Rest of World: A Hong Kong journalist is on trial for using a public database. “This week a journalist in Hong Kong is on trial, accused of violating the Road Traffic Ordinance; she was arrested for accessing a public database, in a case that’s raising questions not about traffic laws but the city’s freedom of press.”
Poynter: The journalists and colleagues we’ve lost to the coronavirus. “Worldwide, more than 2 million people have died, according to The New York Times, with more than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. Those numbers will keep changing. We’ll keep updating them. They’ll still be hard to comprehend. So as many of us have been taught to do, we’re gathering the stories alongside the numbers. Here, we’re collecting the published obituaries of the journalists and those employed by the media around the world who’ve died because of the coronavirus.”
Online Journalism Blog: “Don’t give me more data — give me a story.” AJ Labs’ Mohammed Haddad on spotlighting human driven data journalism. “Mohammed Haddad joined Al Jazeera just as the Egyptian revolution began to unfold in 2011. Since then he has been behind some of Al Jazeera’s most prolific data stories, covering everything from UN General Assembly voting to mapping India and China’s disputed borders. And, while many of the issues Al Jazeera covers are deeply complex, AJ Labs often help to explain such narratives using data journalism. The key is to avoid overcomplicating the charts, says Mohammed.”
Poynter: Introducing The Collective: A newsletter for passing the mic on the path to equity. “As we approach the first anniversary of the racial reckoning in America’s newsrooms, the unique challenges of being a journalist of color continue. And who understands what we’re going through better than someone who has been through it themselves? That’s why we’re excited to launch The Collective, a newsletter that will come out on the last Wednesday of the month starting in April. We’re looking for fresh voices to elevate.”
BuzzFeed News: NYT Columnist David Brooks Resigns From Nonprofit After More Evidence Of Conflicts Emerges. “BuzzFeed News first revealed Brooks never disclosed to Times readers that he takes a full-time salary for his work on Weave, or that its funders include Facebook, the father of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and other wealthy individuals and corporations. Brooks recently wrote a blog post for Facebook’s corporate website in praise of Facebook Groups, a product that has often been a fount of misinformation and hate speech.”
BuzzFeed News: Facebook Helped Fund David Brooks’s Second Job. Nobody Told The Readers Of The New York Times.. “New York Times columnist David Brooks is drawing a second salary for his work on an Aspen Institute project funded by Facebook and other large donors — a fact he has not disclosed in his columns.”
Knight Center for Journalism: Video of Knight Center’s webinar for journalists covering the COVID-19 vaccines is now available in 7 languages. “Video recordings of the Knight Center’s multilingual webinar, “Covering the COVID-19 Vaccines: What Journalists Need to Know,” are now available for free in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, with Hindi forthcoming. All versions of the webinar can be easily accessed for free and in an ongoing way on a new page available on the Knight Center’s Journalism Courses website.”
NiemanLab: New research shows how journalists are responding and adapting to “fake news” rhetoric. “Researchers Hong Tien Vu and Magdalena Saldaña use a nationally representative survey of U.S. journalists to examine how newsroom practices have changed (or not) amid the rise of misinformation and the rhetoric of ‘fake news.’ Specifically, the authors focused on whether journalists reported having either adopted new approaches or intensified existing ones as a way of ‘preventing’ misinformation and thereby avoiding complaints of spreading fake news.”
Poynter: I graduated during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not going well.. “I know most people in the media industry are struggling right now — freelancers and people with staff jobs alike. But, people in more stable positions in the industry need to do a better job of letting younger writers know that we deserve a place in journalism, even if a story is not a perfect fit. While I understand editors are busy, a simple ‘no’ to a pitch with a brief reason why is more helpful than one might think. It helps me when I brainstorm what might be a good fit for an editor in the future.”
HuffPost: CNN’s Brianna Keilar Moved To Tears Remembering 500,000 Victims Of COVID-19. “CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Monday wiped away tears as she remembered the 500,000 people in the United States who have now died of COVID-19. The ‘Newsroom’ host marked the harrowing milestone by sharing stories of just a few of the half a million victims.”
Journalism .co .uk: How to track down case studies for your next article. “Whether it is a woman who bought a divorce horse or a parent homeschooling five children, finding a case study can sometimes feel like more of an art than a science. Yet, the human experience is at the heart of journalism and it is a vital skill to be able to track down individuals with compelling stories. There are a number of methods that can be deployed to find the right person to illustrate a story, no matter how obscure the request may seem.”
Associated Press: Feds withheld info on virus cases following execution. “At least two journalists tested positive for coronavirus after witnessing the Trump administration’s final three federal executions, but the Bureau of Prisons knowingly withheld the diagnoses from other media witnesses and did not perform any contact tracing, The Associated Press has learned.”
Poynter: Poynter’s guide to paid journalism internship listings — for students and employers . “Poynter has launched its Internship Database, designed to be the go-to place for students seeking paid summer, fall and spring internships. The goal is to create the nation’s premier collection of journalism and communications internships.”
Poynter: New source databases look to encourage journalists to diversify their sourcing. “As media organizations continue to scrutinize their diversity and equity initiatives following last summer’s industry-wide reckoning, some are turning their attention to the core of every story — sources.”
New York Times: I Covered Coronavirus Victims. Then My Family Members Became Victims, Too.. “In a surreal way, reporting on the coronavirus tragedies of other families helped me cope with Covid in my own. I knew I wasn’t alone, and I was heartened by the strength I saw in others who were coping. And conversely, seeing those I love get infected — my husband, father, son, niece and mother-in-law are recovering, thank goodness — and losing a dear family member to the virus gave me a depth of empathy for others in my reporting that I could never have imagined otherwise.”
