mediagiraffe

Jim Caralis describes the OpenMass public database website

Jim Caralis left a job as an engineer for one of the largest proprietary content database companies to start a consulting practice. But then he decided he could offer the public a no-cost way to get access to Massachusetts government documents. He described OpenMass.org, his new website, at a meeting of the New England News Forum, May 17, 2007 at the Boston Public Library. Watch the video, below, and read more at: http://newshare.typepad.com/nenf/2007/04/caralis_betas_o.html

RESOURCE: PDF download from Hartsville, S.C., offers cookbook for setting up citizen-journalism website

K. Paul Mallasch at MuncieFreePress.com has taken note of a tremendous resource for budding citizen journalists. The staff of the Hartsville [S.C.]Today CitiJ website in Hartsville, S.C., have authored -- in PDF format -- a guide to setting up a citizen journalism site. (PDF DOWNLOAD) Mallasch also references a 2005 participatory-media study by Hypergene's Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis.

Anonymous Comments Earn Reporter a Pink Slip

The Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer Journal recently fired court reporter Jason Quinn for posting anonymous comments on the public-forum pages of the IJ's website.

Quinn, a reporter at the IJ for six years, explained his actions:

He said he began posting to "set the record straight" about topics he covered but eventually began offering his opinions as well. News stories printed in Lancaster's three newspapers are often the topic of Talkback discussions.

"It is extremely hard to sit idly by when people are misstating facts," Quinn said. "They obviously have not read the article. It's just hard to sit there and take it."

At this point, he may be the first reporter dismissed for anonymous postings.  Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times, had his column and blog discontinued and has been reassigned for posting multiple anonymous comments, using different pseudonyms, to the blog of Los Angeles District Attorney Patrick Frey.  The comments were part of an on-going "blog feud" between the liberal Hiltzick and conservative Frey.  Blogging policy at the Times did not forbid its columnist-bloggers from leaving comments on other blogs, but prohibited anonymous comments

It is not known if the Intelligencer Journal had any policy prohibiting forum or blog postings at the time of Quinn's postings.  It can be argued, however, that a reporter adhering to the ethics of journalism might not need a stated policy.  Kelly McBride, an expert on ethics in journalism at the Poynter Institute, believes traditional guidlines for opinion in print also extend to opinion online:

"If you express opinions that are critical of a public agency that you cover, and the public knows that you have expressed those opinions — not reported facts, but opinions — the members of the public have reason to doubt your ability to fairly cover that agency," she said.

Read more at pennlive.com

Media or Government: In Whom Do We Trust?

The results of a recent BBC/Reuters/Media Center poll, presented in the opening remarks today at the We Media Global Forum in London revealed that in a world of "news junkies,"  trust is the key component in whom we trust--the media or the government--to deliver the news.

The survey, conducted among 10,230 adults across 10 countries worldwide, revealed that through most of the developing world, the media is trusted on an average of 61 percent more than government (52%).  Trust in government more than media was higher in the U.S. (67% vs 59%) and Britain (51% vs 47%).

National TV at 82% seems to be the most trusted form of media, followed by national/regional newspapers (75%), local newspapers (69%), public radio (67%) and international satellite TV (56%)

Blogs were the least trusted source at 25%, with half of those surveyed "unable to say whether they trusted them."

It is no surprise then that three-fourths of news consumers (77%) check more than one source. Two-thirds  (65%)of people believe that news is reported accurately, with more than half (57%) believe that governments interfere too much with news.  Only 42% believe journalists are able to report freely. 

The full results of the poll can be found at this official site

The We Media Global  Forum is being presented by the Media Center at the BBC and Reuters in  London, May 3-4, 2006

(information courtesy of Gloria Pan, Communications Director, The Media Center)

DePauw research Kevin Howley's book profiles four new community-media efforts

A DePauw researcher's book uses four cases studies to distill the essense of successful, new community media Cambridge University Press is publishing in March a book by researcher Kevin Howley at DePauw University in Indiana which includes cases studies of four community-media projects -- radio, TV, print and computer network -- which he says are meeting the "felt need" of local populations "to create media systems that are relevant ot their everyday lives." (READ MORE).