LIS 5100 : Avoiding student plagiarism

In an assignment for LIS 5100 this week, I was asked to discuss how I’d handle a student plagiarism case. As UCM’s policy on Academic Honesty (2017) points out, “[A]cademic honesty is one of the most important qualities influencing the character and image of an educational institution.”

Bullying: Trump would be ‘bystander’ in schoolyard, celebrating violence against journalist

As someone who works toward a school and social climate where bullying is eliminated, I want to talk about comments by U.S. President Donald Trump, in which he spoke admiringly of a Montana congressional candidate who “body-slammed” a reporter.

Steve Buttry, my journalism mentor, dies at 62

Steve Buttry

My condolences to the family of Steve Buttry, who died Feb. 19 of pancreatic cancer at age 62. I met Steve when I worked in the newsroom of a California newspaper; his employer, Digital First Media (DFM), provided management services for the newspaper’s parent company.

Our newsroom was transitioning to a multi-platform publishing strategy that placed an emphasis on “digital first,” and Steve came to our newsroom during a tour of member newspapers to share resources and strategies, and also to bring back with him any challenges we might face at our stage of implementing.

Good PR verifies deadlines and procedures

A few months ago, I volunteered to submit “Religion Briefs” each week for my church to the local newspaper. Doing so made sense, because it compliments my work as professional Web Content Editor — of updating the upcoming Sunday service on the church’s website.

Digital archives: Free or subscription-based?

Digitized newspaper delivery and archiving. Image created with BitStrips

“Google News Archive” provided free digital access to more than a century’s worth of newspapers in the Milwaukee area. At “Urban Milwaukee,” Michail Takach asks why listings for local newspapers suddenly disappeared. The answer concerns privatized digitization through a subscription-model database, and should make compelling reading for anyone interested in how the shift from print to digital publishing impacts historical archiving.

NPR should track disabilities among staff diversity

National Public Radio ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen has released a look at diversity among NPR newsroom staff, encompassing race, ethnicity and gender. She also addresses diversity among on-air sources for Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Autism ‘not associated with brutality’

For the New York Times, Andrew Solomon debunks the “Myth of the ‘Autistic Shooter.’” Because it happened again; only a few days into coverage of an act of domestic terrorism — the killing of nine people and injuring of several others at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon — a news outlet drew attention to posts attributed to the killer’s mother in which she claimed that “I have Asperger’s” and “I also have an Asperger’s kid.”

#LibChat library Q-and-A’s curated with Storify

During #LibChat (a weekly Twitter-based chat among library professionals), I used the Storify social-curation platform to group users’ question-and-answer posts. The finished “stories” can be found on the splash page for my Storify account.

My blogging history and purpose of my blogs

Part of the time I might have spent blogging this week was spent considering my past history as a blogger and the purpose of my two blogs, Cynthia Parkhill: Library Assistant, Volunteer and Advocate and Librarian on a Bicycle.

Continuing interest in information literacy

Learning to evaluate websites for credibility has been an ongoing subject for concern, revisited this week in response to an assignment for LIBT 210, School Library/Media Center Operations.

‘Students Engage with Journalism’ on Slideshare

Book list: Students Engage with Journalism from Cynthia M. Parkhill

Originally written as a blog post on June 2, 2014, this book list has been formatted for insertion into a binder for easy use during reader’s advisory. It highlights four upper-elementary level books about students engaging with journalism.

Trolling: ‘part of the job’ for women in online media?

For The Mary Sue, Jill Pantozzi raises a valid question: “Is Dealing With Vicious Internet Trolls ‘Just Part of the Job’ For Women In Online Media?” She links to a piece in which “Jezebel Staff” describe the placing of violent pornographic images in the discussion section of their articles.

Although Jezebel staffers can manually dismiss comments and ban offensive commentators, “Literally nothing” stops abusive posters from signing up for another untraceable account and posting more abusive images. “It’s like playing whack-a-mole with a sociopathic Hydra.”

‘Open’ verification of information and source

How do we define verification in 2014? For PBS MediaShift, Julie Posetti writes thoughtful commentary about journalists’ use of social media to verify content and source.

Steve Buttry to teach at LSU

Steve Buttry

Steve Buttry, my mentor in social media, fact checking and media ethics, announced this week that he will teach full-time at the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication.

Earlier this year, Buttry became a free agent, following layoffs by Digital First Media (DFM).

Buttry’s announcement this week was welcome, awesome, news to this former DFM journalist. His full-time role of educator seems like a really good fit.

Read-alikes: Students engage with journalism

Student journalism is a rich subject to explore for themes that include the ethics of reporting and the responsibility of a news publisher to the community it serves. This booklist features several books written for upper-elementary reading audiences. While the youthful protagonists come from varying backgrounds, they all engage with the power and responsibility of news media.

My journalism mentor seeks new opportunity

Steve Buttry

Steve Buttry, a mentor of mine, announced that he’s a free agent, following layoffs by Digital First Media.

Until February 2013, I worked at the Lake County Record-Bee in northern California. Owned by MediaNews Group, it joined the DFM family when MediaNews appointed John Paton as its CEO and entered an agreement with Digital First Media to provide management services.

The move brought a change in emphasis from next-day print journalism to “digital first” publication across websites and social media.

‘The Last Newspaper Boy in America’

David family males have delivered the newspaper in Steele, Penn. for as long as the town has existed, with each boy taking over the route when he turns 12 years old.

On the eve of his 12th birthday, Wil David receives unwelcome news: the Cooper County Caller will end newspaper delivery to Steele.

Author Sue Corbett brings the perspective of a former youth carrier to her story of a town trying to survive hard times. Interwoven with Wil’s crusade to save the newspaper route is an effort by Steele residents to attract new business to the town’s closed hairpin factory.

Combine this with shady dealings at the county fair and Corbett’s novel is an exciting one. The title of each chapter cleverly mimics the newspaper headline-writing style.

Corbett, a journalist, accurately portrays the changing media landscape. When Wil researches articles online, the results are limited by paywalls.

And librarians may appreciate the library’s acknowledged role in bridging the digital divide: Wil conducts online research and checks his email on library computers.

‘Verification Handbook’

A new resource, “Verification Handbook,” offers guidelines for verifying online information and user-generated content.

I worked with one of the contributors, Steve Buttry, while employed at a northern California newspaper. As a library professional, I have a continuing vested interest in promoting information literacy.

The handbook’s contributors address a variety of topics including verification fundamentals, as well as applications for specific types of content. It also offers suggestions for putting “crowdsourcing” to work when verifying information.

The “Verification Handbook” was written primarily for journalists and for aid providers but, more and more, citizens are relying directly on online sources and bypassing professional outlets.

If you care about the accuracy of the information you consume, if you want to be information-literate, the “Verification Handbook” is worth checking out.

Autism: Letters help shape perceptions in media

At TheInvisibleStrings.com, M. Kelter offers perceptive analysis of autism coverage in the media, arguing that a wider range of stories are conveyed through the “new media” of blogs and social posts, but are limited to fragmented audiences.

No respect for journalists who condone child murder

At Mediaite.com, writer Tommy Christopher calls for a complete retraction and discipline for everyone involved in a CBS This Morning report that excused the murder of Alex Spourdalakis, a 14-year-old child with autism.

“On Friday’s CBS This Morning, reporter Sharyl Attkisson delivered a report that was fatally flawed on several levels, but I hesitate to even mention the reporting itself, because even if everything in the report was 100% above-board and true, it would not support the sick conclusion that permeates it: that Alex Spourdalakis’ mother had no choice but to murder him. This sounds like an exaggeration, surely, but it is not. This was the explicit message of CBS News’ report.”

Christopher offers a lengthy analysis of omissions and distortions in the CBS report. I won’t duplicate his efforts. Suffice to say the choice of footage and commentary suggests a no-win, hopeless situation in which child murder was the only way out.