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Journalism Today Team

The news that the largest leak in American military history came via the website Wikileaks will not surprise long-term watchers of the controversial, multi-award-winning site.

‘Data journalism’ scores a massive hit with Wikileaks revelations (Guardian)

Afghanistan war logs expose truth of occupation.

The new journalism (LA Times)

Less gatekeeping, thanks to the Internet and Fox News, may be scary to liberals, but it’s progress over the Cronkite era.

Message is clear – users won’t pay for Twitter (BizReport)

A recent study from The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism found there is little doubt how consumers feel about paying to use Twitter.

I had not planned on writing again until some time in August but the more and more this story plays out the more and more it becomes clear that truthful honest journalism is a thing of the past in the United States. For that reason I felt a need to write about this sad, pathetic case of “journalism” in our country’s history.

Journalism court threat to Iraqi media (Guardian)

Iraq’s proposed new journalism court is a further blow to the country’s already oppressed media.

Poynter Celebrates 35 Years of Journalism Excellence (Poynter)

Poynter marking 35 years.

WikiLeaks May Have Just Changed the Media, Too (The Atlantic)

The website WikiLeaks has published more than 90,000 leaked U.S. military records about the war in Afghanistan. Marc Ambinder has a lot more about the content of the classified archive, but there’s another fascinating aspect to the story: WikiLeaks gave the New York Times, Guardian, and Der Spiegel access to the archive several weeks ago.

If there is one thing we should have learned from the Shirley Sherrod fiasco, it’s to beware of snippets posing as journalism — particularly from sources of ill-repute. It is a lesson we should have abided then, and one we should remember now as the “Journolist” faux-scandal continues to flex its wings. Alas, many, including TMV’s own Logan Penza, have managed to forget that lesson literally within minutes of such a stark reminder.

Pathetic: In latest lame defense, Big Journalism seeks a correction from Media Matters (MediaMatters)

Andrew Breitbart and the “Big” websites are currently receiving a hefty dose of well-deserved criticism due to their shameful smear against Shirley Sherrod, and they have been scrambling to defend themselves.

Google just published a response to some ideas recently floated by the FTC in US on how to rescue journalism.

The shame of right-wing “journalism” (Salon)

Andrew Breitbart and Tucker Carlson distort facts to smear liberals, and it works. What liberals should learn.

A key general and his aides shoot their mouths off to a reporter with whom they had become familiar and apparently foolishly trusted and a blogger/reporter shoots his off to 400 fellow journalists over an Internet that is vulnerable to intrusion by those interested in nailing anyone stupid enough to trust it.

How The Web Made Journalism A Sinner (MediaPost)

Have you ever thought of journalism as an inconsolable sinner? Have you ever then thought of mobile as journalism’s second chance? Neither had I — until an article I read this weekend suggested it.

Dana Priest’s controversial co-author (Politco)

With two Pulitzer Prizes to her name, Dana Priest is one of the Washington Post’s most celebrated reporters. Until Monday, when the Post published the first installment of a bombshell series on post-9/11 intelligence industrial complex, national security blogger William Arkin was hardly known to the paper’s readers.

Online News The Cause Of Journalism’s Slide Into The Superficial? (AllVoices)

“The Internet only one factor of Journalism’s slide into the superficial.” Profound words to pause and ponder. Those are the words of Pulitzer Prize- winning, former New York Times reporter, Sydney Schanberg during a discussion on the “decline of mainstream American Journalism,” with Politics Daily’s staff. (Sweet irony though, he was having this serious discussion with an online, news magazine.) But is he speaking the harsh truth? Have we sacrificed quality and substance for quantitative fluff? Inane gossip? Superficial stories?

In a World of Online News, Burnout Starts Younger (NYT)

In most newsrooms, the joke would have been obvious. It was April Fools’ Day last year, and Politico’s top two editors sent an e-mail message to their staff advising of a new 5 a.m. start time for all reporters. “These pre-sunrise hours are often the best time to reach top officials or their aides,” the editors wrote, adding that reporters should try to carve out personal time “if you need it,” in the midafternoon when Internet traffic slows down. But rather than laugh, more than a few reporters stared at the e-mail message in a panicked state of disbelief.

BLOG

Jerk Newscasters (SeattlePI – Reader Blogs)

I majored in Journalism in college. Well, technically, it was Broadcast Journalism, but I elected to have my diploma simply state “Journalism” after a horrendous internship at the Orange County Newschannel (OCN) in my hometown of Santa Ana, California.

A leading American academic has made out an argument in favour of public funding (aka state subsidy) for the beleaguered US media.

The ethics of journalism (ABC)

Journalism relies on public trust, and trust between individual journalists and their sources. Without trust, the Media Alliance’s Code of Ethics reminds us, journalists do not fulfill their public responsibilities.

Blog Networks Try One More Time to Turn Local Journalism Into Cash (Gigaom)

Can building a network of local bloggers help turn online journalism into a money-making proposition? Two new media ventures are hoping that it can, and have partnered with a startup called GrowthSpur to try and make that hope become a reality. One of the ventures is another startup, a Washington-based outlet called TBD that is being run by Jim Brady, the former online editor at the Washington Post. The other is a traditional media entity that is trying to remake itself online: the Journal Register Co.

Rallying cries to improve transparency, accuracy and accountability in journalism (EditorsWeblog)

Washington Post writer Ezra Klein and Julian Assange, editor of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, have separately come out poignant critiques of the state of journalism. Klein has published a strong argument in favor of newspapers publishing full interview transcripts online. Mr. Assange’s more damning denunciation, including a similar call for public access to source material, was presented during a speech last week to the Centre for Investigative Journalism Summer School at City University London.

Africans with a sense of history will thank South Africa for the honour done to the continent by the successful hosting of the World Cup.

The Palin Effect and the Death of Political Journalism (US News & World Report)

Palin, Paul, and Angle tactics and disappearing media add up to bad news for democracy.

Students from Bali’s rural areas join journalism workshop (Jakarta Post)

Forty-four students from 11 junior high schools in remote areas in Bali appeared enthusiastic about beginning a three-day junior journalist program in Sanur, Indonesia.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook snubs UK PM over Raoul Moat tributes (Independent)

Facebook has rebuffed a call by David Cameron for the removal of tributes to the gunman Raoul Moat which have been left on the social networking site.

Questioning whether Twitter reports were really journalism.

Journalism Needs US Government Help (WSJ)

Media budgets have been decimated as the Internet facilitates a communications revolution. More public funding for news-gathering is the answer.

Denied a Nieman, by the U.S. (LA Times)

For the first time, the U.S. has denied a journalist entry to participate in Harvard University’s Nieman Fellowship program.

Tabloid Journalism (The Moderate Voice)

Over at Memeorandum this morning the top headline is Confidence in Obama reaches new low, Washington Post-ABC News poll finds. But does it really show that?

Turns Out, Journalism Online’s Pay Wall Is Simple to Break Through (New York Mag)

Turns out there are ways to get through pay walls.