journalismisms

Please Don't Pay a J-School to Teach You How to Blog

Sheila · 07/31/08 10:20AM

As if paying out the snout for a graduate degree to help you land a low-paying job in the highly unstable field of journalism wasn't hard enough. Now, Inside Higher Ed reports, J-schools are adding "new media" concentrations and programs to their repertoire. That's right: THEY'LL TEACH YOU HOW TO BLOG.

Reporters Don't Necessarily Make Good Bloggers

Sheila · 06/09/08 01:40PM

Newspapers have figured out that they need web content, and they're desperate for it. So they take reporters and repurpose them as bloggers. Makes sense, right? Not really. As it turns out, blogging isn't the same thing as reporting, and many of these reporters are bad and out-of-touch bloggers. Case in point? As Jossip mentioned earlier, Elizabeth Snead of the L.A. Times. Today, she points out the lovely Liv Tyler's "bit of bulk" during a premier: "Suck that tummy in, girls!" Bloggers and reporters are two separate species, and they must be kept apart! That's not to say that a hybrid can't be bred successfully, but we must remain vigilant against journalistic miscegenation.

Old Journos to Conference Against "So-Called Citizen Bloggers"

Sheila · 06/09/08 10:28AM

Hand-wringing Cornell alums will meet to discuss the Future of Journalism, which ain't looking so bright: "The New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle Times and countless smaller newspapers across the US have recently laid off reams of staff members and seen massive declines in advertising revenues. What does this mean?! Why are advertisers pulling out? If the newspaper dies, who's going to deliver hard-hitting, sleuthy, unbiased, quality journalism?! We can't get all our news from Jon Stewart, YouTube, or so-called citizen bloggers, can we?" Welcome; we are your new rulers. Please keep in mind that "truthy" is the new "sleuthy" while checking your 401(k)s at the door. [Cornell Entrepreneur Network]

"Chopped Down or Left to Die" at the WSJ

Sheila · 06/03/08 11:12AM

The correction for Jane Garmey's Wall Street Journal article about some gardens is so long and varied that it leaves us wondering: did she get anything right at all? Therefore, we're inducting her into our Corrections Hall of Fame! (NYT corrections queen Alessandra Stanley is saving her a seat.) Click to see the explanation that "there are no plans to dismantle the figbar hedge; and nobody associated with Duke Farms stated that anything on the property will be either chopped down or left to die." [WSJ]

NYU Journalism Kids Plagiarize Don't Plagiarize?

Sheila · 04/07/08 09:18AM

Woof! Our plagiarism dog is on the case, sniffing out copying. Journalism students at NYU are launching NYU Local, a "24-hour" campus news blog, and are plagiarism trouble already. An article from the official campus newspaper, Washington Square News, was on their site as a placeholder before pre-launch. But they put one of their writer's bylines onto the article, which has since been removed but is cached here. We hear that the advisor for this rowdy group is NYU Journalism Chairwoman Brooke Kroeger. We'd suggest a shorter leash! Update: the editors of Washington Square News say, "We were in contact with NYULocal's editors about this issue over the weekend. They promptly reassured us that this was a mistake — a leftover placeholder article from when they were designing their site, which has not yet launched. They apologized, [and] removed the article in question... we see no reason to doubt them on this matter and are satisfied with that response."