Editorial decisions have cascading impacts in politically charged discussions about anti-racism in education and at work, raising questions about how to find the line between newsworthiness and best practices Continue Reading Why did newsrooms contravene guidelines about suicide coverage in reporting on the death of a former principal?
In a genre constantly questioned for its ethics, how should people go about being respectful consumers? Continue Reading True crime’s influence on an era of internet sleuths raises ethical concerns
Journalists agree that they have to avoid glorifying perpetrators in news reporting. But gaps in best practices continue to appear in coverage Continue Reading There’s still something missing in debates around covering mass violence in Canada
(Disclosure: I’m the full-time paid publisher of Briarpatch Magazine, a volunteer board member of the Media Co-op, CEO of the currently inactive environmental consulting company Porpoise B Consulting, and freelance journalist. My partner is a designer for the CBC, not involved in content.) Derek Burney has been writing op-eds for the Globe and Mail since…
I regularly advocate for journalists to tell stories they see as newsworthy in the manner they see fit, because a key element of the journalistic skill set is the ability to determine news value. Making principled decisions about what is or isn’t news is a vital public service, and news value should be assessed by…
Coverage of the Toronto van tragedy demonstrates how ethical lapses erode public trust, writes Amira Elghawaby. Continue Reading How do we hold news media accountable?
Deborah Campbell, A Disappearance in Damascus: A Story of Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War. Knopf, 2016. 352 pages. $28.32. By Jane Gerster “Do you think anything you write will make a difference?” A young Iraqi interpreter asks Deborah Campbell this early on in A Disappearance in Damascus: A Story of Friendship and Survival in…