When Comedy Meets Muckraking: “Fake” News Gets Investigative

You’ve probably seen the spoof broadcasts of The Daily Show and similar “fake” TV news programs: the realistic sets, the bogus “live” shots from overseas hot spots, the absurd interviews. While steeped in wisecracks and satire, the shows have a hard political edge and often stir controversy. Increasingly, in the absence of serious news from the “real” news media, they also are getting into actual journalism, prompting one scholar to call the phenomenon “investigative comedy.”

Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links

What’s the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Here are the Top Data Journalism Links on Twitter for the last two weeks, September 3-17. Included are items from the crowdsourcing, cross-border project Generation E; Detective.io; ICIJ; Switzerland’s Le Temps; and Germany’s CORRECT!V, FAZ, and Berlin Morning Post.

Journalism and Digital Times: Wider Reach and Sloppy Reporting

Digitization is one of the primary driving forces behind recent changes in journalism, including news values, professional ethics, workflows, working conditions, and newsroom management. The Mapping Digital Media study shows that digital media have not only changed journalism practices in developed countries but have also significantly shaped the way journalists work in emerging markets. Digital media bring opportunities, risks, and challenges to journalism. While digitization facilitates news gathering and dissemination, it does not necessarily foster better journalism. Plagiarism, lack of verification, and other unethical journalistic practices have increased alarmingly in many countries.