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INTERNET AS A
NEWS SOURCE
Panu Uotila
Online world is throwing up new source
actors for journalism, e.g. blogs
Can expand the news landscape by new
sources
Can open up towards a more deliberative,
and more opinion oriented approach to
news
Department of Communication
SOURCES ARE
FUNDAMENTAL FOR ALL
JOURNALISM
(Couldry 2010)
New ways of generating story ideas
Possibilities for engaging and cultivating
sources on social networking sites
New tools for checking background
information and verifying facts
Department of Communication
INTERNET SOURCES (Mabweazara 2013)
“The journalists are spending more time
in the newsroom surfing the internet for
story ideas rather than going into the
field to observe directly the events and
processes on which they report.”
(Mabweazara 2013)
Department of Communication
QRITIQUE
“Enabling journalists to get to data
without having to leave the newsroom,
the internet is taking away the human
face of journalism –news stories are
now devoid of the colour that normally
emerges from direct interactions with
sources.”
(News editor at the Zimbabwe Independent)
Department of Communication
QRITIQUE (Mabweazara 2013)
The problem concerning utilizing open data
is that the journalists don´t know what to
ask and the officials don´t know what to
give. (Kuutti 2009)
Need for analyzing tools, time and
competency for analyzing
Department of Communication
OPEN DATA
Need for normal journalistic source critique
Is it possible that the source knows the fact
that he is claiming?
What is the position of the source
concerning the matter?
Double checking, cross checking
Risk: Less face to face –contacts, less time
for fact checking
Department of Communication
CHALLENGES OF VERIFYING
ONLINE CONTENT
How you can identify a fake site or identity?
Can you trust official sources?
Can you trust NGO sources?
If you are quoting and mention the internet
source, are you responsible of the facts?
If someone is correcting online that your
story´s facts are wrong, what should you
do?
How you separate facts and opinions?
Department of Communication
QUESTIONS