#Tip of the day for journalists: Take a look at this recommended reading list

Columbia Journalism Review has gathered reading recommendations from eight journalism professors.

Here is the list of books the eight said they wish they had read before starting out.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day for journalists: Take a look at this reading list
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to define your blog’s target audience
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – 50 Twitter chats for journalists
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – who journalists should follow on Twitter
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – six ways to avoid common errors

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – eight rules for accurate journalism

The Columbia Journalism Review has  a post detailing eight rules for doing accurate journalism.

1. The initial, mistaken information will be retweeted more than any subsequent correction;
2. A journalist is only as good as her sources;
3. Verification before dissemination;
4. People will forget who got it first, but they remember who got it wrong;
5. Failure sucks but instructs;
6. If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out;
7. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is;
8. It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.

There is further explanation and examples for each of the above ideas in the CJR post.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – build your news brand on Foursquare
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – ideas for data mashups
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – create a Pinterest board to thank pinners
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to get more pins on Pinterest
• Editor&Publisher: ‘Maureen Dowd admits wrongdoing, NYT will correct’

CJR: Why we’re suing New York State

The Columbia Journalism Review has filed a lawsuit against the state of New York for refusing to release information under the state’s Freedom of Information law.

[T]he records we’re seeking would likely help illuminate the press’ role in a bizarre chain of events in state history that led to the appointment of an Independent Counsel and to the governor dropping his election campaign. Sure, there will be lots of chaff in those e-mails. But perhaps they’d offer some information explaining the resignations, show reporters testing the most bizarre theories circulating at the time, or catalogue an evolving damage-control line from the state’s highest official.

Any of that would all be potentially interesting, and that’s why we will exercise our rights under the law and file suit.

But given the response from the governor’s office, we now also think this suit must be waged to protect the full force of two laws that the state’s press corps rely on: the Freedom of Information Law and the state’s shield law

Full story on the CJR website at this link…

Similar posts:

• New legislation threatens to restrict press freedom in South Africa
• Journalism in Africa: Kenyan government seeks guidelines on anonymous sources
• A new Chinese Arabic language TV channel
• Advancing The Story: Is state-funded news ethical?
• ‘Governments at war are winning the battle of controlling the international media’ – motion debated at Frontline Club now

Columbia Journalism Review: Can the new non-profits last?

Columbia Journalism Review has an insightful feature up on the United States’ burgeoning non-profit journalism industry. Writer Jill Drew looks at the unusual practices that separate organisations like California Watch from traditional newsrooms, and whether the philanthropic donations and other smaller revenue streams on which they rely can sustain the groundbreaking work being done.

The editors agreed; this was big. But then the conversation veered in a direction unfamiliar to traditional newsrooms. Instead of planning how to get the story published before word of it leaked, the excited editors started throwing out ideas for how they could share Johnson’s reporting with a large array of competitive news outlets across the state and around the country. No one would get a scoop; rather, every outlet would run the story at around the same time, customized to resonate with its audience, be they newspaper subscribers, Web readers, television viewers, or radio listeners.

Full story at this link…

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – newsroom resolutions for 2012
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – tagging advice for newsrooms
• Innovations in Journalism – Pownce.com
• Tool of the week for journalists – Pinterest
• Scottish Sun: Naming Baby P’s mum and step-dad

Columbia Journalism Review: ‘Is shorter really better?’

Over at the Columbia Journalism Review, Greg Marx has written a follow-up to Michael Kinsley’s attack on the length and style of newspaper style writing. Marx questions whether shorter really is better and takes another look at ‘expert’ quotes.

The fact that a lot of people still read newspapers, and only newspapers, suggests that they may like – or at least, feel accustomed to – the way newspaper stories are written.

Full post at this link…

Similar posts:

• Clay Shirky on the Times paywall, commodity markets and a ‘referendum on the future’
• #Tip: How to become a better interviewer
• Robert Cottrell: Four novels from the golden days of newspaper journalism
• Malcolm Coles: Why the Guardian’s future does look bleak
• #soe09: Jim Chisholm – the five myths affecting UK newspapers

CJR: What’s the legality of publishing hacked emails?

The Columbia Journalism Review takes a look at the [US] legality of reproducing leaked emails, following the publication of thousands of hacked emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. Some critical comments about the American coverage of the incident underneath the article, too:  Full post at this link…

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – understanding website analytics
• Mediating Conflict: Twitter, journalists and hype
• BuzzMachine: Comments and how to play host
• Complaint to PCC raises further criticism of Sunday Times’ environment coverage
• Poynter: Msnbc.com narrative slideshow garners 78m page views

CJR takes on redundant journalists

Four laid-off journalists have been recruited by the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) as part of the industry publication’s new Encore Fellowship initiative to give redundant journalists more job opportunities.

According to the CJR, the journalists will work for CJR for nine months and receive support on using their experience in the future. Their work will be featured in both the magazine and the website, from late October.

The Encore initiative has been developed by Civic Ventures, a partner of the project. The Poynter Institute have also partnered CJR for this scheme and will provide educational opportunities tailored to the new journalists’ needs.

The Encore journalists were chosen from journalists who, because of the industry’s economic condition, have left jobs as senior reporters. Encore has received a grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies and hopes that new donors will help an expanded program to launch for 2010.

Similar posts:

• PolitiFact and Poynter team up to create the PolitiFact Lab
• Poynter to launch online groups network
• Graduate jobs now get 48 applications each on average – what does this mean for journalism students?
• Newspaper reporter: fifth worst job? US careers study seems to think so
• A wee exit roll call for Scottish journalists

Update on Futurity.org: the science news site run by US universities

Last week Journalism.co.uk reported on Futurity.org, publicised as an online news service through which US university departments will publish their scientific findings directly online in a digestible format – a project designed to combat a reduction in science reporting in mainstream media.

We were interested to learn that the site would be included in Google News and asked Lisa Lapin, one of Futurity’s founders and assistant vice president for communications at Stanford University, for more information.

“Google News is recognising Futurity as a news organisation and will be capturing our news for search, and for display within Google News, as they would another news organisation,” she told Journalism.co.uk.

A release initially announced 35 partners, although we now count a total of 39 participating universities featured on the site. All are members of the  Association of American Universities (AAU), an association of leading public and private research universities in the United States and Canada.

We asked Lapin if they would be adding even more to the service:

“As for partners, we wanted to begin with a reasonable size and institutions that have strong research programmes – thus it was natural for us to include AAU universities,” she said.

“To be elected to the AAU is quite an accomplishment and there is already criteria that we didn’t need to develop. There are 62 AAU universities in the US and Canada. We will discuss expanding futurity.org membership, but we would need to develop some criteria to assure that the news remains truly the greatest discoveries coming out of research universities.”

The project has attracted some criticism, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News:

“Any information is better than no information,” said Charlie Petit, a former science reporter at U.S. News & World Report and the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The quality of research university news releases is quite high. They are rather reliable,” he added. “But they are completely absent any skepticism or investigative side.”

Petit followed up with a lengthier comment and example on the Knight Science Journalism Tracker, and said that press releases published by Futurity should be clearly labelled as such:

“Press releases can and often do carry real news, and in professional and ethical style. In aggregate, they serve reporters and the public in an essential way. However:  They may be science writing. They are not independent journalism that seeks (if not always successfully) to get wide opinion and angles on the news. This is not a fine point. It is essential that the distinction be clear.”

Related: Columbia Journalism Review: Is Futurity the Future?

Similar posts:

• DEN: Should local newspapers run press release feeds?
• New science journalism MA at City University aims to make students ‘critical consumers of scientific information’
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – get your press releases here
• Science journalism needs fewer science writers and more editors, says Goldacre
• Don’t direct students to file FOI requests to universities, Texas lecturers told

CJR: The Guardian’s Washington bureau chief on US/UK news models

Our second pick from the Columbia Journalism Review today: a lengthy Q&A with the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, Ewen MacAskill.

There is lots of ground covered; MacAskill’s explanation of the Guardian’s approach in the States and his thoughts on differences between US and UK journalistic technique make particularly interesting reading.  An extract:

“[I]n some ways, the American system is more transparent, but because of the more adversarial system in Britain, sometimes more stories come out there. It’s a contradiction: the American system is more transparent, but in spite of that, an awful lot goes on behind the scenes that we never get to hear about.”

Full Q&A at this link…

Similar posts:

• Guardian America
• UK press regulation discussed at the Frontline Club
• Heather Brooke: ‘Transparency keeps those in power honest’
• #jpod: Why the Guardian is taking a laid-back approach to news on the iPad
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk: practising open journalism

CJR: A ‘new threat’ to Middle East journalism – created in the US

A piece by Lawrence Pintak and Yosri Fouda in the Columbia Journalism Review argues that ‘well-meaning’ Western journalism rights groups undermine journalism ‘by defending Arab and Iranian online activists who have been jailed or harassed by the authorities’.

Full story at this link…

The Committee to Protect Journalists responds here.

(via Nigel Barlow)

Similar posts:

• Alan Mutter: ’3 jailed journalists, 2 very different reactions’
• #WEFHamburg: WAN-IFRA calls on Iran to improve press freedom standards
• Iranian journalist suing Nokia over imprisonment
• CPJ: Call for freedom for detained journalists after releases from Libya and Iran
• CPJ: 141 attacks on journalists and news facilities in Egypt since 30 Jan