Newsworthiness

From 1939-1945 The New York Times, arguably the country's most influential paper, barely covered the extermination of millions of Jews. There was plenty of coverage of World War II, but news of the Holocaust did not get the press attention that could have steered public discourse and ultimately saved lives. Laurel Leff, author of Buried By The Times: The Holocaust and America's Most Important...

WASHINGTON – The number of full-time journalists working at daily newspapers continues to fall while the number of minority journalists inched up nearly a half of a percentage point to 13.42 percent in 2004. Since the economic downturn of 2001, newsrooms have lost a net of more than 2,200 journalists while the number of minority journalists has increased. These are among the key findings from the...

Believe it or not, women are still fighting to get their opinions in print and on the air–and editors are still making lame excuses. In March, FOX News’ Susan Estrich scolded the Los Angeles Times, where less than 20 percent of opinion-editorial columns in a nine-week period were written by women, by firing off a series of emails to op-ed page editor Michael Kinsley. He responded by saying that...

Which American newspaper greeted Hitler’s diplomatic victory at Munich with a recommendation that the world place its hopes in the Kellogg Briand Peace Pact? And when, in 1940, the great Jewish journalist and Zionist prophet Vladimir Jabotinsky gave his famous speech in New York calling for an emergency rescue to take the 6 million Jews of Europe to Palestine before they were killed, which...

After a Dec. 26 earthquake generated a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, extensive news coverage spurred some $6 billion in donations to governments and relief agencies in less than a month. But lack of coverage can mean little money. Although millions of people in Africa continue to suffer from the scourges of war, disease and poverty, people elsewhere who might be inspired to open their wallets don’t...

Emily Wax didn't hesitate when a rebel leader offered her a lift in a stolen Land Cruiser crammed with grenades, automatic weapons and mortar shells. Three sharpshooters, perched on the roof, scanned the desolate desert landscape as they moved toward the death zones. Her relentless lobbying with the Sudanese Liberation Army had paid off. To get to the rebel encampment and waiting escort, the...

"Just this once, the big news of the day isn’t in the papers. It is the papers." January 29th is going to be observed every year as ‘Indian Newspaper Day,’ as per the summons of the Indian Newspaper Society. This is the day when the first newspaper was born and spun into print. The creatives furnished for the occasion are hard-hitting and compelling. Instances maybe an expanse of empty white space...

Global opinion leaders’ trust in established institutions (business, government, media) and figures of authority (CEOs, heads of state) is being supplanted by a personal web of trust that includes "colleagues," "friends and family," "a person like yourself" as well as independent experts such as doctors and academics, according to the sixth annual Edelman Trust Barometer, a survey of 1,500...

Some of the chattering heads on television would have you believe that journalism in the USA is falling apart. It's not. Instead, it is assuming a new form. The recent reporting scandals are not a sign of new corruption as much as a sign of new transparency. First The New York Times, then USA TODAY, and now CBS have been under fire for failing to exercise close-enough supervision over errant...

Every news channel has at least one, if not more, crime show, daily or weekly slotted for its viewers. The channels claim that these shows garner good viewership numbers. But with so many of them, is there an overdose of crime? Alka Saxena, Editor, Zee News, said, "The response to these shows are amazing, crime shows get the top ratings across all channels. Data show crime shows are very popular...