Category
Two of the most difficult things reporters are asked to do: approaching the recently bereaved, and confronting someone who does not want to speak. Both are widely misunderstood, and both are governed
A structure placing the most important information first and descending in order of significance — the opposite of most other prose, where you build toward a conclusion. The shape. The opening
Agenda setting is the media's influence over what people think about, rather than what they think. It is one of the better-supported theories in media research, and it describes something distinct
Any interest that could reasonably be seen to compromise a journalist's or outlet's independence — and the standard is appearance, not proof of actual influence, which is what people most often miss.
Because a chain of incentives between the laboratory and the reader systematically amplifies certainty and strips caveats — and the errors are introduced at several points, not only in newsrooms.
Modestly, with conditions — and the research is more encouraging than the pessimistic framing usually suggests, while falling well short of solving the problem. What the evidence supports: Labels
The lobby is the group of journalists granted privileged access to Parliament and to government briefings, operating under long-standing conventions about attribution. It shapes a great deal of
Through a self-regulatory system for newspapers and a statutory one for broadcasters — a split that is central to understanding why they behave differently. Broadcasters are statutorily regulated.
The physical distinction has largely disappeared. The editorial distinction it stood for persists, though imperfectly, and the vocabulary has shifted to reflect that. The original meaning was
Through a set of open-source verification techniques that have become a specialism in their own right, largely because unverified imagery spreads faster than newsrooms can check it. The core
Through a shrinking network of correspondents, a much larger network of local journalists, and increasingly through open-source verification — and the economics have changed the mix substantially.
Both involve releasing information without authorisation, and they differ in motive, protection and legal status — the distinction matters enormously to the person doing it. A leak is an unauthorised
Because reporting restrictions apply in defined circumstances, either automatically or by court order. Naming someone in breach of them is a criminal offence, which is why coverage sometimes refers
Through a daily editorial process balancing news judgement, commercial reality and the publication's sense of its readers. The choices are far less automatic than they appear. The process. Editors
They produce content about events and operate under entirely different obligations, incentives and accountability — and the distinction has blurred precisely as it has become more important. A
The news cycle is the rhythm by which stories emerge, peak and fade. Understanding it explains a great deal about why coverage looks the way it does. The traditional cycle was set by production
Because their revenue model was destroyed and nothing local replaced it — and the consequences are better documented than most media trends. The economics. Local papers were funded by local
Because the advertising model that funded journalism for a century collapsed, and nothing replaced it at comparable scale. What happened to advertising. Newspapers were historically funded mostly by
Because the number of outlets visible to a reader is not the same as the number of independent editorial decisions being made, and ownership determines the second. What concentration means in
The news desk reports what happened. The editorial line is the publication's institutional opinion. In principle they are separate operations with a wall between them; in practice the relationship is
An exit poll surveys voters immediately after voting, and it differs fundamentally from a pre-election poll: it asks about behaviour that has already happened rather than intention. That removes the
A poll estimates what a whole population thinks by asking a sample of it. The margin of error quantifies how much the sample result might differ from the true figure purely by chance. Why a small
Because the words carry precise meanings, and dropping them can be legally dangerous, factually wrong, or both. "Allegedly" signals that an accusation has been made but not proven. It appears
Fact-checking is a research process, and understanding the method makes it easier to judge whether a given check is any good. Two distinct activities share the name: Internal fact-checking happens