Dan Gillmor's 'new rules of news'
Posted by Nestor Bailly on October 9, 2009 at 3:47 PM
Dan Gillmor has written a column over at guardian.co.uk about standards of journalism practice, his 'new rules of news,' that he would enforce if he ran a news organization. Here are a couple of the more interesting suggested guidelines:2. Inviting audience participation and crowdsourcing, with a rewards system for quality contributors.
5. Encouraging conversation and comments, listing letters to the editor and replies in blog format, and listing comments posted under real names first. Local, community discussion would be fostered by these means.
6+7. Replacing 'Orwellian PR-speak' with real, everyday and neutral terms to describe things, without being afraid to paraphrase for clarity or even to call someone a liar for the sake of truth.
8. Link to everything possible, highlighting content from community members.
11. No 'Top-Ten' lists.
12. Wholeheartedly protecting confidential sources, and if revealing one is found to be necessary, the reasons would be made public.
13. If an anonymous source was found to be lying, he or she would be uncovered and discredited.
16. Point to and follow up on the journalism of competitors, pick up where they have left off and acknowledge good journalism on their part.
18. For a regularly covered topic or story, providing a contextual 'baseline' so readers can familiarize themselves with the content.
22. No opinion pieces from politicians or corporate executives.
Dan Gillmor is the director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and has written this list to call for journalists to stop being 'so lazy and unimaginative.' Before his impressive journalism and media career he was a musician for seven years.
Source: guardian.co.uk
13. If an anonymous source was found to be lying, he or she would be uncovered and discredited.
16. Point to and follow up on the journalism of competitors, pick up where they have left off and acknowledge good journalism on their part.
18. For a regularly covered topic or story, providing a contextual 'baseline' so readers can familiarize themselves with the content.
22. No opinion pieces from politicians or corporate executives.
Dan Gillmor is the director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and has written this list to call for journalists to stop being 'so lazy and unimaginative.' Before his impressive journalism and media career he was a musician for seven years.
Source: guardian.co.uk
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![Digg](http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorsweblog.org%2Fnewsrooms_and_journalism%2F2009%2F10%2Fdan_gillmors_new_rules_of_news.php&bodytext=<form contenteditable="false" mt:asset-id="3959" class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><a href="http://www.editorsweblog.org/assets_c/2009/10/dangillmor-3959.html" onclick="window.open('http://www.editorsweblog.org/assets_c/2009/10/dangillmor-3959.html','popup','width=500,height=375,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img src="http://www.editorsweblog.org/assets_c/2009/10/dangillmor-thumb-250x187-3959.jpg" alt="dangillmor.jpg" class="mt-image-left" style="margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt; float: left;" height="187" width="250" /></a></form><a href="http://dangillmor.com/"><b>Dan Gillmor</b></a> has written a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/oct/02/dan-gillmor-22-rules-news">column over at <b>guardian.co.uk</b></a> about standards of journalism practice, his 'new rules of news,' that he would enforce if he ran a news organization. Here are a couple of the more interesting suggested guidelines:<br /><br />2. Inviting audience participation and crowdsourcing, with a rewards system for quality contributors. <br /><br />5. Encouraging conversation and comments, listing letters to the editor and replies in blog format, and listing comments posted under real names first. Local, community discussion would be fostered by these means.<br /><br />6+7. Replacing 'Orwellian PR-speak' with real, everyday and neutral terms to describe things, without being afraid to paraphrase for clarity or even to call someone a liar for the sake of truth.<br /><br />8. Link to everything possible, highlighting content from community members.<br /><br />11. No 'Top-Ten' lists.<br />&title=Dan Gillmor's 'new rules of news'){kind=link}
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