Make Journalism Great Again in 2017: transparency, more accuracy, fact-checking, and dialogue with readers

Our personal weekly selection about journalism and innovation. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

edited by Marco Nurra

• A total of 115 journalists died in 2016 simply for doing their jobs, according to the annual report compiled by the International News Safety Institute (INSI), “Killing the Messenger”.
• The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s annual predictions report, released Wednesday, starts out a little bleakly and doesn’t exactly let up: In 2017, “key developments will center on fears about how changing technology is affecting the quality of information and the state of our democracy.”
• What will happen to fact-checking in 2017? Here are 7 guesses, by Alexios Mantzarlis for Poynter.
• Focus more on fighting bad journalism, less on fake news, wrote David Uberti for Columbia Journalism Review. “The fake news mania misses that broader context and potentially complicates the way forward. […] While fake news and bad reporting both threaten the accuracy of information that reaches the public, journalists have real power to affect just one of the two.”
• Reuters global chief calls for greater transparency in news reporting methods. “It’s a time to double down on being unbiased and being careful and being dispassionate good journalists,” he says. Just as importantly, news organisations in general need to be quicker to acknowledge their errors, he says. “You correct your errors quickly and prominently, you call people back when they tell you you made a mistake. you sometimes call the head of an organisation and say ‘hey, we messed that up and here’s how we are fixing it.’ The more ethical the behaviour is, the more we earn the right to be trusted.”
• Commenters say they want journalists and experts to join them in the comments. This is according to a large survey of readers across 20 U.S. news organizations, from print to broadcast to digital-only, produced jointly by the Engaging News Project at the University of Texas and The Coral Project and published on Thursday. (The survey received more than 12,000 responses.)
• When it comes to legal issues, journalism schools leave students unprepared, a new study argues. “Even though online platforms are where nearly all journalists today begin their career, the internet is often presented as a bolt-on topic when it comes to media law.”
• A self-proclaimed “Inventor of Email” sued TechDirt for mocking his claim. Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai filed a $15 million defamation suit against the site and its founder, Mike Masnick. The case is likely to raise alarm in media circles because Ayyadurai is being represented by Charles Harder, a Beverly Hills attorney who became famous by directing a stealth legal campaign — bankrolled by billionaire Peter Thiel — against Gawker Media that ultimately drove the website into bankruptcy with a $140 million Florida jury verdict. Here’s Mike Masnick’s post.
• What Facebook is doing in the U.S. to staunch the flow of fake news on its platform will be internationally expanded soon. Plans for how it will roll this out and work with partners across Europe are due be announced in the next few weeks.
• Facebook unveils measures to promote stronger ties with the news industry. The Facebook Journalism Project comes after the company was accused of failing to tackle misinformation and at a time when newsrooms are cutting costs.

One more thing…

CNN, BuzzFeed, Trump, and the 35-page “unverified” intelligence report

Unless you have been living on Mars this week, you may have heard of the 35-page “unverified” dossier on Donald Trump’s alleged long-term relationship with Russia, mentioned in a CNN report and published by BuzzFeed News. If not, here is a selection of articles you must read:

❗️ Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him, CNN report

❗️ These reports allege Trump has deep ties to Russia, BuzzFeed News report

• BuzzFeed publishes unsubstantiated Trump report, raising ethics questions, Rory Carroll, The Guardian
• How the Trump dossier came to light: secret sources, a retired spy and John McCain, Julian Borger, The Guardian
• Here’s why BuzzFeed was right to publish those Trump documents, Mathew Ingram, Fortune
• How BuzzFeed crossed the line in publishing salacious ‘dossier’ on Trump, Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post
• BuzzFeed was right to publish Trump-Russia files, Vanessa M. Gezari, Columbia Journalism Rreview
• BuzzFeed was wrong to publish the Trump rumours. Here’s why, Jane Martinson, The Guardian
• Donald Trump Contradicts Himself, and Reality, at Press Conference, Robert Mackey, Sam Biddle, The Intercept
• Trump berated a CNN reporter, and fellow journalists missed an opportunity, Pete Vernon, Columbia Journalism Rreview
• As Trump berates news media, a new strategy is needed to cover him, Jim Rutenberg, New York Times
• Trump dossier: intelligence sources vouch for credibility of report’s author, Nick Hopkins, Luke Harding, The Guardian

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