Resource Centre

New tool for social media verification carries heavy price tag

May 14, 2012 - Posted by Angelina Irinici

A new service, Geofeedia (previously Geofeedr) launched its new interface today. It aims to aid journalists when reporting breaking news by allowing them to monitor geographical areas or to identify an area of interest.

It's not okay to suck at math

Nov 23, 2009 - Posted by Regan Ray

"Almost every story contains a number, be it a statistic, an address, or someone's age," writes Craig Silverman in a recent Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) column about journalists and math skills. In "Sorry, Wrong Number," Silverman notes that "journalists deal with numbers every single day, and yet so many of us willingly profess ignorance or fear when faced with simple arithmetic." He says it's time to...

Craig Silverman offers advice on avoiding errors in news writing

Oct 26, 2009 - Posted by Melissa Wilson - Students' Lounge Editor

A shocking number of errors go to print every day, and few of them ever land on the corrections page the following morning. Craig Silverman recently gave a Ryerson University audience a few tips on avoiding this embarrassment.

Reuters Handbook of Journalism now online

Jul 10, 2009 - Posted by Regan Ray

The Reuters Handbook of Journalism is "the guidance Reuters journalists live by," according to Dean Wright, global editor, ethics, innovation and news standards for the news agency. The Reuters Handbook is now available to the public for free online...

20 questions about polls

Jun 17, 2008 - Posted by Deborah Jones

The American National Council on Public Polls has a piece on its website that looks like a worthwhile read: 20 Questions A Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results.

Hat tip to the U.S. discussion list,IRE-L, of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Improving accuracy: creating a newsroom system

Mar 10, 2008 - Posted by Heather McCall

Eduardo Lorea describes how eight newspapers in southern Brazil are working to identify and avoid their most common errors, using a common process and database application.

Passionate about accuracy

Feb 11, 2008 - Posted by Heather McCall

"Everybody knows (accuracy is) important. But there is that gap between the idea we have and what we actually do on a daily basis, and that’s where the idea of passion and culture comes in," says Craig Silverman, the author of Regret the Error. In this RRJ.ca Q&A, Silverman suggests some practical ideas for fostering that passion on both individual and organizational levels, including paper checklists, correction RSS feeds and spot fact-checking.

Who speaks for a website?

Oct 11, 2007 - Posted by Heather McCall

Online communities often operate as a news medium, rather than a traditionally staffed news publication. Other news reports about these sites, to be fully accurate, should reflect that fact by citing the individual author of information found on the site, rather than just the site itself. Online Journalism Review editor Robert Niles proposes a three-point checklist that reporters ought to follow whenever citing information they find on the Web.

Dictionary of military terms

Mar 01, 2007 - Posted by Julie Ryland

The American Department of Defence provides a dictionary of short and comprehensive definitions of military terms, abbreviations, acronyms, and terms used by NATO only. The site can be browsed alphabetically by the categories listed above.

Statistics Canada

Feb 08, 2007 - Posted by Julie Ryland

Statistics Canada creates and releases statistics that can help people to a better understanding of Canada and its population, resources, economy and culture. The site has information about the census, and material organized in summary tables, maps, surveys and charts. The Daily is a section of the website which presents information about new releases and products, and is released every day at 8.30 a.m. There is also an "understanding statistics" section which can be helpful in understanding the material and information available on the site.