For Tuesday, March 4, 2014, here are some media stories of note:
We have heard the debate on who is a journalist. Now Internet veteran Dave Winer wants to debate who is a blogger. He doesn't like the term as it's applied to the professional act of journalism. Blogging, he argues, is an amateur thing, and bloggers are often experts who share their knowledge freely. Reporters usurping the word are devaluing themselves and distorting the word. He thinks we need a new word.
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Marc Fisher, meanwhile, wonders if accuracy is all that essential in the new business model of journalism that prides speed over veracity. He writes in the Columbia Journalism Review that a middle ground is emerging: "When is information sufficiently baked to be served up as accurate?" He says some degree of professionalism is essential, but absolute perfectionism prevents journalism from happening at all.
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Of course, accuracy can matter. The New York Times determined this week that it should correct its 1853 report on the kidnapping of Solomon Northup, the slave made contemporarily famous by the adaptation of his memoir for the Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave. It turns out there was an error in the story, Andrew Beaujon writes for Poynter, and the Times has corrected it.
We have heard the debate on who is a journalist. Now Internet veteran Dave Winer wants to debate who is a blogger. He doesn't like the term as it's applied to the professional act of journalism. Blogging, he argues, is an amateur thing, and bloggers are often experts who share their knowledge freely. Reporters usurping the word are devaluing themselves and distorting the word. He thinks we need a new word.
***
Marc Fisher, meanwhile, wonders if accuracy is all that essential in the new business model of journalism that prides speed over veracity. He writes in the Columbia Journalism Review that a middle ground is emerging: "When is information sufficiently baked to be served up as accurate?" He says some degree of professionalism is essential, but absolute perfectionism prevents journalism from happening at all.
***
Of course, accuracy can matter. The New York Times determined this week that it should correct its 1853 report on the kidnapping of Solomon Northup, the slave made contemporarily famous by the adaptation of his memoir for the Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave. It turns out there was an error in the story, Andrew Beaujon writes for Poynter, and the Times has corrected it.
