In this time of media self-reflection about coverage of sexual assaults, it is worth remembering the consensus amidst the controversy over the Rolling Stone campus rape piece. Three points, in particular, come to mind in the wake of…
(Source: cjr.org)
The barriers to entry are famously low—indeed, I podcast from my closet, using a high-quality microphone I bought for $119 and software I downloaded for $49. But even though our producer has years of radio producing and editing experience, our podcast is, admittedly, still rather amateurish. The equipment and editing talent required to make more professional shows is significantly pricier. To cover production costs, most podcasts rely on a combination of listener donations, ad sales, and, increasingly, premium or bonus content that’s available only to paying subscribers. (In the tech world, this last model is referred to as “freemium.”) They’ve also organized into networks of shows with similar styles or subject matter so they can sell ads, share resources, and cross-promote to each other’s audiences.
(Source: cjr.org)
When gunmen murdered 17 people in Paris earlier this month, it seized the world’s attention. When Boko Haram militants killed hundreds in and around the Nigerian town of Baga the same week, the mass killing scarcely garnered a mention in the Western media.
The contrast between the spotlight in Paris and the blackout in Nigeria resulted in a barrage of criticism charging the international media with a lopsided focus. Those killed in Nigeria, like those killed in Paris, were victims of gunmen espousing an extreme version of Islamism. Those deaths, critics argued, also deserved attention.
The discussion about why the killings in Nigeria were ignored underscored an old problem: News from sub-Saharan Africa is underreported. Whatever the ultimate explanation for the coverage gap, the discussion of the lack of Baga killings coverage offers an opportunity to pivot resources toward Africa, starting with Nigeria.
We’re walking around with duct tape over our keyboards
Two beliefs safely inhabit the canon of contemporary thinking about journalism. The first is that the internet is the most powerful force disrupting the news media. The second is that the internet and the communication and information tools it spawned, like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, are shifting power from governments to civil society and to individual bloggers, netizens, or “citizen journalists.”
It is hard to disagree with these two beliefs. Yet they obscure evidence that governments are having as much success as the internet in disrupting independent media and determining the information that reaches society. Moreover, in many poor countries or in those with autocratic regimes, government actions are more important than the internet in defining how information is produced and consumed, and by whom.
[We Need to Talk] might star 12 women, but it is discussing many of the topics germane in the sports world at large, including Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston’s off-field troubles, Kobe Bryant’s return from injury, and Major League Baseball’s playoffs. And it has done it without much yelling back-and-forth that typifies so many sports talk shows now.
There are challenges to making the show stick: a weekly format in a world of daily takes makes it harder to stay fresh and illuminating, and CBS Sports Network is still somewhat obscure, lesser known than giants like ESPN and possibly even more apt competitors like NBC Sports Network. And women’s voices remain an anomaly in the sports commentary world—90 percent of the sports journalism industry is white and male, according to a Women’s Media Center study.
Since it launched in March 2012, IFLS has attracted more than 17.9 million Facebook followers—more than Popular Science (2.7 million), Discover (2.7 million), Scientific American (1.9 million), and The New York Times (8 million) combined. Its following is larger than those of the world’s two most prominent science communicators: Cosmos host Neil deGrasse Tyson (1.8 million) and Bill Nye The Science Guy (3.2 million), both of whom are fans of Andrew’s page. Her empire has since expanded to include a website, IFLscience.com, which has a staff and publishes news stories, and a television show slated to start on the Science Channel this fall.
Learn how Elise Andrew changed the way people interact with science reporting in Do you know Elise Andrew? : Columbia Journalism Review.
“Never before have women dominated coverage of a war the way they are in Syria.”
The debate about what journalists who cover the poor owe their subjects remains unsettled, and the answer is as important today as ever. Income inequality, rising steadily since the 1970s, is now at its highest level in America since 1928. If one of journalism’s duties is to hold the public accountable for the realities of democracy, then it is crucial to tell the stories of those who are losing out… But that type of coverage also forces journalists into unsettled ethical terrain.
The longstanding debate about whether and when a reporter can intervene in a story is rekindled in the age of inequality.
Read more: Are we journalists first? : Columbia Journalism Review
(Source: cjr.org)
Email
Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Follow on Tumblr
Mobile version
Random post
