media Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Author JD Lasica

2000 election coverage from the wired right

Peer-to-peer and conservative news sites offer counterbalance to mainstream media This column appeared Nov. 21, 2000, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. With the political crisis over the presidential election heating up, what’s a conservative true believer to do? Turn off the left-wing mainstream media, fire up the PC and head to a news site of the political right. That, at any rate, is what an increasing number of Americans are doing, as conservatives complain that the traditional media are laying the groundwork for Democrat Al Gore to “steal” the presidency, with the help of the Florida Supreme Court. Community news sites like FreeRepublic.com and conservative news sites like NewsMax.com and WorldNetDaily.com, which earned

Clash over exit polls pits new vs. old media

This column appeared March 6, 2000, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. The online publication Slate raised a ruckus early in the primary season by publishing the results of exit polls in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan hours before the ballot boxes closed. When Slate stopped the practice last week under threat of legal action, the National Review stepped into the breach, publishing exit poll data from Virginia while voters were still casting ballots. They plan to do the same during tomorrow’s Super Tuesday primaries in New York, Ohio and California. So does Matt Drudge.

Speed vs. context and accuracy in covering the scandal

Part five of Internet journalism and the Starr investigation Because of the Internet, when a major story breaks, people now tend to go online. On the day the Starr report swooped into cyberspace, news sites saw their online usage surge. A poll by the Pew Resarch Center for the People and the Press found that the public turned to Internet sites in large numbers as a news source during the scandal. Journalists should be heartened by the knowledge that online users gravitated to the major national news sites: MSNBC, CNN Interactive, USAToday Online, nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com. But they should not be smug or complacent about their role in cyberspace, for millions of users accessed the report directly — without the filter

The Starr Report

Part four of Internet journalism and the Starr investigation On September 9, 1998, the House of Representatives received special prosecutor Starr’s report. The report — formally titled Referral From Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr in Conformity With the Requirements of Title 28, United States Code, Section 595(c) — was a document without precedence in U.S. history. It contained graphic accounts of Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky and alleged that the president had committed perjury, obstructed justice, tampered with witnesses and abused his constitutional powers. The report laid the foundation for Clinton’s impeachment by the House along party lines in December 1998; he was acquitted in his Senate trial two months later. Two days later, the House voted to release the report

The sourcing problem in the Lewinsky scandal

Part three of Internet journalism and the Starr investigation During press coverage of past scandals such as Watergate or Iran-Contra, perhaps the biggest challenge facing journalists involved news gathering: teasing out enough information from reluctant sources for a solid story. In the Clinton sex scandal, information flowed like water. It was everywhere, but much of it was murky or polluted. The real challenge came in filtering the information to sort out fact from rumor. Authenticating the news became critically important in two ways: • News organizations covering the story first-hand had to determine the reliability of the information obtained from sources with politically tinged motives (many participants had Republican ties and had a strong, visceral hatred of President Clinton from

Revisions on the fly: Two case studies

Part two of Internet journalism and the Starr investigation According to news accounts, the sequence of events involving the Wall Street Journal report unfolded as follows: Shortly before 4 p.m. on Wednesday, February 4, 1998, Joe Lockhart, the White House deputy press secretary, said a Journal reporter approached him for a reaction to accusations that a White House steward had once seen Clinton and Lewinsky alone in a study next to the Oval Office. The reporter said he needed the information quickly because the paper planned to publish the story on its web site. Lockhart said he and the reporter agreed that Lockhart would get back to the reporter within 30 minutes unless the reporter paged him to say he

Internet journalism and the Starr investigation

The following five-part 10,000-word research report appears in Thinking Clearly (Columbia University Press, 2003), a textbook on journalism case studies. It’s already in use in college classrooms around the country. Syndicated columnist Geneva Overholser and former Los Angeles Times Washington bureau chief Jack Nelson are among the other chapter contributors. Also see the teaching notes on the topic. Posted Jan. 20, 2000. The Internet came of age as a news medium in 1998 during independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation into whether President Clinton had a sexual affair with a White House intern and lied about it. This case examines three principal issues: (1) the rise of new media as legitimate and important sources of breaking news; (2) sourcing and verification

How the online news industry is evolving

I was interviewed by PBS’s Online NewsHour in 1999 and received permission to republish our exchange on my site. Online News Industry The Internet news industry has undergone some major changes over the last five years. To discuss these changes is JD Lasica, new media columnist for the American Journalism Review and the Online Journalism Review. In addition to writing about online ethics for the Industry Standard newsweekly, Mr. Lasica is also managing editor of BabyCenter, an online resource for new and expectant parents. The following are Mr. Lasica’s answers to 5 questions asked by the Online NewsHour.

Not good enough, Amazon

Its new disclosure policy doesn’t go far enough This column appeared March 10, 1999, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. If there were a doomsday clock for Web ethics, it would surely be approaching midnight. Nearly every week the line between editorial and advertising blurs a little more, and the gulf between old media and new media mindsets grows ever wider. The year’s most famous culture clash between old and new media, of course, came with the Feb. 8 disclosure in the New York Times that Amazon was accepting “co-op placement” payments for titles that it recommends on its editorial section pages. Turn to this week’s Literature & Fiction section and you’ll find “Evening

Online news sites making wider use of audio

Handful of news publications begin to take advantage of audio content This column appeared in the March 1999 issue of The American Journalism Review. We usually think of the Web as a visual medium, but sometimes we overlook the other senses. Far too few online news sites take advantage of live audio and sound clips, lumping them in with the multimedia bells and whistles of animation, video and other razzle-dazzle effects that bring modems to a wheezing standstill. It’s no surprise to see CNN Interactive and MSNBC making wide use of audio. But it’s heartening to see small and mid-size newspapers plunging in, too. Among the early adopters are three papers in the Midwest.