Author: Jim Boren
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Without reporters covering city hall, school board, planning commission meetings, democracy at local level threatened by an uninformed citizenry
When I watch TV coverage of a news conference at the White House, I’m reminded of how reporting resources are disproportionately allocated in today’s news environment. The dozens of journalists at the White House are essentially giving us the same story, while many city council and school board meetings across America are not being covered…
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America’s newsrooms should be reporting their diversity numbers, and this proposal might finally encourage them to be more transparent
The News Leaders Association has been surveying newsrooms for more than 40 years to determine how many journalists of color are gathering and reporting news across the country. But in recent years, most newsrooms stopped reporting their diversity numbers. These are the same newsrooms, by the way, that preach diversity and transparency for other professions.…
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As legacy news outlets struggle financially, philanthropy and non-profit sites play larger roles in delivering reliable local news
The broken business model for traditional newspapers and their digital news site have left many communities seeking to find reliable news about their schools, local government agencies, the homeless and land-use decisions that impact their quality of life. Now non-profit news site have sprung up, and foundations are raising money to help local news operations…
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National News Literacy Week starts on Monday, and it’s an opportunity improve your news literacy skills
News Literacy Week, which runs from Jan. 24-28, has a goal of encouraging news consumers to “practice news literacy and to strengthen trust in news media by reinforcing the role of credible journalism.” The week is presented by the News Literacy Project and The E.W. Scripps Company. This issue, of course, is at the heart…
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Newsroom diversity: Microsoft joins our students of color journalism training program in Fresno
We are thrilled to announce that Microsoft has become a major sponsor of our program to diversify Fresno-area newsrooms by training students of color in our community to become journalists. Microsoft joins the California Endowment and the James B. McClatchy Foundation as major supporters of this diversity effort. We appreciate Microsoft’s commitment to our five-year…
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Some writers have a natural talent, but the rest of us can be very good writers if we work at it on a daily basis
In my journalism classes at Fresno State, we commit ourselves to improving our writing by working at it on a daily basis. As we tap out sentences on our keyboards, we think about how the words that we use sound to others. That’s important because we are not writing for ourselves. In newswriting, our goal…
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We’re celebrating our 3rd birthday with an increased focus on improving media literacy and exposing disinformation
When we established the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State three years ago, I was asked if our work to identify fake news and promote media literacy represented short-term problems that would sort themselves out in a few years on their own. We now know that these challenges not only aren’t going…
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Media literacy is crucial for anyone who uses a digital device. It should be an educational priority in K-12 schools.
In our 21st century society, we use computers to access almost everything we do. Consider how many times that you’ve logged onto the internet today to shop, check bank account balances, use social networks and work remotely from home. But the problem for many is that they have little understanding of how their personal information…
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We’ve compiled 8 tips for identifying false content that you may encounter on the Internet. Use them to be a smart media consumer.
Look past your personal political biases. This is crucial in sorting out news content. We often believe the worst about people or politicians we despise. Those biases can blind us to what we are sharing on social media, even if there are red flags that suggest the stories may not be factual. Do you recognize the…
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A major failure of U.S. media organizations has been their inability (or unwillingness) to diversify their reporting staffs
It has been more than 40 years since the American Society of News Editors adopted a goal of having newsrooms match the racial and ethnic make-up of the general population. Clearly, media outlets have had more than enough time to determine a strategy to hire journalists that reflect the diversity of their communities. But the much-discussed…
Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State 