AEJMC NEWSPAPER DIVISION

Summer 2010

New ethical frontier: Breaking cybernews

In July 2008, a storm chaser sold video of a Nebraska tornado to the Associated Press, NBC, CBS and Fox. The video was distributed to nearly 2,000 websites that subscribe to AP and was aired widely by network affiliates nationwide. AP and the networks pulled the video two days later, after suspicions about its authenticity. It appeared to be doctored footage of a Kansas tornado, shot by someone else four years earlier, although the storm chaser denied it. A month later, the Cleveland Plain Dealer website erroneously reported the death of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, about 4 hours before her actual death. How did it happen? In apologizing for the error, the newspaper said only that it had relied on several trusted sources for its information. A month later, a reporter for the now-closed Rocky Mountain News used Twitter to provide live coverage of the funeral of a 3-year-old boy, Marten Kudlis, killed when a pickup crashed into a suburban Denver ice cream shop. The Twitter feed included updates such as: family member says marten is with grandmother who died last year. marten we loved you, he says. People sobbing. family members shovel earth into grave. Publisher John Temple defended the coverage after complaints of insensitivity and trivializing via play-byplay. We must learn to use the new tools at our disposal, he wrote to readers. Yes, there are going to be times we make mistakes, just as we do in our newspaper. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try something. It means we need to learn to do it well. That is our mission. More recently, in March, a celebrity news website, RadarOnline, reported erroneously that U.S. Chief Justice

Pro Talk
Jill Van Wyke
Drake University
John Roberts was stepping down for health reasons. The site retracted the report within an hour, but not before it ran on the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report and sent the national media, including NBC News Brian Williams, scurrying to confirm it.

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We may scoff at what, in retrospect, seem like such glaring lapses of good judgment and sound reporting. But in an increasingly competitive news world, getting a story first can often trump getting it right. Reporters and editors caught up in the mad dash of a breaking-news story are vulnerable to errors of fact and ethical missteps. In the chaos, any size news organization, including campus media, can find itself facing questions such as:

in the maelstrom of a fast-moving story. A recent Associated Press Managing Editors study concluded that most traditional print media companies have been slow to craft and adopt clear standards and policies for reporting news online. Thats alarming. In the heat of the breaking-news moment, an ethical misstep or lapse in judgment can deal a mortal blow to readers faith and trust in the newspaper. The absence of such a policy exposes news organizations to unnecessary risk, according to the APME study, Ethics and Credibility of Breaking News Online. Such a void increases the likelihood that newsrooms will make the kind of mistake that can undermine years of earned credibility. We who teach young journalists should be preparing our students to work in todays get-it-first news environment without compromising ethics, credibility and integrity. And those of us who advise or oversee campus news media should be pushing our staffs to adopt such policies.

Highlights of the APME Study

The APME study, spearheaded by Mitch Pugh, editor of the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, was conducted in conjunction with the Journal and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. The Journal, a daily in northwest Iowa with a circulation of 40,000, is one of the rare news organizations with a specific policy for online breaking news. Researchers presented a fictitious breaking-news scenario involving a fight at a local school to three focus groups: typical readers; news sources and community leaders; and APME members. The study discovered a gulf between the standards of readers and the standards of journalists for reportSee ONLINE, Page 4

How will we verify information? Who and what are acceptable sources? Who can post breaking news? Can it be posted without an editors review? How do we handle information gleaned from social media sites? Are social media sites valid outlets for publication? Reporters and editors should make such decisions before they are caught

AEJMC NEWSPAPER DIVISION

Summer 2010

ONLINE
ONLINE, from page 3

ing breaking news. Newsrooms are clearly more conservative than readers, the study says. Journalists are more cautious than the public-at-large when it comes to posting breaking news updates online. Newsrooms are slower to adapt to new technologies than are readers, the study concludes. Readers recognize different levels of standards for print and online, but they want the standards explained and defended. They distinguish between information and a news story, understanding that breaking news unfolds incrementally. They are forgiving of factual errors in a fast-developing story, particularly when those errors are quickly acknowledged and corrected. They are not, however, as forgiving of errors of judgment. The study also found that journalists are more skeptical of Facebook and social media in general as a news source than the public-at-large. Few newsrooms have settled the question of their usefulness as a source. The debate over differing standards for print and online is one we need to have. So is the debate over the usefulness of social media as a source of information and as a publication outlet. But until we settle those debates (if we ever do), its essential that news organizations be open and honest about their standards and policies. Readers want to know how we are going to report the news so they can hold us accountable to these standards, the study says.

sourcing. Senior editors must approve posts that lack an official source, rely on anonymous sources or scanner traffic, or include content submitted by readers or gathered via social media. Finally, the Journals policy offers guidance on using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to post news and on handling corrections and clarifications. To its credit, the Journal posts links to its policy prominently on its website, at the top of the main news page and at the top of every staff-produced news story. It also provides such a link with every breaking news post.

LeadFolks
Former Newpaper Division Chair Jack Rosenberry (St. John Fisher College) and Burton St. John III (Old Dominion University) have published the edited volume "Public Journalism 2.0: The Promise and Reality of a Citizen-Engaged Press" (2010, Routledge). Across 13 chapters, the book examines both the roots and contemporary dynamics of civic and citizen journalism and posits how public journalism can inform future journalistic endeavors. The book features original research, case studies and essays by scholars such as Joyce Nip, David Ryfe, Serena Carpenter, Donica Mensing, Sue Robinson and Aaron Barlow. The volume also features interviews with Tanni Haas, Lewis Friedland and Jan Schaffer. Each chapter also features a summary area that offers, for pedagogical use, key theoretical and practical implications and reflection questions.

Preparing Our Students

New technologies let us tell stories and reach readers in new ways. But digital delivery has upended traditional news standards and values, according to the APME study. Traditional ethics codes that have served so well for so long dont address all the new ways to report, tell stories and publish. At the same time, newsrooms have fewer and fewer people, and sadly, many of the reporters and editors lost over the last few years were veterans. The journalists who remain bear more responsibility for online publishing. They need to be trained to react quickly, act ethically and protect credibility before they find themselves in the heat of a big breaking story. Are our students ready?

Resources
APMEs Breaking News Without Breaking Trust by Sioux City Editor Mitch Pugh. Page includes a link to the studys findings and the Journals policy: h t t p : / / w w w . a p m e . com/?page=BreakingNews The Sioux City Journals online breaking news policy on its site: http ://siouxcityjourna l.com/ article_7790977a-0c53-11df-828a001cc4c03286.html Mitch Pughs hour-long Ethics and Credibility of Breaking News Online webinar for NewsU.org originally aired in April, but is archived for viewing for $27.95. http://www.newsu.org/
[Web links should work in Acrobat but may need configuring on Macs.]

Opportunity knocks
The Newspaper Division needs a new LeadTime editor. Current editor Mike Grundmann is ending his tenure at two years. The editor is also an executive board position. Theres no official requirement for experience as a division member. LeadTime has been published as a PDF three times a year, timed mostly for members to prepare for the annual AEJMC convention, and to debrief from it, and to respond to calls for papers, panels and competitions. Division officers typically produce most of the material, although theres no limit on the amount or types of solicited or unsolicited contributions from other members and outside professionals. The story budget for the official content is typically decided in consultation with the division chair. Questions? Contact Mike Grundmann at grundmmj@jmu.edu.

The Sioux City Journal Policy

Pugh instituted the Journals breaking news policy in response to his research with APME. The Journals policy declares that it will be the first and best in reporting local news online even if all the facts of the news event are not yet fully known and even if it does not always go through the same rigorous editing process we utilize for print. The policy precisely defines breaking news and spells out who in the newsroom is permitted to post it. (Anyone can, unless the news is sensitive. In that case, at least one newsroom manager must review it first.) The policy also sets standards for