This interesting piece for the Nieman Journalism School at Harvard, by reporter Krista Kapralos, brings to life the importance of understanding local context in reporting news stories.
What you think something may be, and what it really is, can be two very different things if you don’t understand the local context.
Posted by Tim Morrissey
If so, here are some solid ideas to keep in mind, courtesy of RTDNA.
Posted by Tim Morrissey
Your station’s meteorologists present their information to the audience without a script. They’ve learned how to build a story and engage the viewers.
This article from the American Press Institute is must-read material for everyone in TV news.
Posted by Tim Morrissey
As a working journalist, you know better than to rely on Wikipedia for accurate information, because the platform has been hijacked countless times by people who have an axe to grind. Usually the Wikipedia editors are quick to catch this stuff.
Poynter’s Daniel Funke has a brief article regarding one of recent examples.
Posted by Tim Morrissey
Research from the Pew Center sheds some light on how Americans receive, filter, and screen our work product.
Find it here.
Posted by Tim Morrissey
If you have never attended a WBA Awards Gala, ask someone in your newsroom who’s been to one about their experience. It’s a fun evening with lots of camaraderie, laughter, and applause as you see your peers acknowledged for their exceptional work.
Plans are already being made for next spring’s event. Here’s a quick preview, along with links to great stuff from the most recent WBA Awards Gala.
Posted by Tim Morrissey
It’s Summer Conference time – and, if you haven’t downloaded the WBA Member App, you’re missing out on a lot of cool content.
Info is here.
Posted by Tim Morrissey
Do you see the same Facebook when you use your phone as when you’re using your computer?
At least one person believes there’s a difference.
Try it out to see if you get the same results. If there really is a difference, what could it mean for broadcasters? Let us know what you think.
A new report says more people are turning away from Facebook as a source for news. It’s a huge turnaround from a trend that has been heading the other direction for seven years.
The report says the phenonenon is global.
However, there’s evidence to suggest that the audience is still finding news on social media but more are preferring to post the articles using messaging apps for discussion among a closed group of people.
For newsrooms, that means more of the meaningful discussions about the news of the day might now longer happen where reporters can track it.
Read more about the report here.
As with any profession, once you get into it, it takes effort to maintain an outsider’s perspective of how it works. The same applies to journalism.
A recent study found that there’s a lot that Americans don’t know about how journalism works. Here’s an example:
More than 4 in 10 adults (43 percent) say they don’t really know what the term “attribution” means in journalism, quite a bit more than the 30 percent who say they do understand that concept.
There’s also a lot of education that needs to be done on native advertising.
You can read more here.
Keep these survey results in mind the next time you think about how the public will understand your stories.
WBA Newsroom