Discussion questions for the February / March 2008 issue, along with suggestions for further readings on Wikipedia's relevance as a research tool; coverage of the racial turmoil in Jena, La.; nonprofits' grants to news publications; and coverage of Iran's weapons arsenal.

Story 1: "Wikipedia in the Newsroom " |  Story 2: "Double Whammy"  |  
Story 3: "Nonprofit News" |  Story 4:"Second Time Around"

STORY 1: "Wikipedia in the Newsroom: While the line 'according to Wikipedia' pops up occasionally in news stories, it's relatively rare to see the user-created online encyclopedia cited as a source. But some journalists find it very valuable as a road map to troves of valuable information." By Donna Shaw  

MORE INFO FROM THE STORY:  According to Shaw: "...the primary knock against Wikipedia is that its authors and editors are also its users--an unpaid, partially anonymous army, some of whom insert jokes, exaggeration and even outright lies in their material. About one-fifth of the editing is done by anonymous users, but a tight-knit community of 600 to 1,000 volunteers does the bulk of the work." Many newsroom editors have put policies into place banning Wikipedia's use as a prime reference source, but allow it as a starting point for research. But some journalists note that the lengthy source lists and citations that follow some entries in Wikipedia can be useful for research. And some academics note that other "reliable" sources for research have shortcomings, too. "...people have to do some critical thinking," Shaw quotes Gregory Crane, the editor in chief of the Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University, as saying.

CLASS RESEARCH AND EDITING ASSIGNMENTS AND DISCUSSION:  

  • Underscore how easy it is for anyone to edit entries on Wikipedia. First demonstrate to your class by going to the Wikipedia home page, and doing a quick search in the left box for a topic you know very well, such as your university or home town. Once you get to a page you want to change, click on the "edit" button directly above the text you'll edit, and insert the changes in the screen in front of you. Hit "save page" to save the changes. After your demonstration, ask each student to make one, accurate change on the site. Students should print out each page they changed and underline their insertions.
  • Create a class project: Circulate a list of professional newspapers/or news Web sites to the class, and ask each student to sign up to look into the practices of one organization on the list. Students should contact the news and copy desks for their publication, to find out if it has a policy in place regarding the use of Wikipedia for research, and, if so, what it is. Students should also do a LexisNexis search of their news site, to determine if the word "Wikipedia" crops up in stories as a primary source for information. Students should type up their findings, and the teacher could compile them and distribute them to the class for further discussion.
  • AJR writer Donna Shaw notes that entries in Wikipedia are uneven: Some are thorough and accurate, others are sparse and sometimes unfair or outright inaccurate. Ask students to conduct some basic research online on a specific topic -- such as gun control, or U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, or 2008 presidential candidates. Students should compare their findings from traditional research sources --including primary documents-- with those from Wikipedia. How similar or different were their findings, based on the sources of information? Were inaccuracies found? Students should be specific and give citations for their findings (includings URLs) in their typed summary.


    • RELATED COLUMNS, STORIES AND WEB LINKS:


    Alice Bonner / Courtesy of the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism
    Alice Bonner (Courtesy the Philip Merrill College of Journalism)
    STORY 2: "Double Whammy: It took an awfully long time for the national media to catch up to the racial turmoil in Jena, Louisiana. When they did, the results were not exactly a clinic in precision journalism." By Raquel Christie  

    MORE INFO FROM THE STORY:  From Sept. 7, 2006, to Oct. 12, 2007, the Associated Press distributed 74 stories about the Jena nooses and unrest, Christie reports. But the national media didn't hop on the story until black radio hosts, activists and bloggers -- including Alan Bean and his friendsofjustice.wordpress.com -- prodded them. When the national reporters did weigh in in the spring and summer of 2007, did they unjustly skew the story? Journalists working for the two local papers that had been aggressively covering the story from the beginning --the Jena Times and The Town Talk --say they did. Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock says part of the problem with the coverage is the national media relied too heavily on blogger Bean. But Howard Witt, who wrote about the incidents in the May 20, 2007, Chicago Tribune, told Christie in an e-mail: "I have accurately reported all sides of this ongoing saga." University of Maryland lecturer Alice Bonner says news organizations need race beats, so that race issues are covered routinely, rather than in a fenzy. And, she says, they need more journalists of color to help put stories in perspective.

    CLASS PROJECT AND DISCUSSIONS:

  • Obtain a list of the top 50 U.S. newspapers, by circulation. Divide up the list among your students (if you have 25 students, assign each student two papers). Ask students to contact editors for the paper(s) they've been assigned, to determine if the paper has a routine race beat. If it does, students should talk to the beat reporter about the type of stories covered, and the reactions/impact those stories have had in the community. If the paper does not have a race beat, students should talk to the reporters assigned to cover sporadic race stories, such as the Jena 6. How effective do they believe their coverage is, when they're asked to parachute into such stories? Students should type up their findings and be prepared to share them with the class.
  • How well do your local newspapers, news Web sites and TV stations cover issues of race? Invite in a panel of editors and community leaders to talk about coverage: Are there stories about minority communities being routinely ignored? Are there stories being distorted?

    RELATED COLUMNS, STORIES AND LINKS:


    STORY 3: "Nonprofit News: As news organizations continue to cut back, investigative and enterprise journalism funded by foundations and the like is coming to the fore. " By Carol Guensburg

    MORE INFO FROM THE STORY: Guensburg reports: "Done right, the journalism-funder relationship benefits both parties as well as the public they aim to serve." But done wrong, "the association raises concerns about editorial objectivity and whether it has been compromised by a funder's agenda." Barbara Hall, who spent more than 14 years fundraising for National Public Radio, notes the best gift is unrestricted support. But, she said, the trend with nonprofits is to seek to designate support for specific issues and topics. Geneva Overholser, who holds the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting for the Missouri School of Journalism, says she's not worried about partisan information disseminated by nonprofits-- as long as it's labeled as such.

    CLASS RESEARCH AND DISCUSSION:
  • How do other countries finance their media operations? Ask students to write a research paper that gives an overview of other countries' media funding sources -- be they governmental, commercial, nonprofit or private -- and the implications on that funding on the independence of the product.
  • Charles Lewis, founding president of the Fund for Independence in Journalism, asks in Guensburg's story: Is there "any real difference between advertiser influence and donor influence on editorial sanctity?" For a class-based discussion, pose that question in a conference call (or a videoconference) to any of the top editors or directors now running a news operation funded by a nonprofit (such as ProPublica's editor in chief Paul E. Steiger). Also ask if any editorial directives have been attached to money funding newsgathering activities -- and how even perceptions of influence-peddling can be kept at bay.

    RELATED STORIES, COLUMNS AND REPORTS:


    STORY 4: "Second Time Around:     After their credulous performance in the run-up to the war in Iraq, how are the news media handling the Bush administration's allegations against Iran?"by Sherry Ricchiardi

    MORE INFO FROM THE STORY: Ricchiardi writes, "So far, reviews are mixed on how the media are helping Americans -- and the rest of the world -- sort out fact from propaganda regarding the Bush administrations's charges that Iran is building a nuclear arsenal and supplying weapons to kill Americans in Iraq." Some of the criticism of the media has focused on basic journalistic practices--including over-use of anonymous sources -- in coverage of Iraq and Iran and their weapons arsenals. But, notes New York Times chief military correspondent Michael R. Gordon, anonymous sources serve a purpose. He tells Ricchiardi: "There are certain very sensitive stories that you can only report that way, including stories that expose corruption and misdeeds on the part of the American government. Anonymous sources have to be used with care, that's all."

    CLASS ANALYSIS / DISCUSSION:

  • What are the policies of the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and CNN regarding anonymous sources? Ask students to prepare a research paper, rounding up those news organizations' policies on sourcing -- and explaining why it's often recommended that anonymous sources be used with restraint. How can anonymous sources skew coverage of an important topic? Or impact the public's perceptions of the credibility of a news report? Give specific examples from the past. The paper should include attribution and citations (either end notes or foot notes).
  • On the flip side, whistleblowers of government misconduct often do so anonymously. What stories may have gone undiscovered, had not the news media relied -- at least in part -- on anonymous sources? Ask students to do research and bring their notes (with specific examples) to class for an indepth discussion.

    RELATED STORIES AND WEB SITES:


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    Teachers' guide written and produced by Chris Harvey, online bureau director at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a former managing editor of AJR.

    First item for this issue published Feb. 3, 2008; second item published Feb. 18, 2008; third item published Feb. 21, 2008; last item published Feb. 25, 2008.

    Copyright © 2008 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Permission is granted to freely print, for classroom use, up to 100 copies of the most up-to-date version of this document, as long as the document is not modified.