The Observatory
Mixed Grades for Medical Coverage
Analysis of nearly 1,500 articles over five years finds pluses and minuses
By Curtis Brainard Apr 22, 2011 at 12:29 PM
A review of nearly 1,500 health-medical articles over the last five years has found that while journalists are nailing a... More
CU-Boulder to Shutter J-School
Journalism education remains a priority, administrators claim
By Curtis Brainard Apr 19, 2011 at 09:30 AM
The University of Colorado’s Board of Regents voted last week to close the journalism school at its Boulder campus, marking... More
California Watch is Watching
Investigation reveals lax oversight of seismic standards in schools
By Curtis Brainard Apr 15, 2011 at 10:30 AM
California Watch’s Corey Johnson was scanning the website of the state architect’s office one evening in December 2009 when he... More
The Importance of Energy Reporters
A Q&A with the NYT’s Matthew Wald about Japan’s nuclear crisis
By Cristine Russell Apr 8, 2011 at 11:02 AM
The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan has underscored the importance of specialized energy reporters. Unfortunately,... More
Japan’s Other Environmental Woes
The Wall Street Journal breaks from the pack with article on non-nuclear fallout
By Curtis Brainard Apr 7, 2011 at 10:45 AM
The Wall Street Journal distinguished itself on Monday with an article that examined some of the non-nuclear environmental impacts... More
The Climate Context in Japan
Crisis tests media’s ability to frame nuclear debate in a world beset by energy risks
By James Fahn Apr 5, 2011 at 02:56 PM
When I was a young journalist working as the environment editor for a Thai newspaper back in the 1990s, one... More
Another Cozy TV-Hospital Partnership
Will the practice ever end?
By Trudy Lieberman Apr 1, 2011 at 11:14 AM
Once more, a large hospital system has climbed in bed with a friendly TV station to promote high-end services, using... More
Covering “Crazy”
“Goldwater rule” overlooked in articles about Qaddafi, Sheen, and Loughner
By Curtis Brainard Mar 30, 2011 at 12:57 PM
The media has a penchant for psychoanalysis that often gets news outlets into trouble. From killers to celebrities to dictators,... More
Misinformation Clouds Much Japan Coverage
International media’s output enters the “Journalistic Hall of Shame”
By Craig Silverman Mar 25, 2011 at 11:59 AM
Andrew Woolner’s Yokohama residence was left without power shortly after the recent major earthquake struck Japan. But his laptop and... More
Quaking in California
Articles about the “big one” short on science
By Curtis Brainard Mar 22, 2011 at 02:15 PM
The 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11 not only sent a tsunami barreling across the Pacific, but also... More
NYT Whitewashes its Japan Error
By Clint Hendler Mar 17, 2011 at 01:11 PM
If you’re having trouble tracking the twists and turns as Japanese workers struggle at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, you’re... More
Crisis Juggling in Japan
Reporters struggle to balance quake, tsunami, nuclear coverage
By Curtis Brainard Mar 16, 2011 at 02:00 PM
The triple disaster. The triple whammy. Both terms are now common in media accounts of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear-plant disaster that has... More
Japan’s Quake and Political Fallout
Notes on nuclear renaissance
By Joel Meares Mar 16, 2011 at 01:01 PM
The ongoing struggle to bring four reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station under control has understandably shaken the... More
Political Aftershocks
Reactions to a disaster abroad, at home
By Joel Meares Mar 15, 2011 at 11:56 AM
The news cycle being what it is, it’s not surprising that we’ve taken to navel-gazing just days after the Japanese... More
Risk Reporting 101
What journalists should know about hazards and exposure
By David Ropeik Mar 11, 2011 at 04:12 PM
During my years as a daily TV journalist in Boston, I covered a seemingly endless string of risks: from the... More
#Realtalk: This isn’t another ‘golden age’ for print - But it is one for media
Social media in smaller markets - How three social media managers deal with smaller markets and more local coverage.
A rally for laid-off Sun-Times photogs - A protest Thursday morning drew about 150 picketers to the newspaper’s headquarters
Reporting, or illegal hacking - Scripps reporters are accused of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Exchange Watch: California Dreaming - Low healthcare premiums on the West Coast were trumpeted as a big, good-news Obamacare story. But: “Compared to what?”
One of the great reporters of his generation died Tuesday at 33. The stories he wrote, and the ones he didn’t live to write
Michael Hastings: my friend and his enemies
Hastings was fearless and shook things up - especially with his McChrystal expose. The haters in the media couldn’t forgive him
Journalism is about finding flaws and magnifying them, and surely someone who would spill massive loads of state secrets must contain a few broken parts, right?
Call it the Politico rhetorical crutch
The inside-the-beltway publication’s go-to phrase
Rachel Maddow’s tribute to Michael Hastings
“Michael was angry … he was angry about things that weren’t right in the world. He was angry with war and with loss, and that drove his reporting.”
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
