Tag: sourcing

News Media by Joe WilcoxOct 7, 20142:21 pm

Business Insider Buzz Cuts Sources on iPhone 6 HairGate

The weekend’s stupid Business Insider story using a 9to5Mac community post for a news story about iPhone 6 “HairGate” boiled my blood. So mad, on Sunday, I drafted, but didn’t post, KickStarter pitch for site “Journalism? What the Fuck?”; in August I registered domain journalism.wtf.

Seeing the story, I tweeted: “Get a buzz cut. Problem solved”. Followup: ‘If I got 5 people to post on some forum that #iPhone6 smelled like a urinal some blog would write about stinkgate. Stop the insanity!” The buzz cutting here is one of sources, or lack of any that are credible.

Apple by Joe WilcoxSep 27, 201412:05 pm

Bias is Unavoidable

Overnight, AppleInsider posted Daniel Eran Dilger editorial “After Apple Inc. dodged the iPhone 6 Plus BendGate bullet, detractors wounded by ricochet“. As is typical of his stories, the tone is conspiratorial and heavily biased in Apple’s favor. That’s okay. He practices what I explained in February is “advocacy journalism“.

In my book, Responsible Reporting: Field Guide for Bloggers, Journalists, and Other Online News Gatherers, I identify five types of journalism relevant today, and each gets a whole section: advocacy, conversational, contextual, mob, and process. Two other journalisms—data and immersive—receive cursory treatment but will be expanded whenever I next update the book. Where I deviate from traditional views about news reporting—what’s taught in J schools—is my glowing endorsement for these different reporting practices, with advocacy journalism being perhaps most controversial.

Apple by Joe WilcoxSep 25, 20145:50 pm

What Apple BendGate reveals About News Reporting

There are days I want to walk away and never write another news story. Apple’s newest product design scandal—”BendGate” or “BentGate”—is here, and how funny there is no consensus which of two names to call it. The so-called scandal is not a big a deal; the majority of reports mislead. Brace for it: Another of my diatribes about the evils of the Google free economy, where the quest for ad revenues drives pageviews and stories meant to generate them. The metric is terribly outdated. As I explain in my book Responsible Reporting: Field Guide for Bloggers, Journalists, and Other Online News Gatherers, audience matters more and should be the only measure for advertising.

I’m guilty of posting: “If iPhone 6 or 6 Plus bends, it’s YOUR fault“, which is a prearranged rebuttal to colleague Mihaita Bamburic’s analysis “If your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus bends, it’s Apple’s fault“; and “8 reasons why Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus ‘bendgate’ is a good thing“, simply because I felt like writing something fun. The first story purposely stands against the rash of posts claiming design flaw, while the second shows just how ludicrous this all is.

News Media by Joe WilcoxApr 27, 20148:46 pm

Report! Don’t Repeat Rumors!

I don’t know if Google is strategically realigning its social network, nor if that is reason for Vic Gundotra’s sudden departure from the company. Google+ is, or was, his baby. But I do know what is irresponsible reporting, and there is plenty of it among tech bloggers and journalists. TechCrunch leads the pack, but the real offenders are those who follow along—news gatherers who repeat rather than report.

Following Gundotra’s April 24 departure announcement, Alexia Tsotsis and Matthew Panzarino posted at TechCrunch: “Google+ is Walking Dead”. The headline is compelling and clickable and would be worthy of praise if not for the anonymous sourcing. The story claims major reorganization that reduces the service’s role: “Google+ will no longer be considered a product, but a platform…Google+ is not ‘officially’ dead, more like walking dead”.

News Media by Joe WilcoxMar 25, 20141:23 am

News Gatherers, don’t violate ‘The Prime Directive’

There is a very good reason why in my book Responsible Reporting: Field Guide for Bloggers, Journalists, and Other Online News Gatherers that I identify The Prime Directive (yeah, like “Star Trek”): “Write what you know to be true in the moment”. Last night, one of my BetaNews colleagues violated this sacrosanct rule. I berated him privately, now publicly.

The story: “New Mozilla CEO is allegedly anti-gay marriage—Firefox developers boycott“. Had someone consulted me, the story wouldn’t have run (and the reporter did try to reach me). The problem is fundamentally one of sourcing. Four years ago, in post “The Difference between Blogging and Journalism“, I laid out the fundamental sourcing philosophy behind The Prime Directive. Excerpt:

News Media by Joe WilcoxMar 19, 201410:20 am

Wired smartly curates ‘A Startling Simple Theory’

Someone at Wired deserves credit (and bonus pay) for curated news journalism well-done. Story “A Startlingly Simple Theory About the Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet” is original content that provides fresh perspective about Flight 370. The tech news site plucks this gem from Google+, where aviator Chris Goodfellow posted five days earlier. Wired sources the original, acknowledging authorship and curation: “We’ve copyedited it with his permission”.

The Plus post shows social sharing’s strengths, where the interaction in comments extends the storytelling (as does the broader Reddit thread that captures Chris’ post and many others). It’s unfortunate Google+ limits comments to 500, cutting off the conversation.

News Media by Joe WilcoxOct 14, 20134:44 pm

The Beeb Should Know Better Than Source Like This

I expect a lot more than crap-reporting from BBC News. Is this really the sorry state of tech journalism? The story cites absolutely no sources.

Google plans to pull photos from Google+ profiles to accompanying advertising, which would look to some people like endorsements. BBC claims user backlash.

News Media by Joe WilcoxAug 8, 201310:20 am

Take Back the Facts

Wow, All Things D’s Kara Swisher sure has some advice for Jeff Bezos as he takes ownership of the Washington Post.

I think her real point is this:

To me, the most important trick is to deeply inculcate the joy of Internet journalism, without losing (actually restoring to some degree, after recent cutbacks) the great editorial values and breakthrough journalism of the Post. Fusing the old-media storytelling and news-integrity values that I learned at the Post with the Internet values of speed and personality—and, well, some level of fun at the right times—is critical.

Blogging by Joe WilcoxMay 11, 20136:00 pm

HuffPo is all Headline, no Original Content

This story exemplifies why, as a journalist , I’m no big Huffington Post fan. The large-font headline takes up the space above the fold. Surely there is a hard-hitting news story behind. Right? Nope.

The five-paragraph story, while carrying a Huffington Post byline, culls from other reports, CNBC and New York Post on the page, with links as sourcing to other HuffPo stories that also largely or wholly depend on other news services (Reuters is one).

Journalism by Joe WilcoxApr 12, 20139:15 am

BlackBerry Fights Back

BlackBerry’s aggressive response to Detwiler Fenton claims of high z10 return rates is shocking and refreshing. CEO Thorsten Heins statements that return rates are “right in line with the industry” while calling the report a […]

News Media by Joe WilcoxAug 27, 20121:29 pm

One Source is Not Enough

Continuing on my theme of accuracy about news reporting, particularly Apple and the wrongs of single-sourcing: As a rule I don’t quote FOSS Patents. There simply is too much pro-Apple bias in the analysis. I find little neutrality, yet FOSS Patents is often used as the only source on Apple legal cases by the majority of the US news media.

Even if I thought Florian Mueller’s posts were fair, I wouldn’t quote him, simply because he is so overused and so often as only so-called expert by so many bloggers, reporters, and other writers.

Journalism by Joe WilcoxJul 30, 20121:42 pm

Nail Down Your Sourcing

In response to a BetaNews writer presenting a third-party source for a story this morning, I wrote in group chat: In human relationships there is a misconception that love conquers all, that it’s more important […]