Monthly Archives: March 2015

It’s a phrase becoming more and more common in newsrooms. Somebody in a supervisory position asks a reporter “what’s the source for this? Is this confirmed?” and the reply, all too often, is “but the story is already out there”, usually meaning it’s “out there” on social media. Like the... - MORE -

A powerful group of broadcast and entertainment industry associations has collaborated to develop resources which help journalists cover mental illness, substance use disorders, behavioral health treatment and recovery and suicide prevention. This new booklet offers suggestions for storytelling, best practices, research, lived experiences, and guidance for creating thoughtful reporting. With... - MORE -

Al Sunshine was an investigative reporter for a Florida TV station for forty years. He’s written a column for the RTDNA with some useful tips. It’s short, to-the-point, and worth the few minutes it will take to read it. The column is here.... - MORE -

It may be hard for some to believe, but Twitter is now in its tenth year. The man who founded the ubiquitous social app, Jack Dorsey, let out a flurry of tweets Saturday, March 21, on his brainchild’s ninth birthday, in which he gave much of the credit for Twitter’s... - MORE -

Most news writers have a variety of crutches they lean on when writing a story quickly to make a deadline. Some writers are lazy and just copy-and-paste large chunks of text right out of a police report with little consideration for the “cop-talk” that’s always found in such reports, not... - MORE -

“Government transparency” is a phrase bandied about by many politicians, promising that under their watch, their doings on behalf of the electorate will be open and free for all to see. Lofty words, but words too often not backed by action. Citizens expect transparency at every level of government, whether... - MORE -

March Madness is here! The Girls’ State Basketball Tournament is underway in Green Bay; next week the Boys’ tournament starts; and late Sunday afternoon we’ll know where the Badgers will be playing in the first round of the biggest “March Madness” contest of them all, the NCAA Division One Basketball... - MORE -

Covering  breaking news at a crime scene or emergency falls within the job description of any broadcast news reporter or photographer. The recent police shooting in Madison provided a number of challenges for electronic media professionals, covering not only the scene of the shooting, but the protests that quickly materialized... - MORE -

“Clickworthy” and “click bait” are two words heard often regarding today’s news reporting style. Do reporters really ask questions just to try and see how many clicks the story will get on their station’s website? In this interesting article from the Columbia Journalism Review, Susan Milligan writes extensively (more than... - MORE -

I remember watching a local news telecast on a morning several months ago and seeing a story about the death of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. I knew the story was wrong, because the rumor of Hefner’s death had been de-bunked the day before, but not until the story had been... - MORE -