Rosen gives thumbs-up to NPR’s new ethics handbook

This post originally appeared on Current.org’s Blog.

Media critic Jay Rosen takes a look at NPR’s new ethics handbook, released last week, and likes what he sees, particularly the handbook’s guidance regarding balance and fairness in reporting. “At all times, we report for our readers and listeners, not our sources,” the guide says. “So our primary consideration when presenting the news is that we are fair to the truth.”

“With these words, NPR commits itself as an organization to avoid the worst excesses of ‘he said, she said’ journalism,” Rosen writes on his PressThink blog. “It says to itself that a report characterized by false balance is a false report. It introduces a new and potentially powerful concept of fairness: being ‘fair to the truth,’ which as we know is not always evenly distributed among the sides in a public dispute.”

Rosen’s post also includes a brief Q&A with Matt Thompson, an editorial product manager at NPR, who co-wrote the new handbook.

Edward R. Murrow among nation’s top 25 journalism schools.

This article first appeared in US Fed News Service, Including US State News [Washington, D.C] 29 Jan 2012.

PULLMAN, Wash., Jan. 27 — Washington State University issued the following news release:

The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University was rated among the top 25 journalism schools in the country in a survey by a national magazine for news professionals.

Finishing near the top in the survey by NewsPro Magazine were Syracuse University, Northwestern University, Columbia University, the University of Missouri, and the University of Southern California. The top 25 were published in the December issue of the magazine. No specific ranking was assigned to most schools listed among the top 25, including the Murrow College.

Named for its famous CBS News alumnus, the Murrow College is the only program in the Northwest that offers sequences in all six communication fields: advertising, broadcasting, communication, communication studies, journalism, and public relations. It offers the only comprehensive broadcast program in the state. Its broadcast journalism sequence has been rated in the top 5 in the nation by the Radio Television Digital News Association.

The latest journalism school rankings survey was the first by NewsPro Magazine. The survey also asked readers what they would most like to see taught at journalism schools. The top answers were “writing,” “reporting,” and “ethics.” Other answers included “digital or new media,” “grammar,” and “objectivity,” according to the magazine.

Articles in the same edition of the magazine featured efforts at journalism schools to combine technology and journalism, producing journalism graduates also savvy in areas like social media and web design. It is that “multi-platform” approach to journalism that has been incorporated into the communication program at Murrow College, which features computer labs and graphics design facilities.

The College is noted for combining professional skill-building and theory. It operates Northwest Public Radio, a 16-station regional network that can be heard by 3.6 million residents in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, along with two PBS television stations. Student-written news stories are published by professional news organizations throughout the state through the “Murrow News Service,” which includes a bureau in the state capital, Olympia.

The magazine based its survey on more than 400 persons who were in a pool of subscribers to NewsPro and “TVWeek.com.” They described themselves as news professionals, educators and students. More than 136 respondents listed themselves as “non-news professionals,” a category that the magazine said includes television producers and network executives. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com