Zombie Journalism

Dispatches from the living amongst journalism's walking dead

Month: December 2010

New media ethics, same as old media ethics

By

On December 30, 2010

In Industry News & Notes

Earlier this week, the Patch site in Palo Alto apologized after a freelancer  plagiarized a story from another website.  An apology posted on the site stated that copy was lifted from VentureBeat, an online tech news site. It doesn’t state if the freelancer will continue to work for the site, but the apology includes this:

The writer has been told that taking work of other writers or news organizations without attribution is absolutely not acceptable.

I would hope, at least, that this isn’t the first time said freelancer has heard this.

Patch sites haven’t had the best rep when it comes to plagiarism, similar lifting incidents have occurred in West Hollywood, New Rochelle (NY).  But really, this isn’t about Patch at all. It’s about all of us in the growing new media world.

The spate of plagiarism charges leveled at Patch are indicative of an industry that is growing so fast that it’s leaving its employees behind.

New media ventures are hiring up a storm right now. Patch boasts that it is the largest hirer of journalists in the United States. Huffington Post, Politico, TBD and others are also hiring for online-only news operations. These workforces are hired cheap to work fast, which can lead to inexperienced journalists working with little or no hands-on editorial leadership if not handled correctly.

Not that a lack of knowledge about ethical and legal issues is limited to inexperienced journalists. I can personally account for several instances where journalists far above my pay grade and double my experience have revealed a startling lack of regard or knowledge for media ethics (especially as it pertains to the web).

Because many new media orgs don’t have the manpower to constantly monitor the work of employees and freelancers after they get started, it is important that there is some degree of ethics and legal training for all new hires and contract employees. I’m not talking about asking them to sign some document of complicated legalese in their first-day pile of healthcare forms and sexual harassment policies – I mean real policies and guidelines, laid out in a way that will stick.

Short of a formal class or sit-down on these issues, a document outlining the highlights of new media ethics and legal issues should be distributed to new employees. It should be straight-forward, easy-to-understand and outline definite consequences.

Here’s what I would highlight on the copyright and plagiarism front:

  • Don’t copy or use text, images or multimedia without permission from anywhere on the web – this includes Facebook, Twitter and Google images.
  • Credit all sources and link whenever possible.
  • When aggregating others’ coverage, don’t use more than a paragraph – and ALWAYS link to the original with named credit.

What else?

Link roundup: How we’re getting paid this week

By

On December 29, 2010

In Industry News & Notes, Recommended Links

Monetizing location at the local level

My former employer, the Cincinnati Enquirer, has launched a long-simmering idea for a locally-based Foursquare-esque app. The location-based app, called Porkappolis, is available for use worldwide, but has a local focus. It’s similar to a lot of other location-based services, but the potential for local deals and gameplay could make it a real player.  We’ll see how it plays out – perhaps it can be an early example for other media venturing into the app space.

Newsflash: iPad hasn’t saved print yet

WWD reports that iPad magazine sales have gone down in the fall after the device’s summer debut. While this isn’t some larger sign that the iPad and other e-readers won’t help to fund news organizations in the long-term, it is a sign that the pricing structure may be all wrong right out of the gate.

As the commenters at WWD point out, the price structure for iPad magazines isn’t affordable or at all comparable to their print counterparts. Sure, some new iPad owners will buy that first issue to try it out on the new device, but they won’t continue if the price is continually as much or more than that of  print edition. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

More Facebook = More Web Traffic

Facebook lays out the numbers for how news organizations like the Washington Post, Sporting News and Cracked have fared since further integrating the social networking tools into their sites.

Int he provided examples, at least, Facebook widgets, Connect and Open Graph integrations have led to a boost in referrals to those sites due to increased link-sharing, recommendations and comments from Facebook users. It’s hardly surprising, but it is a further indication that news sites that are closed off to including Facebook widgets and integrations are missing the boat on the web traffic they can provide.  Maybe it’s time to shake that corporate template, eh?

Tumblr is ideal for spur-of-the-moment news projects

By

On December 22, 2010

In Industry News & Notes, Social Media

Tumblrs are showing up all over the news these days. From Politico to Pro Publica, The New Yorker and Newsweek – it’s become a popular platform for collecting links, images, quotes – pretty much whatever journalists find interesting that they can’t get into their regular stories and posts.

In experimenting with Tumblr for various possible future TBD projects, I’ve been astounded at how easy it is to kick off a theme blog. Aside from the 30 seconds or so it takes to set one up, if you have an idea in mind, you can populate it really quickly. Case in point: My coworker Jeff Sonderman said on Twitter Tuesday morning that he wished there were a Tumblr for holiday clichés. Within minutes, I had one set up and populated. It is now owning my life.

Tumblr says it is adding 25,000 new accounts daily, and each month it serves up 1.5 billion page views. Beyond the on-site following, Tumblr is effective for sharing short bursts of content across the web via social media.

Mark Coatney, who got Newsweek onto Tumblr (and now is employed by Tumblr), calls it “a space in between Twitter and Facebook.”

“People are creating identities and personalities that Facebook and Twitter are not designed to allow you to do,” he said.

And he’s right – you can be more conversational, collect and curate information like you would on Twitter, but the “fan” and following relationship is similar to that of Facebook.

So you want to get into Tumblr

There’s a lot of advice out there on Tumblr for news organizations, so I won’t repeat it.

The Atlantic offers “Five Keys to Tumblr for Media Outlets“, outlining the best parts of the tool for media orgs.

Buzz Feed offers an epic collection of new Tumblrs for 2010, including a personal fave: Awkward Stock Photos. Mashable collects news media Tumblrs to follow.

Cory Bergman writes at Lost Remote that media might want to get into the space, but should be aware of the work involved in upkeep. “If you’re not going to keep it updated (or you’re going to abandon more critical efforts, like Facebook) — then perhaps just reserving a Tumblr name and letting it sit until you can give it the attention it deserves may be the more prudent approach.”

And in an oh-so-meta fashion. there’s a Tumblr outlining rules for using Tumblr aimed at “old and new media”.

There’s a whole Internet outside of Twitter, so don’t forget it

By

On December 9, 2010

In Twitter

Pew released a new study on Twitter demographics today that found only 8 percent of Americans on the web use Twitter. Of that 8 percent, only 2 percent use Twitter on a typical day. Keep in mind that about 74 percent of American adults are internet users, meaning that the Twitter users make up about 6 percent of the entire adult population.

This news shouldn’t be surprising, but maybe it is to those who live in the Twitter echo chamber.

When all of your friends, your coworkers, your spouse and the media you consume are on Twitter, it may seem logical to believe a great deal of America is as well. This is a dangerous assumption for journalists and media organizations to make – and I know I’ve been guilty of it from time to time.

While I still think it is very important for journalists to use Twitter, the following facts must be emblazoned on the brains of media Twitterati:

  • Twitter represents a very small group of people in your area.
  • Being popular on Twitter doesn’t necessarily make one popular or important in real life.
  • Re-tweets, replies and Twitter referrals do not adequately represent the larger interest in or importance of your work as a journalist.
  • Most people that use Twitter don’t use it to get news.

Now, the study. The Pew study did find some interesting demographic tidbits that should be making us rethink how we approach the tool.

  • There are more American women using Twitter as opposed to men (10% to 7%)
  • Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than older adults.
  • African-Americans and Latinos web users are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are their white counterparts.
  • Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.

So what does all of this mean?

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