Moxie Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I saw this HuffPo article this morning. Just using it as an example, not being political. I'm pretty sure my 8th grader can do better than this. Pence CAUSED an HIV outbreak?? If the media doesn't step up, what can we do? Where can we go for honest information? http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58ab29a4e4b045cd34c3e0aa 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heatherwith4 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I don't really consider HuffPo to be a reliable source to begin with. There is still real journalism out there. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjffkj Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I'd start by not going to huffpo for serious news. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I don't go there but articles from HuffPo appear on my news app because many people do go there for news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettyandbob Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I don't really consider HuffPo to be a reliable source to begin with. There is still real journalism out there. Less and less of it. News outlets are not hiring journalists. It is cheaper to reprint the same stories from a dwindling number of sources. Even cheaper is to pick up accounts from ordinary persons who put out stuff for free and may not do thorough checking of sources--just put together enough to have a story and try to report first. Dh was a journalist. It was dying as a field when he got out almost 30 years ago. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 And the trend of using Twitter comments in news articles is maddening. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenade Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 And the trend of using Twitter comments in news articles is maddening. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I agree that journalism is a dying art. The things that I see in mainstream media make me roll my eyes. When I was in journalism school, had I done things like I see on a regular basis in today's media, I would have flunked. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 (edited) It's dying because people want all of their news for free, even if that means diluted and fake news. Journalists are professionals. They expect, rightly so, to be paid a living wage for their work. In order to get paid, they need to work for organizations that can actually pay them (Huffpo btw, publishes a lot of "guest" columns written for free). If you (general you) want your news all free all the time you will get what you pay for. If you can spare a few dollars a month - Choose your favorite conservative newspaper or news magazine. Choose your favorite liberal newspaper or news magazine. Choose one you think is balanced. Choose a local newspaper. Just pick one and subscribe, even if you subscribe to the online version. Pay for real journalism. BTW, if you think that journalism, especially in the U.S., has always been professional and unbiased now might be a good time to look into its history. When this country was an infant politicians fought each other in the newspapers, some of which they owned and published themselves. The belief in unbiased, professional journalism is only a little over a century old. Edited February 21, 2017 by Lady Florida. 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 (edited) We watch Supergirl, and DH and I get dreamy whenever that hard-core reporter that Supergirl works for comes on. I wish that were the reality. eta: typo Edited February 21, 2017 by shawthorne44 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 A blog is not journalism Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 One of the things I see confused are the difference between the headline and the story and the difference between an opinion piece and a news piece. This is an opinion piece with an inflammatory headline that reflects the opinions being stated in the piece. It's not trying to pretend to be straight news. The text of the article is... strong but slightly more nuanced than the headline. And the facts they state are all true (with the corrections... sigh) and used to support the opinions stated. I agree with others that step one would be not relying on HuffPo to be a bastion of good journalism. They're definitely not the worst out there by a long shot, but they're also pretty far from the best. But also, I've started just throwing out the headlines in my evaluation of pieces. Just because newspapers need catchy ones to increase their clicks. I think it's a pretty negative trend and not good for journalism or truth... but... they're businesses, many of them are struggling. I've been trying to think of it as the cover of a book - not chosen by the author necessarily, picked by designers to draw people in but doesn't have to reflect the real story inside. Again, I don't think that's good for a headline. WaPo is especially guilty of this, I find. But it has helped me be less annoyed and get to the better content. This piece is not great without the headline. But it's also an opinion piece. Those always get taken with a grain of salt. Or, often, a giant rock of salt. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 (edited) Journalist's proud mama here. dd recommends the following: https://www.propublica.org/ http://ire.org/ http://fair.org/ Edited February 21, 2017 by Guest 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 To assist students: Media literacy instruction https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2017/02/16/media-literacy-five-ways-teachers-are-fighting-fake-news/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 There are still many media sources with excellent journalism. I recommend The Economist. And yes, there are plenty of sources with shoddy writing and sloppy research. It is up to the consumer to use discernment. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 It's dying because people want all of their news for free, even if that means diluted and fake news. Journalists are professionals. They expect, rightly so, to be paid a living wage for their work. In order to get paid, they need to work for organizations that can actually pay them (Huffpo btw, publishes a lot of "guest" columns written for free). If you (general you) want your news all free all the time you will get what you pay for. I would also add: because people are used to being fed easily digestible sound bites and don't have the discipline and the skills to read an article of consecutive text with complex sentences that delivers a nuanced analysis that is appropriate for the issue's complexity. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 True investigative journalism has been dying for quite awhile. Every Tom,Dick,and Harry with a blog thinks they are a journalist. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I would also add: because people are used to being fed easily digestible sound bites and don't have the discipline and the skills to read an article of consecutive text with complex sentences that delivers a nuanced analysis that is appropriate for the issue's complexity. Sadly, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 Regentrude said "I would also add: because people are used to being fed easily digestible sound bites and don't have the discipline and the skills to read an article of consecutive text with complex sentences that delivers a nuanced analysis that is appropriate for the issue's complexity." That is one of the things I find most frustrating about the news I do read. Incomplete information and not enough actual background to be able to understand the issue. One really blatant example of bad reporting- not fake news but just bad reporting- is generally science news. They print such and such a scientist discovered X but it was not a peer reviewed study and they have such an inadequate description of what the scientists did or even what they are claiming that anyone with actual science knowledge is left scratching their heads in confusion. In contrast, I read out loud to my dh an article about a new scientific discovery that has changed where special relativity should be applied and since it was from physics.org, it actually made sense and was clear enough that even I, who isn't a physicist like my dh is, could understand what they discovered and what it means. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outdoorsy Type Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I find even the use of photos biased. There will be 3-4 candidates, and only one has a flattering photo for the article. Hmmmmm. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 But I would say that short and succinct doesn't inherently have to be biased or misleading. The Week is a good magazine that I often recommend to people who want to keep up with the news without spending a huge amount of time reading lengthy articles. No source is entirely without bias, but it does a good job of giving readers the highlights truthfully without hyperbole. Of course, to be really informed, you need to go beyond the soundbytes and summaries. But no one can do that for every topic. You have to pick a few sources that you routinely look at and then, if an issue arises, go seek out some of your secondary sources for more information. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 We recently saw evidence of this in regards to a project my husband had been involved with in the early stages. He found out from previous coworkers that protestors showed up to a meeting and wanted additional information. We found three articles online. One reported straight facts, it did not attempt to sway the public in either direction. It was also the only one that had any quotes from the company. One was obviously written against the project but still attempted to remain slightly balanced. The third, put out by an activist group, had a lot of misinformation. The only quotes were from a disgruntled employee who hadn't worked for the company in years. Seeing the three articles side by side it was hard to believe they were all referring to the same public meeting. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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