OVER THE WEEKEND FOSSILMEDIC DISCOVERED AN EXAMPLE ON HOW THE NEW AGE MEDIA CAN QUICKLY DISTORT A STORY

On Saturday morning, an entry in the Alltop “Holy Kaw” website got my attention University makes Twitter class mandatory for journalism students. I emailed a link to some colleagues.

Firegeezer “suggested” (electronic nudge) to make it an item for the blog.

What was going to be a quick write-up became a 40 minute effort where I discovered that there was a huge difference between the original newspaper item and the Alltop item. Posted Twitter class required in J-School … or not.  Looked up Professor Ewart’s email and sent a message from my university email account.

Noelle Chun posted the Alltop item, stating that she is a journalism school graduate. On other posts she reveals that she attended Medill at Northwestern University. On her work Twitter account @Alltop_noelle, she posts “I’m a curator/evangelist for Alltop, your online magazine rack.”

Professor Jacqui Ewart posts a response to the Alltop item, and requests that one personal attack on her is removed. I post Professor Ewart responds to Twitter misrepresentation Saturday night.

This morning the original Alltop item is removed. I wonder of the 20-something Medill J-school grad reached out to the 41 year old J-school professor?

PROFESSOR EWART’S RESPONSE TO ME

Here are my thoughts. Call sloppy re-reporting and blogging!

So much wrong with the re-reporting of this story, and having been a journalist and journalism academic for 23 years it is distressing to see this unfold, but also fascinating. Thanks to those who mis-reported the story and mis-blogged about it for material for future classes! I say distressing because it is hard once a ‘story’ is out there to correct it. Thank you so much for being the only person who bothered to ask about this story and the error that occurred when it went “viral” – that is appreciated!

The original story/interviews were as follows: ABC 612 Brisbane; Reuters and MX (a public transport newspaper in Brisbane which networks to Melbourne). Some claim I was interviewed by SMH – I was never interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald for this story and a check of their story reveals that – tagline at bottom is from Reuters.

In my interviews the points made were:

1. Twitter was being used as an add on, ie addition to existing assessment in a journalism course (existing course) for students at Griffith University. It was introduced as a small part of the course whereby students use it as a tool for self reflection ie to reflect on how they went about the gathering and writing of their news story assignments; also to introduce them to the use of Twitter by journalists whose employers are increasingly demanding they use it as a marketing and self-branding and breaking news tool. Twitter is perfect as a headline writing tool and to get students to KISS – Keep in Short and Simple.

2. Not at any stage did I say to any journalist that this was a first – I said ‘as far as I know’ we are the first journalism course in Australia to use it as a tool of self-reflection for students and I emphasised there was at least one other university in AustralianI knew of which had used it as a reporting tool during an election. It is encumbent on those reporting the story to fact check and to check claims made by sources, just as it is on those blogging about this story and I have seen very  little of that!

3. I have been attacked on blogs and Twitter as a result of the incorrect reporting of this story by people who should know better. For example the re-reporting of this story which claimed a whole course was being offered on Twitter. I really don’t mind being attacked – gosh I have had enough of that in the past two years or so in the course of reporting other stories (see below).

4. As an academic who is a journalist- see my recent book Haneef: A Question of Character (a literary journalism work which reveals the back story of the Mohamed Haneef story – Indian doctor working in Australia charged with supplying material support to a terrorist organisation in the UK following attempted bombings in 2007)  the incorrect claims of commentators,and boggers is inspiring – all material for another book, another day. But this experience is also very disappointing.

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

A follow-up to our earlier post: Twitter class required in J-School … or not

Professor Ewart responded in the comment section of the Alltop “Holy Kaw” entry HERE:

Thanks Mike Ward for tracking the misreporting of the story about me using Twitter in a journalism class.

The original story was about journalism students in my news and politics class at Griffith University using Twitter as a tool for self-reflection. It forms a small part of the assessment in the course.

Those who read the SMH story thoroughly would realise that I was never interviewed by that newspaper, they picked the story up from an interview I did with Reuters.

The course in which my students are using Twitter is not a course on Twitter, it is just one of several assessment tools used in the course.

In interviews about this story I repeatedly mentioned that another university had used Twitter in a journalism course as part of the reporting of an election. An error occured in the re-reporting of the original story which made it appear that the whole course I teach is on using Twitter.

I am neither a social media professor nor some old guy! I am a 41-year-old woman, a former print journalist and am now a Senior Lecturer in Journalism – yet more errors in responses to the incorrect story.

San’s comments on this blog about me are defamatory – perhaps San needs to take a course to learn what defamation is and avoid it.

Mike Ward is correct when he suggests someone should have emailed me requesting clarification of the story – but nobody did and the incorrect claims remain uncorrected by those who made them. As David McGraw says Twitter is useful as a teaching tool for headline writing.

It is also a tool for teaching one of the mainstays of journalism: Keeping It Short and Simple.

But the real issue here is that those who misreported my story should now correct the record and they should have sought a response before running off at the keyboard.

To misappropriate a phrase, this is a “teachable moment.”  The Alltop entry is one day old, with 6,219 views and 402 re-tweets.

It took me about 10 minutes to find Professor Ewart’s contact information.

You cannot return a missile that has been fired.  I guess “fact checking” is not a part of citizen journalism.

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

Added: Professor Ewart posted additional comments on the Holy Kaw entry.

We sent a twitter message to Noelle Chun who made the Alltop post with the remark that she is “a journalism school graduate.” On her work Twitter account @Alltop_noelle, she posts “I’m a curator/evangelist for Alltop, your online magazine rack. ”

EITHER A SIGN OF THE END OF CIVILIZATION OR A TRIUMPH OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA MAVERNS.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on October 16th that Griffith University added “tweets” as part of a writing exercise in journalism class.

“Some students’ tweets are not as in depth as you might like. But I don’t know if getting them to write an essay is any more beneficial,” said Jacqui Ewart, senior lecturer at the university. SMH article HERE

On October 23, Switched.com commented on the story, using the headline University Adds Twitter to Curriculum and adding a graphic that is republished here:

The information starts to skew. The original newspaper article mentions an assignment where journalism students were required to “tweet” a story from the field. My impression is that was an assignment in an existing course.

Amar Toor, writing in Switched.com, makes a commentary that may have changed the story:

We understand the reluctance of some students to show up for a 9 AM class on something as apparently “colloquial” as Twitter. But it’s pretty inarguable that Twitter is the new face of media. For better or worse, the value of brevity in broadcast media is at an all-time high, and the next generation of journalists should at least familiarize themselves with the requisite tools — how exactly one goes about crafting an “in-depth” 140-character tweet is another question. Switch.com article HERE.

Seventeen hours ago, under the “Holy Kaw” section of Alltop.com, the story is titled University makes Twitter class mandatory for journalism students.

The post by Noelle Chun provides the following commentary:

As a journalism school graduate, I think this is silly. Why?

1. There are no rules for Twitter.
2. To truly succeed at Twitter, you should think outside the box—not how a social media professor instructs you to.
3. Most of the student journalists can likely learn the mechanics of microblogging on their own.
4. Why are journalists supposed to excel at Twitter again? Is there an economically sustainable model behind it?

Show me a class that will teach students how to write a great nut graf, headline or deck. Then we’re talking. Great tweets can come out of the foundations of good writing, the instinct for a good story and just a little bit of enterprise. So let’s work on those skills first.

Am I totally wrong here? See Holy Caw item HERE

Chun may not be wrong, but the assumption that there is a stand alone Twitter class may be. The path to Alltop never got back to the original newspaper article:

[via Mashable via PSFK via Switched (true story)]

No one sent an email to Doctor Jacqui Ewart, the senior lecturer at Griffith University interviewed by the Herald, for clarification.

Added:

Dr Jacqui Ewart is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities at Griffith University. She is a former journalist and media manager. She is interested in how the media represents Muslims and ethnic minorities.

Her research focuses on media representations, cultural diversity and the media, talkback radio, citizen journalism, and terrorism and the media.

She is the author and coauthor of several books and more than 30 journal articles. I have sent an email to Dr. Ewart asking for a reaction/response.

ADDED
Professor Ewart’s response.

Alltop removes item, Professor Ewart’s observations about her experience.