Introductory lecture for digital journalism class where most students have not had a basic reporting class.

1. COM466 – 4 Apr 2011 Deciphering “News” (and our roles as digital journalists)

2. From Poynter - NewsU Tutorial Prominence Importance Human Interest Timeliness Proximity Meaning

3. The 5Ws+H Who What When Where Why How

4. Other Considerations Controversy/Conflict Usefulness Emotion Impact Educational Value (“civic journalism”)

5. Check It Out : Newsworthiness KING5: Willie Greens … What elements of this story are told “best” through images? Sound? CNN: Was your fish dinner… What elements of this story are told “best” through images? Sound? WaPo: Fact Checker … What elements of this story are told “best” through text?

6. Verification Direct observation (the reporter was there) Who said? (the reporter interviewed someone) Challenge: most stories quote government officials, “expert” counterparts Who said? (the reporter accessed public databases, documents)

7. Verification Exercise You read this on Twitter or Facebook: “RT @yourBFF: OMG. There’s been a 7.1 earthquake in SF!” What do you do? RT/share based on trust of source RT/share only after verifying How might you verify? Why would the comment be more credible with a link included? Why might it not be a good practice to RT/share without checking the link (if it were there)?

8. Clarification Ask questions in order to simplify, put a fact/idea/event into context Tell more more about … What happened next? Who else was involved? No “closed ended” questions! Rephrase what you think you heard to get confirmation from your expert

9. Four Big Tasks Invite (lede/lead) Inform (the hook/what’s in it for the reader) Illuminate (your evidence) Connect (context)

11. Judgment Journalism requires interpretation, judgment “News” could be a stock quote or today’s temperature, but without context, it’s just data In other words, we need facts but facts alone are not “journalism”

12. A Bit More On Context What might be important to us as the UW community might not be important to everyone in Seattle But what’s important in Olympia might be important to everyone in the state Providing that context is a key part of a journalist’s responsibility

13. Thinking About Audience Assume: Microsoft just announced it’s laying off 3K employees, one/third in Seattle area How might this be reported in the WSJ? How might this be reported in the Seattle Times? How might this be reported on GeekWire? How might it be reported in the London Guardian? What questions do you have that will contextualize this “fact” for your audience?

14. Accuracy AKA “getting it right” Spelling (especially proper names – spell check doesn’t always help here) Grammar Facts What else?

15. Simplicity AKA not talking over their heads! “At this point in time, the current levels of societal tension are enough to create a high degree of anxiety among citizens of every persuasion and every economic and cultural class.”versus “These are the times that try men’s souls.” From http://www.jprof.com/wfmm7/chapter1.html

16. Your Check List Working in small groups, develop a checklist for evaluating the “news” that crosses your computer screen

17. Credits Kathy E Gill @kegill, @kegill_uw http://wiredpen.com http://faculty.uw.edu/kegill Creative Commons: share-and-share alike, non-commercial, attribution