friend, now seems so distant, doesn’t it? But it’s still fitting the journalist-activist and historian should weigh in on Donald Trump. A cerebral but […]
President Trump has had a long and stormy relationship with BuzzFeed. Three years ago, when Trump was considering a run for president, BuzzFeed ran a lengthy and dismissive profile that said he would “not be king.” As his bid for president gained momentum, he tried (unsuccessfully) to freeze BuzzFeed out, putting the company on his media blacklist and calling it all kinds of names. Then, after BuzzFeed […]
A government leader opens his mouth, and listeners instantly know how much of the speech is provable. Science fiction? For the moment, but hopefully not forever. The state of technology and the maturity of fact-checking organizations today make it possible to take the first steps toward that goal. Chequeado, where I work as director of editorial innovation, started working on automated fact-checking just over a year ago. […]
Every time I take a spin through my Facebook or Twitter feeds, I’m reminded that there’s only one big story right now: Trump, Trump, Trump. For news organizations that wrestle with what coverage their community is most likely to consume, this is one of those rare moments when the mystery is solved. Give ‘em Trump. Love him or loathe him, they can’t get enough. But if the […]
Anonymous sources are to journalists what a 12-pound funnel cake is to a kid at the state fair: We know it’s unhealthy, but we partake anyway. That has never been truer over the last week, as our good ship of state has sprung leak after leak. Nameless White House officials have served up more scoops than a Baskin Robbins: Trump’s disastrous call with Australia’s Prime Minister, his […]
President Trump’s administration is unconventional by any reporter’s standards, said Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic. But that doesn’t mean journalists should abandon basic skills and principles they’ve held onto for years. “It’s true, we are in a little bit of a knife fight with people who don’t want to have a fact-based discourse,” Goldberg said. “But you just have to stand for what […]
The New York Times is landing on Snapchat, and the Gray Lady thinks its journalism will fit right in on the millennial-dominated social network. “We’re not boring when it comes to visual storytelling,” said Assistant Editor Steve Duenes. “…We have a lot to draw from all forms of digital storytelling.” Expect The New York Times’ upcoming Snapchat Discover channel to be a showcase for visuals from the […]
“96 million really wanting a job and they can’t get (it). You know that story. The real number — that’s the real number.” Donald Trump cited this highly misleading statistic in his first press conference after the election. It was a claim with scant evidence, but he said it anyway. But what if someone could stop a world leader during a speech and demand proof? It may […]
President Trump’s mocking tweets about the “failing” New York Times and its “dwindling” subscriber base miss the boost his election and early days in office are giving the company’s business. CEO Mark Thompson stopped short today of saying Trump was the cause of a record 276,000 net quarterly growth in digital subscriptions in the last quarter of 2016 and a continued surge this month, bringing the Times’s […]
The Cohort is Poynter’s bi-monthly newsletter about women kicking ass in digital media. Earlier this week, I wrote a piece about whether journalists should participate in political demonstrations and online conversations. While the guidance has always been fairly straightforward (simply put: no), the events of the past few weeks and number of political protests have reignited the debate in newsrooms. More often than not, the answer is […]
The Turkish government is trying to shut down two journalists who left the country to publish their work. But they’re not giving up without a fight. Last week, journalists Can Dündar and Hayko Bağdat launched a website called Özgürüz that aims to publish independent journalism about Turkey from the relative safety of Germany. It’s a kind of pirate radio for Turkish journalists, informing the public amid a […]
When a newsroom shuts down, there’s usually a series of announcements, internal memos and “I’m looking for work” tweets. Most times, it ends there. But in one Washington newspaper this week, there’s a full-page advertisement devoted to helping soon-to-be jobless journalists find work again. Here’s what it says on page five of today’s Issaquah Press: “We’re professional journalists. On Feb. 25, we’re for hire.” Below that is […]
Whenever pressure mounts on the American press to be more responsible, my reflex is to consult an ancient guide for wisdom. Published in 1947, “A Free and Responsible Press” is the work of a World War II-era commission, sponsored by Time magazine founder Henry Luce and led by Robert M. Hutchins, perhaps the leading intellectual of his day. Its formal name is “Report of the Commission on […]
On Saturday, as ripples of President Trump’s refugee ban began making news, Los Angeles Times Business Editor Kimi Yoshino suggested a different way to cover the story. Yoshino, who is married to an Iraqi refugee and whose family was detained at internment camps in World War II, saw people sharing their own stories on social media. Her idea: Let’s do something that captures that emotion. On Saturday, […]
The words “Muslim-majority country” are permitted in the Wall Street Journal, Editor-in-Chief Gerry Baker told his staff Tuesday, hours after being quoted telling editors to remove the phrase. “There is no ban on the phrase ‘Muslim-majority country,’” Baker said. “But we should always be careful that this term is not offered as the only description of the countries covered under the ban.” Baker was responding to an […]
Nick Thompson was on his way to the subway when he got an email from his boss, New Yorker Editor David Remnick. The subject line? “Morning piece.” It was 8:17 a.m. on Sept. 8, and Remnick had just watched libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson ask “what is Aleppo?” live on national television. “I wrote back and said, ‘great!’” said Thompson, the former digital editor at The New […]
Executives from The New York Times, BuzzFeed and Bloomberg News have responded to Trump’s recent executive order banning immigrants from Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East. The responses range from outright condemnation of President Trump’s ban to reaffirming their commitment to supporting employees regardless of their countries of origin. Jonah Peretti, the CEO of BuzzFeed, sent a letter to employees over the weekend castigating Trump for “let(ing) […]
Even by Trumpean standards, it verged on an epic surprise. During his daily briefing cum lecture Monday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer sharply asserted, “They should either get with the program or they should go.” And he heralded President Trump’s new “One In, Two Out” mantra. But, stunningly, he was not referring to the press! One might have assumed that, given Sunday comments by Kellyanne Conway, […]
Newsrooms around the world are experimenting with unmanned drone aircraft to add context to their visual reports. But drones require a high level of skill and safety awareness and, as of 2016, an FAA license to operate commercially. The Poynter Institute is offering a groundbreaking training initiative to give journalists the skills and strategies they need as these powerful tools make their way into newsrooms across the […]
©2017 National Public Radio, Inc. NPR report titled “What makes a good pitch? NPR editors weigh in” by Alison MacAdam as originally published on training.npr.org on January 27, 2017, and is used with the permission of NPR. Any unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited. Pitching is hard. Every one of us has gotten excited about an idea, prepped it, pitched it … and been shot down. It’s disappointing […]
Last fall, I taught a media studies class based on ESPN at the University of Illinois. The class examined ESPN’s considerable impact on all the touchpoints of media: Broadcasting and journalism; advertising and branding; digital and innovation; documentaries and storytelling and impact on pop culture, to name a few. The opening lecture focused on the roots of ESPN, and how ludicrous the notion of an all-sports network […]
Podcasting is continuing to grow even as it faces challenges such as lack of diversity and the possibility of an advertising slump. That’s the conclusion of a new report on the state of podcasting from the Knight Foundation, which has invested heavily in the burgeoning medium in recent years. The report, which is based on more than 60 interviews with experts, points to a growing industry that […]
The basics of good interviewing apply to an audio story. But there are additional factors for audio narratives, especially if you’re planning to tell the story without the benefit of a reporter or narrator. Here are some tips for producing non-narrated stories: Ask the person speaking to say their name and occupation in the form of a sentence. This serves several purposes. You’ll probably need to lead […]
Mary Tyler Moore wasn’t born in Minnesota. She never lived there. But the determined young journalist she played for seven years in the 70s did. So on Wednesday, when news of her death broke, The Minneapolis Star Tribune was ready with the story. In the hours between first hearing news that Moore, 80, was gravely ill and then that the award-winning actress had died, the Star Tribune […]
