PressEthic

When does a press release create a fashion trend, or a fashion trend create a press release?

A reporter should never get involved in the events he or she covers. You know, that whole fly on the wall theory – detached, impartial, recording the events for the greater good. But, sometimes it’s not that easy. Sometimes reporters are in a position where they can help a situation, or possibly save a life. Is it right for them to throw down their pens and cross the line?

Separating news and advertising functions of a newspaper makes good business sense.

The New York Daily News has published an editorial on the NYU GA strike that I found to be particularly succinct and to the point. I happen to agree with the editorial so I warn you I’m biased to it’s reasoning.

I agree that these GA’s are learning a hard lesson in life – you don’t always get what you want no matter how much noise you make. Higher education is a big business. NYU is going to do what’s best for NYU regardless of what student unions say. The very fact that NYU GA’s are allowed to have a union at all is pretty amazing.

The editorial is short and added below:

Often undermined, media efforts to inform victims is vital in humanitarian missions.

The potential jailing of five Turkish journalists is yet another obstacle in Turkey's talks of EU membership. But despite Turkey's history of muzzling components of the press, President Bush has praised the country's regulated government as a democracy that other nations should aspire to.

A tech writer argues that citizen journalists are not neutral, meaning they cannot report the news like professional journalists can.

India is not ready for the ‘classic Playboy’, but will most likely respond very well to an indigenized version of it

"Serious" newspapers should leave celebrity reporting to the tabloids..

I love seeing women reporters in war zones, but why are successful women always subjected to stereotypical criticisms?

Are reporters afraid of overstating environmental issues?

I read an AP article in Editor & Publisher from November 30th on restricting use of autopsy photos in Ohio. The story talks about how autopsy photos of a 16-year-old girl who died in a car accident ended up in a slide show about drunk driving. The girl’s mother, who hadn’t been asked for permission to use her daughters photos, was outraged (and rightly so if you ask me).

The article goes on to say which states are passing legislation to ban autopsy photos from the public and who aren’t. It was this paragraph, however, that threw me for a loop:

If anyone caught am New York over the weekend, here’s the first thing they saw: a giant T-Mobile ad that stretches from the front cover around to the back cover.

Collaboration is great, but how can we control it?

It’s kind of like an RSS feed for science news, except much cooler...