New research shared this week suggests that coverage of political outrage news could not only fail to boost engagement on digital platforms, but it could hurt your credibility.
This article from Katalina Deaven at the Center for Media Engagement explains how the research defines “outrage news” and how coverage of those stories affects newsrooms.
One more effect: The audience is less likely to retain facts from the story.
A proposed bill in the state legislature would protect the identity of lottery winners to prevent harassment.
Current Wisconsin law doesn’t allow winners to remain anonymous.
Wisconsin FOIC President Bill Lueders said the lawmakers pushing the bill have offered no examples of the harassment they day lottery winners have experienced.
“This appears to be yet another instance in which state lawmakers are rushing to embrace secrecy out of their conviction, unsubstantiated by any evidence, that the people of Wisconsin cannot be trusted with public information,” Lueders wrote.
Read more here.
Working journalists are invited to apply for fellowships to attend Media Law School 2019, to be held Sept. 18-21 in Columbia, South Carolina at the University of South Carolina.
The Media Law School is an intensive seminar that teaches journalists about criminal and civil law and procedure with a focus on how to more effectively cover trials and the judicial process. Sessions are led by University of South Carolina law and journalism faculty and practicing attorneys and judges.
Fellowships in the amount of $400 each are available to cover travel costs to and from Columbia. In addition, lodging and most meals are provided. There is no fee to attend. Fellowship applications are due Aug. 15. For more information and to apply, visit law.sc.edu/medialawschool.
In its fourth year at the University of South Carolina, Media Law School has hosted journalists from a variety of news organizations across the United States. It is presented by the university’s School of Law and College of Information and Communications and sponsored by the American Board of Trial Advocates.
Contact Carmen Maye with questions at medialaw@law.sc.edu.
Perhaps you’re new to shooting video or perhaps it’s been awhile since you got instruction and might want some reminders about what makes great video.
This article outlines the five steps to better visual storytelling.
These are tips for beginners, but it never hurts for veterans to review these checklists to make sure they’re doing their best work.
KCCI in Des Moines recently paid tribute to the men and women behind the camera with a program about news photographers. The station was recently named Station of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association.
A news reporter in Memphis is coming home to Milwaukee.
Tony Atkins will join WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee in mid-August. Atkins is from Milwaukee and graduated from UW-Milwaukee.
Atkins has been with Cox Media Group since 2014, most recently with WHBQ-TV in Memphis.
Wisconsin’s open records law applies to all records requests, big or small. But under former Attorney General Brad Schimel, the Wisconsin Department of Justice implemented a restrictive policy that limited access based on the number of potentially responsive emails.
After being sued by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), the Justice Department rescinded its policy and turned over hundreds of records concerning the Affordable Care Act.
The case began last summer, when CMD asked for all records and communications regarding the ACA involving the Attorney General’s office and the Wisconsin solicitor general. The request covered an eight-month period.
At that time, Wisconsin held a leading role in a multi-state lawsuit aimed at striking down the ACA and eliminating health coverage for pre-existing conditions.
The department acknowledged identifying 1,940 records potentially responsive to CMD’s request, but claimed it would be “excessively burdensome” to review and redact them. It also claimed the request was not reasonably limited as to subject matter or time. It denied the request.
CMD filed suit in response and, in the course of the litigation learned that Schimel’s office had adopted a policy of rejecting open records requests based on an arbitrary 500-email threshold.
The DOJ’s rule pertained to potentially responsive emails, not actually responsive emails. Requesters are then pressured to narrow the scope of their request.
The problem? While the open records law does require requests to have “a reasonable limitation as to subject matter or length of time,” there is no “burdensomeness” exception, and the 500-email threshold is not recognized anywhere in state law.
In May, the department backed off in a settlement with CMD that states the policy “is no longer in place and that references to this policy have been removed from the Department of Justice website.” The change came after the state elected a new attorney general, Josh Kaul.
“This is a victory for the public and journalists, and recognizes that Schimel’s policy went too far in denying the public’s right to know,” says Christa Westerberg, an attorney representing CMD. Westerberg also serves as co-vice president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.
In addition, Kaul’s Justice Department has affirmed that public officials cannot defeat Wisconsin’s open records law by using private email or other digital dodges. There has been a growing national trend in which major influence operations, such as the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), use online apps or members-only portals to evade state records retention and freedom of information laws.
In RAGA’s case, corporations that donate $25,000 or more are able to purchase access to an online site called the “Briefing Room,” where Republican AGs and their staff may review policy documents, draft briefs and regulatory letters, and convene regular policy conference calls using RAGA’s 501(c)(4) arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund.
But the CMD-DOJ settlement says materials that otherwise meet the definition of records are “not exempt from disclosure by virtue of their location on private email accounts, online apps, or file-sharing services.”
Documents obtained by CMD concerning Schimel’s ACA litigation will be analyzed and published on the group’s websites, ExposedbyCMD.org and PRWatch.org.
Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (wisfoic.org), a group dedicated to open government. Arn Pearson is executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit investigative watchdog group focused on corporate influence and money in politics.
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