Notes: accuracy, wordiness, clichés, etc.

Looking for ideas for lectures or discussions with your classes? JPROF has plenty. For introductory classes in mass media or journalism, you will find lecture notes on the following topics: news, newspapers, books, magazines, radio and television. There are also a variety of discussion starters and notes for some of your other journalism classes, including

• Simple words
• Wordiness
• Clichés
• Verbs of attribution
• Accuracy

There's lots more on JPROF.com. If you can't find what you want, use the search function, or drop us an email and tell us what you need.



Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.

NOLA.com saves lives

Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans has produced many fascinating stories, one of which is chronicled in an Online Journalism Review article by Mark Glaser on NOLA.com, the companion web site of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. It is a "companion web site" because Newhouse Newspapers, which owns the T-P, made the corporate decision a number of years ago to develop web sites as separate entities from their newspapers. It is a system that has drawn much criticism, but in this situation it may have produced at least one advantage. NOLA.com editors had developed an expertise in creating and operating public forums -- something that other newspaper-run web sites have lagged far behind in doing. That expertise is being credited with saving the lives of many people trapped by the flood in New Orleans.

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What's wrong with TV news?

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has given the 24-hour cable news channels just what they need – lots of pictures and storylines to follow. But the story has also exposed the weaknesses of cable news, and Jack Shafer, media critic for Slate.com, has taken the opportunity to make a list of some of the things he hates the most.

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Shafer and Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post have written good summaries of how some reporters dropped their cloaks of objectivity and became advocates for the victims during their coverage of Hurricane Katrina last week.

• Shafer, The Rebellion of the Talking Heads
• Kurtz, At Last, Reporters’ Feelings Rise to the Surface



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Daily Egyptian hoax

Just a few minutes on the telephone -- that's all it would have taken in 2003 on the part of a reporter for the Daily Egyptian, the student newspaper at Southern Illinois University, to save himself hours of work and some major professional embarrassment for himself and his colleagues two years later. The student newspaper has been the victim of a hoax. It could have been prevented had somebody on the staff followed the simple reporter's dictum: Check it out.

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Ben Franklin, printer

Because of several recent excellent biographies and a PBS series, America is being re-educated about the most remarkable of all the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin. The man was many things during his long life: inventor, scientist, civic innovator, diplomat. What he wanted to be known as, however, was "printer." His Apology for Printers, written in 1731, is an eloquent statement of the role printer should play in disseminating information and ideas. It makes excellent reading even today. (The entire apology can be found on this web site.)

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John Roberts, grammarian

He may be a conservative ideologue or a moderate (or even a liberal!) in right-wing clothing, but U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts has been outed as grammarian. An article in the New York Times this week (In Re Grammar, Roberts's Stance is Crystal Clear) says that after a review of thousands of pages of Roberts' briefs and memos, one thing is certain: he is a precise user of the language and demands the same precision of others.

The article describes his obsession as wryly humorous and occasionally sarcastic. Grammarians everywhere (conservative, moderate and liberal) can take comfort. More




Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.