Insights, tools and research to advance journalism
The difference between journalism and criticism is ingrained in most newsrooms, Nausicaa Renner writes, where reporters are expected to stay as objective as possible, while critics rely on the strength of their opinions and arguments. But in tech journalism, Renner writes that criticism is often viewed as objecting to progress. But in a new report […]
“If two examples constitute a trend, then a movement is afoot among editors to encourage short writing,” Roy Peter Clark writes. The Washington Post is encouraging its reporters to avoid writing “unnecessarily long” stories by rewarding them for shorter stories, while The Wall Street Journal is making a newsroom-wide effort to “keep story lengths appropriate.” […]
The publication of the 2005 tape of Donald Trump shows that value in archiving, says the Journalism Digital News Archive’s Edward McCain “Relatively small, seemingly insignificant kinds of content can be incredibly valuable and important,” McCain says. “We can think about these tapes in terms of other seemingly-mundane stuff that’s recorded all the time. That’s […]
A new initiative at The Washington Post is trying to cut down on “editorial flab” and keep reporters from writing “unnecessarily long” stories. After noticing that stories were tending to get longer and often for no reason, managing editor Cameron Barr says editors are asked to take responsibility for stories that are longer than 1,500 […]
Journalists starting on a new beat need to quickly find out where to find useful leads, Paul Bradshaw writes. Sources such as RSS feeds, email newsletters and social networks can be crucial ways to find leads. Bradshaw outlines how to find news and blog sources through Google and RSS feeds, how to track down email […]
“Readers, I believe, are far more sophisticated than they’re given credit for and want more transparency in stories that are shapeshifting before their eyes,” New York Times public editor Liz Spayd writes. “When changes affect a story’s overall tone or make earlier facts obsolete, or when added context recasts a story, readers should be told.” […]
At the Online News Association conference on Saturday, the staff of Reported.ly gathered to talk about the lessons they learned from the 20 months of Reported.ly. The goal of Reported.ly was to inform people through social media, but its small size meant that it couldn’t do everything, Andy Carvin says. While the team wanted to […]
As we say goodbye to Reported.ly, the team is letting us in on some of their tips and tricks for social media reporting. Some of their favorite tools include: Banjoand Twitter advanced search for geolocation, BreakingNews.com for the day’s wire stories at a glance, TinEye for reverse image searches, and Trends24 to verify where hashtags […]
You might have heard: Being a freelance journalist comes with its own challenges, such as not getting regular feedback on your work and not having as many rights with companies as a full-time employee would But did you know: “Freelancers have grown accustomed to being treated like disposable cogs of news production,” and Yardena Schwartz […]
“Modern publishing is as much an exercise in dusting off and repurposing old content as it is creating fresh posts,” Lucia Moses writes. One way BuzzFeed repurposes old content is to iterate upon older posts: It will publish a story with a certain framing, and if that story is successful, try that framing again across […]