Newsworthiness

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notices to news agencies and newspapers that seek to classify them according to their content. The notice was also sent to the Central government. It was issued on a public interest litigation that wanted a regulatory body for classification aimed at identifying publications that contain adult material, which might not be suitable for children. One article...

New Delhi, Aug. 18: The top court on Thursday issued notices to the Centre, the Press Council of India, the two English dailies and the two news agencies on a public interest petition (PIL) seeking laying down of rules and regulations to ensure that minors are not exposed to obscene material, which could be classified as Adult (A) and Universal (U) as is done for films. Petitioner Ajay Goswami...

Rosemary Goudreau, the editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune, has received the same e-mail message a dozen times over the last year. "Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?" the anonymous polemic asks, in part. "Did you know that 3,100 schools have been renovated?" "Of course we didn't know!" the message concludes. "Our media doesn't tell us!" Ms. Goudreau...

My newsroom days are 15 years distant, but I can see that there's not as much joy these days in the newsrooms I visit. That's a direct consequence of the change in motivation from the mission of journalism to the mission of creating shareholder value. I teach journalism for a living to college students now. So I think a great deal about the newsrooms and the journalistic life my students will...

THE bylines and photo credits in today's Travel section look no different than those throughout the newspaper. Yet nonstaff contributors produced every major feature article and almost all the photographs in the section. Or consider a typical Escapes section. About 80 percent of its content comes from outside contributors. These contributors, who are commonly known as freelancers or stringers...

I tried for years to get on to Fleet Street and nearly gave up. Then, with one of those strokes of luck which all journalists need, in 1965 I wiggled my way on to The Sunday Times. I'd done one story for it as a freelance and had been given a spare desk and a telephone. The next week I went in and sat at the vacant desk. After a day or two, someone noticed me and gave me another story to do. One...

NEW YORK (AP) -- With its official-looking BBC News banner, the Web site looked real enough, but the sick tale it told seemed too preposterous to be true. "Lion Mutilates 42 Midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight," blared the headline. An article followed about a circus-like spectacle that went awry and resulted in many deaths. The page was a hoax, but it exploded across the Internet. Soon it was being...

In April this year, ABC journalist and television presenter Kerry O’Brien was invited to give a public lecture on the challenges for journalism presented by marketing and "spin" - the worst aspect of the more general field known as public relations. "Marketing and spin [are] two elements that combined, represent one of the biggest challenges to good journalism today," said O’Brien. O’Brien, who is...

The New York Times plans to integrate its traditional print newsroom with its online newsroom, top management said Tuesday. Staffers from the print side and from NYTimes.com will start collaborating on coverage much more frequently than they do now, said Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, and Martin Nisenholtz, senior vice president for digital operations for the New York Times Co., in a...

It's opinion. It's conjecture. It's a tidbit from the newest poll or another alarming image -- delivered with rising drumbeats -- from the day's top story. It's today's 24-hour news. But as Americans bathe in constant reports from CNN or Fox, the Internet, satellite radio, newspapers and magazines, is there a price to pay for living in a world where the news never stops? Increasingly, analysts say...