Who Would Lie About an Obituary?

IF SOMEONE CALLS in an obituary to a newspaper, hoping to get a notice about their loved one printed in the paper, what is the responsibility of the newspaper? Should the newspaper fact-check that information, or assume that no one would joke about such a story?Turns out a guy in Brookeville, PA didn't want to get fired from his job after he took time off, supposedly mourning the death of his mother. To support his story, he contacted the local paper...

Jennifer Midberry: "Work On Developing Your Style."

Jennifer Midberry thought she might grow up and become an elementary school teacher. Or a social worker of some sort. Then she won a photo contest while being a student at Bucks County Community College. She met a few professional photojournalists who were encouraging and she meandered her way into being a professional shooter herself.She's managed to build a career that allows her to see the world and tell stories about issues she cares about."People...

Did the Police Have the Right to Evict the Press?

Around 1:00 am this morning, police gave final warning to the Occupy Philly protesters to evacuate Dilworth Plaza, next to City Hall. Before the police issued their final warning to the protesters, however, the police told journalists that they had to vacate the area and watch the events unfold from across the five lane street, probably 150 feet away from the entrance to the Occupy Philly encampment. From the press vantage point, it was almost impossible...

Oops. That's Not What We Meant.

A BALTIMORE TELEVISION station reported on Black Friday events and accidentally put "Black Holiday Shoppers" in the lower-third (rather than labeling them as "Black Friday Shoppers").Does the newscast have a responsibility to apologize to their audience? In the age of the Internet, when information is old news in a matter of moments, do the media have to have every fact immediately correct? Or, as a society, have we just accepted that what we learn...

Did The Media Get Joe Paterno Fired?

HOURS AFTER THE Penn Sate University board of trustees fired football coach Joe Paterno and the university president for their actions (and inaction) connected to the child sex scandal involving a former PSU football coach, students rioted in the streets. Among the ways they released their anger and frustration was by knocking over a television live truck.The students, according to some reports, believe that the media got Joe Paterno fired.“I think...

Should You Cut The President Some Slack?

THIS ISN'T NEW but it is a modern classic. In the wake of Kanye West hijacking Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV video music awards, President Obama called West a jackass.The moment was videotaped as the president was being prepped for an interview. The president and the reporter were simply conversing as lights, cameras and mics were being set up.The president asks for some slack after everyone laughs. Is it too late to ask that the statement be off the record at that point? Is this ne...

Topless Journalist Reports on Naked Drunk Driver.

A REPORTER IN Ohio covered the court case of a woman arrested for drunk driving and speeding. The accused drunk driver was nearly naked when arrested.This report brings about a number of questions:• Is the drunk driver story actually newsworthy?• Were the photographer and videographer attacked?• Did we need to see the reporter topless in the car?• Is it acceptable for journalists to air the surveillance video?• Is this "story" handled responsib...

Bill Conlin: A Lifetime in Sports. And a Story For Every Day.

JUST STUMBLED ACROSS this video tribute (above) to Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin, a Temple grad who was honored with a Lew Klein Award last week.Conlin is an icon in Philadelphia sports. There's no ethical question here. But listen to the dude. There's great stuff in these vide...

Marc Zumoff: "When You're an Intern, You're in The Farm System."

MARC ZUMOFF WAS not the most popular kid in high school when he was growing up in Northeast Philadelphia. He was heavy and socially awkward. "I wasn't really that dynamic," Zumoff said.That lasted into his time while a student here at Temple. Now, however, he gets paid to talk about basketball as the voice of the Philadelphia 76ers. He's one of around 30 professional basketball play-by-play announcers in the country. He gets front row seats, flies...

Can A Reporter Have An Opinion?

CAN YOU ROOT for a cause and report on it at the same time?That's the situation that Philadelphia Daily News reporter/ editor/ blogger Will Bunch finds himself. He has reported on the Occupy movement while at the same time, he serves as a fellow at a left leaning think tank. He's been tweeting his support for the Occupiers. Is there anything wrong with that?“I think my editors are really proud to have someone writing with a point of view," Bunch...

Steve Esack: "Any Assignment I Do, I Do to The Best of My Ability."

STEVE ESACK HOLDS a grudge.The Northeast Philly native went to the Community College of Philadelphia before transferring to Temple (c/o '96). He took a reporting job at a weekly newspaper in the 'burbs before landing a gig at the Philadelphia Daily News. As a desk clerk. He answered phones and delivered mail. But he wanted to be a writer. When he approached the executive editor of the newspaper, the editor told Steve, "You won't get anywhere because...

Can The Public Really Help The Newsmakers?

A NEWSPAPER IN THE UK is now posting their story budget for the next day's paper, hoping that readers will see the story list and contribute to it.Is this a good idea?"What if readers were able to help newsdesks work out which stories were worth investing precious reporting resources in?" the national news editor of The Guardian wrote yesterday. "What if all those experts who delight in telling us what's wrong with our stories after they've been...

Can You Say That On-Air or In Print?

LAST WEEK, THE Washington Post discovered that, for many years, presidential candidate Rick Perry leased a hunting camp that he had a racially offensive nickname for. Here is the lead of the Post's story:In the early years of his political career, Rick Perry began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at his family’s secluded West Texas hunting camp, a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing...

When Are the Protesters Newsworthy?

Protesters have camped out in New York City since September 17, and more than 1,000 have been arrested so far.During the first week of the "occupation" by a group organized under the banner "Occupy Wall Street," there was virtually no coverage by the mainstream press."The recent protests on Wall Street did not involve large numbers of people, prominent people, a great disruption or an especially clear objective," NPR's executive editor told their ombudsman, the person in charge of determining whether the network has performed properly.Media coverage...

Bob Ford: Newspaper Sports Reporters Should be Writing About "What Does It Mean?"

"IF YOU THINK you know your path in life, you're wrong," said Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Bob Ford.He said that he had six majors (art history, psychology, English and a few others) while studying at the University of Maryland. He landed on journalism after learning there were academic advisors, and one suggested that path.He graduated and got a job at the Easton Star Democrat on Maryland's Eastern shore. His first story was a duck calling...

Talking Sports With Bob Ford.

ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Bob Ford (above) will visit class. He'll talk about just about anything - from his start in journalism to his stint covering the Sixers, from landing the sweet gig of opining about the day's sporting events to whether the Phillies should bring Jimmy Rollins back next year.But since many of you are interested in becoming sports journalists, let's think proactively. What's the next step...

Does Good Video Make It Newsworthy?

THERE WAS A dramatic rescue of a motorcyclist trapped under a car as his bike went up in flames.A local television station has raw video of the rescue (see here). The video has since run on newscasts around the world.Is it a big story? Or is it simply dramatic video? What newsworthiness criteria qualify this story as an international phenome...

The Journalists Messed Up Journalism?

A WRITER AT the Daily Californian, the student paper at the University of California, Berkeley, says that the problems currently facing journalism are the responsibility of journalists."It’s our fault," he writes. "Our job was to report the news, and we did that. But we got complacent, and we stopped evolving, and soon the concept of a news article became far removed from what you, as a person, valued."He argues that journalists have focused on drawing...

Should The Media Have Access to Police Scanners?

Police in Jacksonville, Florida have removed police scanners from local newsrooms. The police department previously rented the scanners to the news outlets (radio, TV and newspapers) but now the police are refusing access. The story above is from July, when the threat of losing the scanners became known. News outlets have relied upon scanners for years as a why of monitoring breaking activity in their regions. Some news outlets believe the police are trying to control the information that news outlets can obtain. The police say that they are collecting...

A Story About Beyonce As a National Distraction From Recent Troubles?

AFTER BEYONCE SHOWED off her belly at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, letting people know she's pregnant, people tweeted at a rate of 8,868 tweets per second, a record for the social media service.The story above says that people needed Beyonce and her news in the wake of recent national issues - bad economy, earthquake, hurricanes, etc.Is that true? Or were the news folks just looking for an excuse to talk about Beyonce, and try to draw those viewers in?Is her pregnancy ne...

BE AFRAID! THERE'S A HURRICANE COMING!

WAS THE HURRICANE coverage responsible? Did your local newscasts in the Philadelphia region do a fine job of keeping people aware of the storm and potential dangers?Or did they primarily build fear with their 36 hours of non-stop storm coverage (most of the local stations ran live, local news from early Saturday through Sunday afternoon).And what about the video above? Is that ne...

Should Journalists Bother With The Donald?

APPARENTLY, DONALD TRUMP was upset after getting skewered by Seth Meyers (and President Obama) at the White House correspondents dinner over the weekend.“Seth Meyers has no talent,” Trump said Sunday, according to the New York Times. “He fell totally flat. In fact, I thought Seth’s delivery was so bad that he hurt himself.”During Meyers' nearly 20 minute presentation, he mocked Trump repeatedly."Donald Trump has said he's running for president as a Republican," he said, "which is surprising because I thought he was running as a joke."The president...

"Interviewing the Data," with Sabrina Rubin Erdely, Alfred Lubrano & Dylan Purcell.

SOME JOURNALISTS ARE uncomfortable with numbers. Data and statistics can be difficult to comprehend, and they can be interpreted in many ways. But they can also be used as support for stories, making trends and observations credible in the eyes and ears of the audience."Numbers are authoritative," Inquirer staff writer Alfred Lubrano said yesterday in class during our discussion of Data & Journalism. "But you have to find a balance. People like...

Using Data to Create Good Journalism.

ON TUESDAY, WE'LL have a few guests in class talking about using data, statistics and research to strengthen their journalistic work.Sabrina Rubin Erdely is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a writer-at-large for Philadelphia magazine. She has won numerous awards for her work, much of which is centered around investigative journalism. (Click on the links above to find some of her stories).Alfred Lubrano is a Brooklyn native and Columbia...

Consumer Reporter Nydia Han: "If You Plan to go Into TV News, You're Going to Work Hard."

NYDIA HAN WANTED to be a magazine writer. But after interning at a San Francisco television station while she was in college, she became hooked on TV news."I loved the immediacy of it," she said during her visit to class yesterday. "I really saw the power of TV news, and the ways it can contribute to the world."Her path to becoming an anchor and consumer reporter for 6ABC's Action News, one of the most popular local newscasts in the country, was...

Move Closer to Your World, My Friend.

ON TUESDAY, NYDIA HAN, a reporter and anchor at 6ABC, will visit the class.Han has been at 6ABC (a.k.a. Action News) since 2002. She has covered a wide variety of stories in the region and around the country. She currently serves as a weekend anchor and consumer affairs/ investigative reporter. You can find some of her recent work here.She is a Southern California native who speaks Korean fluently. She graduated from the prestigious Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.We'll open the floor for your questions, so think about what...

Why Journalists Must Remain Independent.

A LA SALLE UNIVERSITY professor held a symposium that involved strippers. The student newspaper found out about the stripper event (which involved students paying $150 for an ethics seminar). But the university told the student journalists that they could not publish any information until a full investigation was performed by the university.Should the students have run the news story anyway? Can the university censor the newspaper?The faculty advisor...

Wake Me When the News Starts.

DURING THE PRESIDENT'S speech today about the national debt, Vice President Joe Biden closed his eyes and seemed to nod off.The so-called snoozing (no one confirmed if the VP was sleeping) has become big news.Is this actually a sto...

Should the Bloggers Get Some Cash?

THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY of the Huffington Post, bloggers have worked for free. In February, HuffPo was purchased by AOL for $315 million. The site's founder, Arianna Huffington (above), retains her position and she pockets the cash.This week, a former blogger filed a class action lawsuit against the Huffington Post and AOL.“In my view, the Huffington Post’s bloggers have essentially been turned into modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington’s plantation,”...

University Newspapers Are Still Popular?

DO YOU READ the school newspaper?According to a Washington Post story, student newspapers are still popular - 85 percent of students surveyed read the print edition of their campus paper in the past month and 72 percent had read the paper online. The reasons why they read the papers: they are free, they are portable and they speak to the very specific community.Why do you read (or not read) the Temple Ne...

Who Wants To Be a News Anchor Anymore?

OVER THE LAST few weeks, several notable network news anchors have announced that they will be stepping down in the near future. Among the big names: Katie Couric, Glenn Beck and Meredith Viera.What's going on? The network anchor position used to be the ultimate destination for broadcast journalists. Is this a sign that network journalism is no longer relevant?“The prestige has diminished, the money has diminished and the audience has diminished,”...

Gotcha Journalism?

NBC NEWS WITH Brian Williams was nearly tricked by an Army press release stating that the new standard-issue headgear for soldiers would be a Stetson cowboy hat.NBC ran a story despite it being an April Fool's joke. Is it newswort...

Would You Put Tiger on the Cover?

TIGER WOODS WAS featured on the April cover of Golf Digest. Is there anything wrong with that?In 2009, Woods was found to have had affairs with around a dozen women while married to his wife. The father of two young children took five months away from golf to seek treatment for his sexual addictions. Many of Woods' sponsors pulled their endorsement deals with him because of what he seemed to represent.Should magazines avoid him on the cover because...

Principle of Journalism: Keep Mickey Mouse Happy?

THERE'S A NEW SHOW launching on ABC this week and it sort of takes place in Philadelphia. While Body of Proof is filmed in Rhode Island, it is a Philadelphia tale. They show Philly skyline shots and scene-setters but the location filming is actually done in Providence.6ABC did a full news story on the new program, even sending a reporter to Providence to interview the show's stars.Is it a news story that Philadelphia is sort of the setting for a...

The Royals: "The Longest Running Soap Opera in Britain."

ROS COWARD BECAME fascinated with Princess Diana not just because Diana was royalty, but because of what she represented.Diana Spencer married Prince Charles and entered the media spotlight during an era fueled by a new brand of celebrity-obsessed journalism encouraged by Rupert Murdoch's The Sun."Murdoch changed British journalism," said Coward, a journalist, educator and author. "He created a less deferential attitude."The down-market rag had paparazzi...

Thursday: British Journalist and Educator Ros Coward.

BRITISH JOURNALIST AND EDUCATOR Ros Coward will visit the class on Thursday and discuss media coverage of the British Royal Family, a very timely subject given the pending wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William, the future king of England.Coward has worked in television, reported for newspapers, written for magazines and she has authored several non-fiction books, including Diana, The Authorized Portrait. Her specialties include coverage of...

Are the Royals Newsworthy?

ARE YOU EXCITED for the royal wedding between the UK's Prince William and Kate Middleton?BBC America is planning 184 hours of related programming prior to the actual wedding. TLC has 89 hours of content ready to air. All of the US network news operations are planning to send their crews to to London and run special programming, in addition to the non-stop, live coverage of the nuptials.An estimated two billion people are expected to watch some or...

Should Journalists Root for the Home Team? Part II: The Sports Edition.

ESPN COLLEGE FOOTBALL analyst Kirk Herbstreit, a native Ohioan who was a star quarterback at Ohio State University, moved out of the state recently because he felt loads of negativity from fans.Apparently, they chastised him whenever he said anything verging on critical of Ohio State University football."Nobody loves Ohio State more than me," Herbstreit told the Columbus Dispatch. "But I've got a job to do, and I'm going to continue to be fair and...

Should Journalists Root for the Home Team?

A FEW WEEKS AGO, Inquirer editorial page editor (and TU adjunct) Paul Davies wrote a column about the opening of the massive expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center."Would you invest $786 million in a business that lost millions every year, charged more than most of its competitors, and left many customers angry and unwilling to return?" Davies asked. "Well, you just did."He wrote that the center is full of cronyism, inside politics and union...

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