If you’ve not seen this interview with Ed Miliband, open it in a new tab now and watch it.
Lets be honest, if you didn’t know better you’d say it’s a parody of a political interview. What on earth must the reporter have thought!
Well, now we know! Damon Green’s explained his side of it, using the tweet-as-much-as-you-like service TwitLonger.
If you’ve spent today believing that the BBC actually broadcast the ‘C-word’ on Radio 4 at 6.30pm, you’ll probably appreciate the point I’m about to make.
Whether intentionally, accidentally or merely as a victim of poorly informed authorities or malicious japes, journalists need to be more and more careful about the information they’re giving out.
The impact of a piece of incorrect information can be huge. For example, many cucumber traders in Europe are apparently facing huge losses because of the current e-coli outbreak being hastily – and wrongly – blamed on Spanish cucumbers. According to The Grocer:
Suppliers were reporting that cucumber wholesale prices were down by as much as 30% in the immediate wake of the crisis, despite there being no evidence at all that the UK was implicated in the outbreak.
One Dutch supplier to the UK reported a decline in cucumber prices of 25% to 30%, and said he was “effectively throwing away” produce. “It shows how misinformation can damage the entire sector, the entire country in terms of the sale of fresh produce,” he said.
A fascinating journalism project, Homicide Watch D.C. tracks every homicide in one part of America. It’s editor, Laura Norton Amico, started it after moving to D.C. in 2009, and since then it’s built a following, a reputation and even a community of people wishing to pay their respects to their lost friends and relatives.
There’s a lot to take from Laura’s reporting style, taking the internet by it’s ears and shaking out any trace of a story. Read on to find out what inspired her to spend her time voluntarily reporting on deaths, how she finds stories that would otherwise go unreported, and what you can do to get the best out of the social networks.
How willing were the police and other organisations to provide details to you in the early stages?
I introduced myself when I launched the project, but got the feeling that no one really knew what to make of it. Who was I? A journalist? What were my credentials? If no one was paying me, was I legit? A blogger? What’s my agenda?
I still feel like a spend a lot of time trying to prove myself, but that I’m getting more and more recognition and help from the police and other organizations.