New Media Unit

"A growing directory of tools for verifying, fact checking and assessing the validity of social media and user generated content. "

"That job gets more and more challenging, and even good news orgs can have lapses. I'm good with that, if they fix those lapses and hold themselves otherwise accountable, in good faith. Sure, there are legal consequences, but the bottom line is driven by trustworthy actions. The solution involves:"

"This week's #NewsHourChats is about the changing news industry. What do these changes say about the future of journalism? What do you look for in news coverage? How do you decide who to trust? Weigh in on those and other questions 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, Sept. 12. Follow @NewsHour and use #newshourchats to participate."

"Minutes after the world first saw the suspects' photos, a user on Reddit, the online community that is also one of the largest Web sites in the world, posted side-by-side pictures comparing Sunil's facial features with the face that would later be identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The pictures were accompanied by speculation about the circumstances surrounding Sunil's disappearance and the F.B.I.'s involvement in his search. "

"We've previously written about how new media is creating a new style of journalism, and we've even compiled lists of apps that can help citizen journalists on the move. But here, we'll look at some of the top websites and blogs out there that help give citizen journalists a voice."

"This is our Breaking News Consumer's Handbook.  Rather than counting on news outlets to get it right, we're looking at the other end. Below are some tips for how, in the wake of a big, tragic story, you can sort good information from bad. We've even made a handy, printable PDF that you can tape to your wall the next time you encounter a big news event."

Feeds and links to some of the most popular citizen journalism sites. Under each site link, the top five headlines are linked.

A study, description, and evaluation of university journalism program's use of multimedia.

"Welcome to Story Lab. This is where readers and reporters will come together to create and shape stories. Washington Post writers will talk about some of the hard choices involved in journalism. And you can discuss and debate the stories making the news in the Washington area. The Lab is, as you'd expect from the name, an experiment. This is a place for people who are not only curious about what's going on in the world, but also about how the news is gathered and packaged. With the media landscape in turmoil and readers empowered to construct their own windows onto the world, the role of traditional news organizations is ever more in question. We want to add to those questions, and maybe provide some answers along the way."

"Facebook's News Feed, a homepage built by our friends and organized by our clicks and likes, isn't really a "news" feed. It's an entertainment portal for stories that remind us of our lives and offer something like an emotional popper. In fact, news readers self-identify as a minority on Facebook: Fewer than half ever read "news" on the site, according to a 2013 Pew study, and just 10 percent of them go to Facebook to get the news on purpose, as opposed, say, being assaulted by a breaking news event when you're just scanning baby photos. To see this more clearly, let's compare the BuzzFeed network's most viral stories-i.e.: the stories that go biggest on Facebook-to the top stories on Twitter and the most-searched stories. First, here are the top stories on Twitter in 2013. It's a blend of news, like terrorist attacks and music shows, and evergreen silliness with Ryan Gosling and Kim Kardashian. "

"Journalists and news organizations are turning to the crowd's aid for reporting and photography, since the right person with a mobile phone at the right time can often give a good picture of the news sooner than newsroom staffers. In "Accurate, Fair & Safe: The Ethics of Social News" at SXSW, two industry pros discussed the benefits of social news gathering - but the benefits don't come without pitfalls."

"On this page you'll find notes arising from American Futures project that Deborah and James Fallows have had underway, with appearances on Marketplace radio, since 2013. Their full archive is here."

"This is the first part of a four-part series on native advertising. Part 2: "Publishers become content producers." Part 3: "How ethical is native advertising?" Part 4: "Future of native advertising""

"Our recent report, Political Polarization and Media Habits, finds that trust and distrust in the news media varies greatly by political ideology. Many readers asked us: Among the 36 news organizations we asked about, which one do Americans trust most? The answer is more complex than it may seem and can be measured in a number of different ways. Here's a breakdown:"

"That is why the Engaging News Project launched. We're a research group dedicated to helping newsrooms meet their business and journalistic goals. To do this, we test web-based strategies for informing audiences, promoting substantive discourse, and helping citizens to understand diverse views. At the same time, we analyze business outcomes, such as clicks and time on page."

"According to a report released today by Pew Research Center titled "Local News in a Digital Age," nearly nine in 10 residents across three metro areas studied (Denver, Macon, Ga., and Sioux City, Iowa) follow local news closely. However, the supply of local news and how residents consume and engage with local news varies quite a bit between cities, which vary dramatically by population size and demographics."

"ired of seeing their ink-and-paper edition ignored and eager to experiment with digital news, the staff of the Mountaineer decided over the summer to cut the print newspaper entirely and move its stories online. And Thursday, the staff of the Mountaineer took another step toward reimagining their news report when they launched Sac.media, a student publication hosted exclusively on Medium. Going forward, the newspaper will run all of its news stories on the publishing platform and broaden its coverage to include several nearby communities. The move will be accompanied by a greater emphasis on covering events on social media, and a decision to set aside space on Medium for stories that warrant greater depth and analysis, Albertson said."

"There has never been a better time to be a storyteller. And there is no team better suited to storytelling in the social age than the Storyful team. We are a global family of technologists, journalists and social media evangelists who work with some of the biggest news and social brands in the world. Our horizons have broadened. Our ambitions have grown. And our team is getting bigger."

"Godsey is one of a growing number of educators who are using podcasts like "Serial" to motivate their classrooms and address education requirements set by the Common Core state standards. Improving students' listening skills is one of the essential components of the new education mandates, and using audio in the classroom can be an effective way to promote listening."

"Are some of the newsroom's most prized values contributing to journalism's continuing decline in credibility? What should replace these values to better reflect the complexities of modern media yet still embrace the core principles of journalism? What should be the standards of credible journalism in an age when all definitions of news are up for grabs?"