Kansas Legislature, CJOnline, The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal
June 27, 2002
Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: News Event Coverage, Circulation less than 75,000, Digital Edge Award, 2002. Judges’ Comments: No filibusters were required to select this Edgie entry, a premium example of the Web?s ability to broaden the scope of political coverage. Visitors can track bills in real-time using database technology. The Topeka Capital-Journal?s legislative writers provide Web-only articles and audio clips from their interviews, and politicians submit weekly diaries.
Playing With Fire
June 19, 2002
Broadcasting unconfirmed reports e-mailed in from viewers is a dangerous game, but many local TV stations do so. WTEN chief meteorologist Steve Caporizzo found that out during a recent night of severe thunderstorms, when he aired e-mailed reports of intensive damage from Bennington County in Vermont, including descriptions of mobile homes being tossed and a jeep blown 450 feet down the road. Unfortunately, they turned out to be bogus. Now the station is re-evaluating its practice of having reading unconfirmed e-mail dispatches on the air during weather events. “We certainly learned a lesson, and will certainly be more careful next time,” news director Rob Puglisi said. “Does that mean that we will never read another e-mail on the air? It’s difficult to say for sure.” How many times must one get burned before one learns not to play with fire?
NeonSky: Becoming Human
June 18, 2002
NeonSky has won a Webby Award for its impressive Becoming Human story, an interactive documentary exploring the question of “What makes us human?” Guided by the man who discovered the Lucy skeleton, users can walk through a virtual archaeological dig, meet scientists in the field and trace the evolution of humans back 4 million years.
More great features from NeonSky….
Watergate Revisited, WashingtonPost.com
June 17, 2002
WashingtonPost.com published a nice package commemorating the 30th anniversary of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation. Perhaps of most interest, the site offered readers a chance to ask questions of Washington Post Vice President at Large Ben Bradlee and Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward in a live video chat. The package also includes an archive of Post Watergate stories; a gallery of photos and cartoons from the Watergate era; and a multimedia page including audio from the famous tapes and video clips from some of the famous moments during the scandal.
Holy Web Sites
June 17, 2002
With all the church news in the media these days, it’s important to know your prelates from your pontiffs. Here are some handy religion sites to help keep you from making any mistakes that will send you to confessional.
Finder’s Guide to Deep Throat, University of Illinois students
June 15, 2002
For the past three years students in the Investigative Reporting class of the Department of Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have attempted to figure out who Deep Throat is. What’s most interesting about their work is not their choice, Pat Buchanan, but the online package they’ve published, which details, step-by-step, how they reached their conclusions. Reading through their process would be useful to students and professionals interested in investigative reporting techniques. The result is also a good example of one way to publish an investigative report: rather than simply publish the conclusion, show the reader how you reached it. Though in this case, they might have included more of the primary sources they used in their reporting: For example, they could have posted the computer database they built with all the known information about Watergate and The Washington Post’s coverage. In reaching their conclusions, they sorted, searched and studied the database — surely some readers would love to do the same and reach their own conclusions.
How to make sites trustworthy
June 14, 2002
Honesty, transparency, and disclosure of who you are and who pays for you are among the things that help make news sites trustworthy to readers. Online news leaders list the factors that lend credibility to Web sites.
When to Use Immersive Journalism
June 14, 2002
Poynter’s Steve Outing describes “immersive storytelling” and then offers tips on when to use story presentation that allows the Internet user to interact with story elements or data.
A Satirical Scoop
June 13, 2002
China’s Beijing Evening News copied an article from The Onion, not realizing it was satire, and published a rewritten version reporting that Congress was threatening to move out of Washington unless a fancy new Capitol is built. “We consider this a warning and will strengthen supervision of our reports,” said Yu Bing, a manager of the Evening News’ foreign news department. But when the newspaper finally admitted that it screwed up in stealing a story from The Onion, the paper criticized The Onion for making up stories, apparently not realizing it’s a parody publication. “Some small American newspapers frequently fabricate offbeat news to trick people into noticing them, with the aim of making money,” the paper said. “This is what the Onion does.” The whole episode has been so bizarre, it’s starting to sound like a story you might find in The Onion. Sometime the truth really is stranger than fiction!
Don’t Get Fooled Again!
June 12, 2002
Internet Wire was tricked into publishing a phony press release about Cel-Sci Corp., causing a temporary in the drug company’s stock. It’s the second time in nearly two years that the online press release service has been duped into publishing a fake news release.