The Importance of Copyright

While it's true that copyright law can get a bit complicated, the important thing to know in this Internet Age is that you can't simply download photos, song lyrics, cartoon characters, etc. into a student publication without permission.   

Here is a comprehensive student guide to copyright law that's worth reviewing.

But there is an important exception that journalists, in particular, need to know about. This exception to the general copyright rule is known as the Fair Use Doctrine. It allows the use of limited amounts of copyrighted works for important purposes like news reporting, critiques and education -- as long as the fair use does not significantly cut into the commercial value of the original copyrighted work.

So, for example, it's permissible for a student newspaper to reprint a short passage from a new book to accompany a book review, or to include sample lyrics from a new album to accompany an album review. Or it's generally considered acceptable to reprint a small photo of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, but it probably would not be considered acceptable to reproduce that photo to a very large size for greater impact.

There are four key factors that determine fair use:                              

1) The purpose of your use  (Is your purpose for using the item for teaching or news reporting? Or to make money off of it?)
2) The nature of your work  (Is the work itself factual or highly creative like someone's copyrighted fiction. The more creative and original the work is, the more necessary it is to be sure you're only using a tiny amount for the purpose of critiquing, for example.)
3) The amount you're using  (A small quantity of the original work is usually acceptable.)
4) The effect of your use on the market  (Your use of this item will have no major effect on the market.)

Still, what constitutes "fair use" isn't always clear. Click here to read an interesting article about a copyright legal battle revolving around President Obama's image.


Flickr Creative Commons image by MikeBlogs

Libel and Privacy and Cell Phones -- Oh My!

Libel:  Last week, a Detroit News columnist wrote this disparaging piece about University of Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez (otherwise known as "Rich Rod"). Could this be potentially libelous? Be prepared to offer in class at least two reasons why you think it is or isn't.

 Right to Privacy:  Despite what most people think, the Constitution does not specifically mention a right to privacy. However, Supreme Court decisions over the years have established that the right to privacy is a basic human right, and some amendment in the Bill of Rights protect specific aspects of privacy. The 1st Amendment, for example, protects the privacy of beliefs while the 5th Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination provides protection for the privacy of personal information.

In general, the law attempts to balance the public's right to know vs. an individual's right to privacy. If the information is "newsworthy" -- that is, if people have a right or a need to know about something, then that will prevail over a person's claim to privacy. Thus, if your next-door neighbor is having an affair, publishing a story about it in the local paper would be a clear violation of his privacy. However, when a public figure does the same thing, the press can reasonably assert that such an event is newsworthy. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, for example, waged a prolonged legal battle claiming that hundreds of text messages detailing his illicit affair with a co-worker were private. He lost and ended up going to jail for perjury and other charges.

But sometimes a private citizen injects himself or herself on to the public stage, and by doing so, loses the defense of "right to privacy". If that neighbor of yours is having an affair with a 16-year-old, that information is no longer considered private. That's news because it's against the law. Other times, however, it's not always so clear who is a "public figure" and so the courts have to interpret some invasion of privacy claims on an individual basis.

What's more, social networking sites and the Internet have created a myriad of new questions about a private citizen's right to privacy. And when, exactly, does a person's right to privacy end? When he or she dies? Not necessarily, according to the plaintiffs in a new lawsuit. Click here to learn about this interesting case.

Cell Phones:   Finally, just in case you were thinking that you have no worries about privacy, check out this report about new cell phone spyware that not only tracks your every move but can also be used a means of harassment. Protect your privacy!

"Private" Flickr Creative Commons photo by James Cridland.
 

WikiLeaks: The Right to Know or Going Too Far?

In recent days, a website known as WikiLeaks has stirred up tremendous controversy regarding the release of thousands of government documents that were never meant for the public to see. As we prepare to discuss the right to privacy vs. the public's right to know in the days ahead, please familiarize yourself with the WikiLeaks debate and be prepared to discuss it in class.


Katie Couric gives a brief explanation of the dilemma here. And a WikiLeaks spokesman presents the organzation's point of view in this interview with CNN.

Fair Use: www.wikileaks.org

There's More to the Story

Besides the fallacies we're reviewing in class, probably the biggest fallacy that journalists can commit it to take something out of context. To take something out of context is to ignore the overall meaning of a statement in order to give undue importance or meaning to a part of it.

For example, suppose Senator John Doe says, "I think Frank Jones is not a man to trifle with." Then the anchor of a major TV network either gleefully or perhaps even unintentionally reports it as, "Sen. John Doe says his opponent Frank Jones is not a man." That is taking John Doe's words out of context. By not including the entire statement, the reporter has given the statement a completely different meaning.

John Doe's statement means that he thinks he has a formidable opponent; that is, he obviously respects his opponent as being tough. But when the statement is taken out of context, it makes it sound as though Senator Doe has insulted his opponent by questioning his manhood. Once a statement is reported out of context like this, other  broadcast, print and online organizations begin reporting the same thing and a media firestorm is soon created.

A classic example of this occurred several months ago when a government official's words were taken out of context. Both the media and the White House failed to take the time to carefully review the whole story. Please watch this video clip of the incident and read this report so that you are familiar with the case and able to discuss it here and in class.

Flickr Creative Commons photo of Shirley Sherrod by USDAgov

Bias in the News

We're going to be examining the problem of bias in the news. You're probably thinking, "I'm not prejudiced. So I would never be biased in my reporting or writing." But bias isn't the same thing as prejudice. Prejudice is a deliberate negative feeling or attitude. Bias is a tendency or an inclincation to assume a certain viewpoint, and a bias may be favorable or unfavorable and is not always deliberate. Even if your work is free of bias, you need to be a critical observer of the news media and have a greater understanding of bias in reporting. Because it happens. All the time.

Bias can occur in many ways, particularly through:

•  Selection and omission of specific details
  
•  Placement of a story
•  Choice of sources
•  Word choice and tone
•  Headlines
•  Photos and camera angles
•  Captions
•  Names and titles
•  Statistics

So we'll explore how and why bias occurs. For now, click here to examine how two articles cover the same news event in much different way.

Interviewing Tips & When Less is More

Although everyone in the class still needs more practice with writing hard news leads and writing stories that follow the basic inverted pyramid structure, we're going to move for now towards other forms of journalistic writing, beginning with basic feature writing. Features rely more heavily on quotes and interviews, so we need to spend some time in and out of class considering and practicing what makes a good interview.

It's true that the best interviews are like good conversations. That is, in most cases the interview should be a comfortable give-and-take session where you and the person you interview talk with each other, not at each other. Of course, if the interviewee is hostile or defensive, this may not be the case. But the three best things you can do to have a good interview are:

1) Prepare thoroughly by researching the topic and/or the person and list questions.
2) Take good notes and record the interview if possible.
3) Listen very attentively.

Being a good listener is the most important thing you can do. One of the biggest mistakes many inexperienced reporters make is worrying so much about what question to ask next, that they don't realize something important or unexpected that the interviewee has just said.

Here are a couple of short videos I would like you to watch. The first is some good advice about interviewing from network anchor Katie Couric. The second is from National Public Radio's Scott Simon.

There's an old saying in journalism: "Less is more."

Forget about the times you wrote as much as you could about something in order to impress the teacher or give your reader the impression that you really know what you're talking about. In journalism brevity is key. Hard news stories must be concise or you'll confuse and lose the reader. While feature stories allow writers to be more descriptive and more creative, that doesn't mean you should necessarily start writing a lot more. Right now we're focusing on short profiles so that means first do thorough reporting and interviewing, then pick the very best information to write your story. Don't give the reader all of the information. While your words may be sacred to you, you have to be able to cut what's not necessary and edit wordy phrases.

Think of it as fat-free writing.

Click on the links below to see three more examples of 300-word stories by Brady Dennnis, then comment on which you like the best and why.

Looking for a laugh

One minute and $123 dollars

As time goes by

Tweeting in Journalism -- The Good and the Bad

Alright, so I admit it. I'm one of those middle-aged adults who is highly skeptical of the intrinsic value of Twitter. But I'm evidently not alone. According to a recent 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, only 15 percent of Americans believe that Twitter is an important new tool for mass communication.Thirty-nine percent said the microblogging site is a fad that will fade away, while 43 percent had either heard of it but didn't know what it is, or had never heard of it.

However, it's clear that Twitter does has its usefulness for certain people -- not only celebrities -- but journalists and bloggers. During breaking news, in particular, both professional and citizen journalists have used Twitter to great advantage. For example, Twitter was a vital tool in reports about the Iranian crackdown on massive demonstrations in 2009, especially after Western journalists were deported from the country.

Click here to read how journalists are using Twitter to help them report the news. Then check out this video clip about the downside of Twitter. You can also read about one of the recent incidents referred to in the video in this article.

To tweet or not to tweet? That is the question.

The Most Important Journalistic Equation

It's a simple formula:  Lack of attribution = lack of credibility = lack of readers.

There is nothing difficult about attribution. It's simply saying who or what your source is, whether it's a fact, an opinion or a quote. As we've discussed in class, attribution is the soul of journalism because without it, your article or broadcast is not believable. Reporters need to protect themselves. In the event that the information proves to be false, at least the reporter can truthfully say that her source was wrong, not her. And attribution establishes credibility by showing  readers or listeners where they can go if they challenge anything in the article or if they want to obtain more information from your sources.

Getting the story first is nice. Getting it fast is nice too. But getting it right supercedes everything else. Without journalistic integrity, reporters or publications have nothing to offer readers or listeners. Recently an Irish college student conducted a media experiment that, unfortunately, major news organizations failed. The results were alarming and should make everyone -- especially aspiring journalists -- remember to not only attribute their own facts, but to check and re-check any unattributed information they obtain online. Click here to read an article about the hoax.

Deep Throat: Patriot or Traitor?

All the President's Men is a classic illustration of the watchdog role of journalism and how no one, not even the President of the United States, is above the law. More than 30 years have passed since Watergate. Given the technology we have today, as well as the greater emphasis on homeland security, do you think Woodward and Bernstein's job would be easier or more difficult if they were investigating the same series of events today?

One thing's for sure. Deep Throat, their anonymous source for many of the stories, was instrumental in helping them uncover the Watergate scandal. For years Deep Throat's identity remained a mystery until Mark Felt, former associate director of the FBI, admitted in 2005 that he was, in fact, the parking garage informant. Click here to view a brief newscast about Mark Felt's death a few years ago. While some praise Felt for his  courage, others consider him a traitor for leaking classified information to reporters. Click here to see this point of view.

Do you think Deep Throat was a hero? Or was he maybe someone who disliked President Nixon and used Woodward and Bernstein for his own agenda? How do you feel about the value and trustworthiness of anonymous sources?
 
Photo courtesy of The Guardian.

Note: This photo appears under the legal concept of Fair Use in copyright law. Fair use allows the reproduction of copyrighted material for certain purposes without obtaining permission and without paying a fee or royalty. Purposes permitting the application of fair use generally include review, news reporting, teaching, or scholarly research.

First Amendment: An Open Question

 

The First Amendment is the foundation of an open society. Two of the five protections guaranteed by the First Amendment -- freedom of speech and freedom of the press -- help ensure that we provide citizens with a "marketplace of ideas" free from censorship. Yet the right to free expression often comes into conflict with other rights, especially when it infringes on the safety or morality of others. Yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre, for example, is not protected by the First Amendment. Neither is child pornography or material that is considered obscene in nature. This is why the First Amendment is not just a static document that was written by our forefathers over 200 years ago. Because society and technology change and evolve, the First Amendment is continually challenged by cases that need to be interpreted by the courts.


Click here to access the link to the T-shirt story we discussed in class. Does it meet the Tinker standard of "substantial disruption"? Does the school have the right to forbid this 6th grade student from wearing an anti-abortion shirt? Or should he have a right to wear it under the First Amendment? You be the judge.

The First Amendment is often problematic because it leaves questions of exactly what is protected speech open to debate. Yet the many freedoms it guarantees far outweigh its flaws. Here is a good example that illustrates why. A Florida pastor recently stirred up tremendous controversy when he threatened to burn copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, to protest plans to build an Islamic center in New York City near where terrorists brought down the World Trade Center nine years ago. He later backed out of his threat. Under the Constitution, he does have the right to burn the Quran. But should he? Read this column for an interesting analysis of the incident.

The Only Thing Certain is Change

Welcome to a new school year! And welcome, young journalists, to Waldsmith's Dispatch, our journalism class blog. I began this blog in the fall of 2009 and it goes on hiatus when our semester-long class is over. I'm excited to get the blog up and running again because it works as a great tool to accompany and emphasize issues covered in class, as well a place to share your thoughts and comments.
Some of the posts will be "greatest hits" of earlier posts; others will be brand new. So here are some questions to ponder.

Are newspapers a dying breed? It would seem so. As we've discussed in class and as chapter 4 in your textbook points out, traditional newspapers are fighting to survive and scrambling to adjust to new technology to meet the needs of a new generation of readers who are more likely to get their news from an iPod or cell phone.

On the other hand, journalism itself isn't dying. Only its mode of delivery is changing and adapting. Click here to read a recent Time magazine article about the closing of The Ann Arbor News. It's not just the story of another newspaper closing its doors. What makes The Ann Arbor News story unique is that, unlike many other newspapers, The A2 News was not forced to stop its presses. Instead, it deliberately shut down so that it could launch a new online model. What do you think of its decision?

 
What about the trend of citizen journalism? These days, anyone can post anything on the Internet. As we saw in the For Neda documentary, ordinary citizens as well as journalists were able to use cell phones and social networking sites like Twitter to report news that would have otherwise been suppressed by the Iranian government. While the digital revolution has enabled us to have incredible opportunities and resources at our fingertips, it has also spawned problematic trends. How, for example, do we sift through it all? How will young people, in particular, know the difference between legitimate news sources and biased or unsupported propaganda? There's a lot of garbage out there.

Does the world still need professionally trained journalists? As Sarah Palin would say, you betcha. While it's wonderful that anyone can snap pictures of breaking news, for example, and post them on the web, it would be foolish or even dangerous to abandon journalism's watchdog role to the bloggers and citizen journalists of the world. Read these two articles from Time magazine to consider two different viewpoints.

 

Click here to read "It's all about us". Then click here to read "Enough about you".


Photos courtesy of Time. These images appear under the legal concept of Fair Use in copyright law. Fair use allows the reproduction of copyrighted material for certain purposes without obtaining permission and without paying a fee or royalty. Purposes permitting the application of fair use generally include review, news reporting, teaching, or scholarly research.

Where do we go from here?

Photo by Lynn Waldsmith

Some final thoughts . . . Check out this example of a high school newspaper that has gone online. The Patriot is a print and web publication of The John Carroll School in Bel Air, Maryland. Do you think high school newspapers are becoming obsolete? That is, should they go online? Is it time for high school news websites instead of papers?


Which brings me to an interesting blog post I'd like to share about how journalism isn't really about "new media" or "old media". It's about journalism. Click here to read the "New Year's resolution" post from Carrie Brown-Smith, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Memphis. Though she wrote the post one year ago, I think it's a more than timely way to begin a discussion of journalism for the new decade.

I hope you've enjoyed our journalism blog this semester. Waldsmith's Dispatch will be on hiatus until September 2010 when a new crop of aspiring writers joins me for another semester of journalism bootcamp!

Creative Commons photo, "Sunset Road", by Kopfjäger