This week on NewsTrust, our featured topic is Media and Politics, in partnership with the Poynter Institute and PolitiFact.
All week, from Monday, June 16th through Sunday, June 22nd, we will collectively review a wide range of news articles and opinions for this News Hunt about the intersection of Media and Politics, using the NewsTrust review tools. Think of this 'news hunt' as a scavenger hunt for good journalism on how the news media are covering the presidential campaign -- and how this coverage shapes American attitudes towards candidates and issues.
Together, we will rate the news based on quality, not just popularity -- by evaluating each article's fairness, sourcing, context and other core principles of good journalism. This focus on quality information and news literacy can help us all make more informed decisions as citizens, as well as re-build the trust that has been lost between the news media and the public.
Get involved
Help us find the best journalism on this important topic, by joining forces with NewsTrust, the Poynter Institute, and PolitiFact, to review and submit stories about Media and Politics.
If you haven't already, please sign up to review some of the recommended stories on our site. To quickly submit new stories on this topic, be sure to get our bookmarklet. For more tips on how to join our news hunt, check our welcome page for new members.
Thanks to our partners at Poynter and PolitiFact
NewsTrust has had a long relationship the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, based in St. Petersburg Florida. Bill Mitchell, Poynter's director of publishing, serves on the NewsTrust advisory board and has been an important voice in guiding the future of the site. A big thank you goes out to Ellyn Angelotti, Interactivity Editor at Poynter Institute, who made this partnership happen. The work done at Poynter in fostering good journalism is vital to a
healthy media ecology, and NewsTrust is honored to be partnering with
them.
PolitiFact (a joint project of the St. Petersburg Times and CQ Politics) is also a partner in this NewsHunt. PolitiFact is a relatively new site that helps voters cut through political spin and find the facts about the candidates. As explained on their website:
The St. Petersburg Times of Florida and Congressional Quarterly of Washington, D.C. – two of America’s most trusted, independent newsrooms – have created the site to help voters separate fact from falsehood in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Journalists and researchers from the Times and CQ will fact-check the accuracy of speeches, TV ads, interviews and other campaign communications. We’ll publish new findings every day on PolitiFact.com, and list our sources for all to see.
PolitiFact's mission aligns strongly with NewsTrust's, and we're excited to welcome PolitiFact readers to NewsTrust.
NewsTrust and Poynter: David Cohn, Fabrice Florin, Ellyn Angelotti, Kaizar Campwala
Introducing our new Widget Partner - Skewz
We're also glad to introduce the NewsTrust community to Skewz, our new widget partner. Skewz is a political news aggregator that focuses on exposing media bias using some innovative, crowd-sourced tools. We encourage NewsTrust readers to check out their site, and if you come across stories that exemplify good journalism, submit the story to NewsTrust by clicking on the NewsTrust button under the 'Share' option.
Check this blog for the results of the News Hunt. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us by email or post your feedback on our Suggestions page. See you online!
UPDATE: New findings about our John McCain News Hunt
OffTheBus founder Jay Rosen has written a great article about last week's John McCain News Hunt, with insightful observations that shed new light on our initiative:
One of interesting things about the NewsTrust initiative is that is has both emergent and conservative ideas built into it. The news judgment of newsroom priests is dethroned. The people formerly known as the audience take over the “gate,” as it were. But the virtues upheld—accuracy, fairness, evidence, proportion, decency, respect for our intelligence—are the old sturdy ones.
Jay Rosen, associate professor of journalism New York University, founder of NewAssignment.Net, author, Pressthink.org
Jay makes a fascinating point, and says it beautifully: the image of the 'people formerly known as the audience taking over the gate with old virtues' is illuminating ...
(in truly recursive fashion, you can review Jay's article right here on NewsTrust.)
Thanks, Jay, Gabe and Amanda, for this thoughtful report -- and to all our new members, thanks as well for your great reviews and suggestions! Some of the insights from our collective quest will find their way into the next version of our website, due out this fall. Stay tuned for more.
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