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47 Twitter: Can It Be a Reliable Source of News? | By Janic Tremblay50 YouTube’s Ecosystem for News | By Steve Grove52 Video Games: What They Can Teach Us About Audience Engagement | By James Paul Gee54 News-Focused Game Playing: Is It a Good Way to Engage People in an Issue? | By NoraPaul and Kathleen A. HansenHacks + Hackers58 Hacks/Hackers: Bringing Journalists and Technologists Together | By Burt Herman59 Joining Digital Forces Strengthens Local Investigative Reporting | By Brant Houston61 The Peril and Promise of the Semantic Web | By Andrew Finlayson64 Journalism on the Map: A Case for Location-Aware Storytelling | By Krissy Clark66 Digital Immersion: Augmenting Places With Stories and Information | By Mike Liebhold69 The Future of Storytelling: A Participatory Endeavor | Conversation with V. Michael Bove, Jr.71 Storytelling in the Digital Age: Finding the Sweet Spot | By Hanson Hosein73 Apple’s iPad Meets Hamlet’s Blackberry | By Peter Cobus75 The Tablet’s Mobile Multimedia Revolution: A Reality Check | By Juan Antonio Giner3 Curator’s Corner: Fairness as an Essential Ingredient in News Reporting | By Bob Giles76 Nieman Notes | Compiled by Jan Gardner76 From Rejection to Success—With ‘Radiohead Journalism’ | By Paige Williams78 Class Notes83 End Note: A Nation’s Past and Promise: A Shift in the Meaning of American Symbols| By Derrick Z. JacksonDigging Deeper: Our Digital LibraryIn assembling this edition of Nieman Reports, the magazine’scontributors helped us create a collection of resources and articlesthat dig deep into the landscape of digital media and speakto the journalism issues written about on the following pages.Visit our digital library via a link at www.niemanreports.org/digital-library. Once there, you will find volumes connected totopics covered in the magazine, such as youth & media, multitasking,the brain, and social media.Over time we intend to expand this library and invite you tosubmit relevant articles, videos, blog posts, or stories. Send yourlinks to NReditor@harvard.edu and we will put them in theappropriate digital volume.Cover graphic and illustration for the Nieman Reports’ Digital Library (above): Diane Novetsky/Nova Design2 Nieman Reports | Summer 2010
Curator’s CornerFairness as an Essential Ingredient in News ReportingThe Nieman Foundation’s Taylor Family Award recognizes journalistic fairness—and we learn from the stories it honors how newspapers achieve it.BY BOB GILESFor the past nine years, the Nieman Foundation hashonored journalistic fairness with the Taylor FamilyAward for Fairness in Newspapers. Our goal is toencourage fairness and ethical practices in enterprisingnews coverage by drawing public attention to exemplarywork. The award is given in the name of the Taylor familywhose stewardship of The Boston Globe over four generationswas anchored in the belief of Charles H. Taylor,the first publisher—that in the long run honest and fairdealing will win.We had no specific definition for “fairness” when thecompetition began in 2001. To prepare their exhibits forthe Taylor award judges, newspapers were asked to explainhow stories were framed, reported and presented to readersin the context of fairness. It was our expectation thatover time we would build a valuable base of knowledgeabout what constitutes fairness. A review of the award’swinning entries does, in fact, reveal a range of journalisticpractices that have met the test of fairness.What Makes a Story Fair?Les Gura of The Hartford Courant received the initialTaylor award for his meticulous account of the badlyhandled investigation into the murder of a Yale student;a promising young instructor was implicated but nevercharged. His story forced readers to consider fairness fromevery angle—by the news media, by the police, by thepublic, and by a prestigious university. He demonstratedhow the Yale teacher’s reputation had been shattered bythe use of anonymous sources in other news coverage; heused the words of only those who would go on the record.In 2003, The Boston Globe was honored for the fairnessof its reporting about the sexual abuse scandal in theCatholic Church when it took on a highly sensitive subjectin an environment of intense passions. Reporters examinedthe fact that other denominations had sex abuse scandalsof their own, that the victims were not all young boys, thatvictims’ lawyers were not without blame, and that phonychanges against priests constituted a real danger. The Globealso sought to present the story from the perspective ofthe church and those who worked within it.Reporter Robin Gaby Fisher and photographer MattRainey of The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey wonthe 2005 award for a report on the lives of students andfaculty at a New Jersey school that became known as “LastChance High.” During the more than 10 months they spenton the story, Fisher and Rainey were able to get closeto students, teachers, administrators, parents and drugdealers. Their patient pursuit enabled them to tell a storythat was honest but not judgmental, and accurate withoutromanticizing or denigrating the situation.A different dimension of fairness emerged in the 2006coverage by the Lancaster (Penn.) New Era for its series ofstories about the shooting of 10 Amish girls in a one-roomschoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania. The reporters faced aformidable obstacle: Many in the Amish community didnot want their names or photographs published and thestate police, out of respect for Amish religious traditions,would not speak for attribution. The solution was to reportso exhaustively that the stories could be written confidentlyand compellingly, shedding light on a world usually hiddenfrom view without revealing the identities of those whowished anonymity.In 2008, Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune was recognizedfor a body of work that focused on three Southerntowns where he documented America’s unfinished businessof civil rights. Witt’s stories were not simple tales of goodand evil. He wrote nuanced accounts of young people withblemished records whose predicaments could be tracedto racially unjust legal prosecutions or school disciplinemeted out in racially disproportionate ways.The commitment The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer madeto fully represent the perspective of a major North Carolinapoultry producer was a key factor in the paper winningthe 2009 award. The reporters began talking withcompany officials about health and safety violations ninemonths before the stories were published. The paper twicepostponed publication to allow the company more time torespond to its questions. It posted full written statementsfrom the company on CharlotteObserver.com.This year, the Chicago Tribune won the award for a secondtime for an investigation revealing a secret admissionssystem that enabled children whose parents had politicalconnections to be admitted to the University of Illinoisalthough they did not meet basic academic requirements.The newspaper let university officials speak for themselvesat length while protecting the students who had benefittedfrom the system but were not demonstrably culpable.Each of these award winners has broadened our understandingof how fairness strengthens the impact and credibilityof stories. After nearly a decade, this award affirmsour belief that fairness will continue to be recognized inits different manifestations in the years ahead. Nieman Reports | Summer 2010 3
Page 1 and 2: N ieman ReportsTHE NIEMAN FOUNDATIO
Page 3: N ieman ReportsTHE NIEMAN FOUNDATIO
Page 7 and 8: WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEWS? | Brain Pow
Page 9 and 10: Brain Powerways of thinking and tal
Page 11 and 12: Brain PowerNovelty and Testing: Whe
Page 13 and 14: Brain PowerThinking About Multitask
Page 15 and 16: Brain PowerWatching the Human Brain
Page 17 and 18: Brain PowerHe compared them to a co
Page 19 and 20: Brain Powerin surprising ways. Here
Page 21 and 22: Digital Youthsphere that both engag
Page 23 and 24: Digital YouthGenerational Divide: D
Page 25 and 26: Digital Youthask ourselves, when te
Page 27 and 28: Digital Youthdust—though they did
Page 29 and 30: Digital YouthRevealing the Digital
Page 31 and 32: Digital Youthin 100 U.S. communitie
Page 33 and 34: Digital Youthwhat is important and
Page 35 and 36: Digital YouthThe Future of News: Wh
Page 37 and 38: Digital YouthCritical Thinking Abou
Page 39 and 40: WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEWS? | New NewsN
Page 41 and 42: New NewsThere’s More to Being a J
Page 43 and 44: New NewsAs a recent fellow at the R
Page 45 and 46: New NewsMcLaughlin’s background,
Page 47 and 48: New Newswith readers and advertiser
Page 49 and 50: New News(and more): What makes a go
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New NewsAlternatively, schools too
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New Newsthat occur with consistency
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New Newsof information about such a
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Hacks + Hackerswhich supplied gold-
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Hacks + HackersThe Future of Storyt
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Hacks + HackersBefore the end of ou
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Nieman Notesfor our times. “Possu
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END NOTEAN ESSAY IN WORDS AND PHOTO
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End NoteBarack Obama’s presence o
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End NoteA girl perched on the shoul
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