Protecting Journalism Sources In The Digital Age

This Study, which covers 121 UNESCO Member States, represents a global benchmarking of journalistic source protection in the Digital Age. It focuses on developments during the period 2007-2015. The legal frameworks that support protection of journalistic sources, at international, regional and country levels, are under significant strain in 2015. They are increasingly at risk of erosion, restriction and compromise - a development that is seen to represent a direct challenge to the established universal human rights of freedom of expression and privacy, and one that especially may constitute a threat to the sustainability of investigative journalism. --Page 7.

The growing presence of digital technologies has caused significant changes in the protection of digital rights. With the ubiquity of these modern technologies, there is an increasing need for advanced media and rights protection. Media Law, Ethics, and Policy in the Digital Age is a key resource on the challenges, opportunities, issues, controversies, and contradictions of digital technologies in relation to media law and ethics and examines occurrences in different socio-political and economic realities. Highlighting multidisciplinary studies on cybercrime, invasion of privacy, and muckraking, this publication is an ideal reference source for policymakers, academicians, researchers, advanced-level students, government officials, and active media practitioners.

TRUSTING THE NEWS in a Digital Age How to use critical thinking to discern real news from fake news Trusting the News in a Digital Age provides an ethical framework and the much-needed tools for assessing information produced in our digital age. With the tsunami of information on social media and other venues, many have come to distrust all forms of communication, including the news. This practical text offers guidance on how to use critical thinking, appropriate skepticism, and journalistic curiosity to handle this flow of undifferentiated information. Designed to encourage critical thinking, each chapter introduces specific content, followed at the end of each section with an ethical dilemma. The ideas presented are based on the author’s experiences as a teacher and public editor/ombudsman at NPR News. Trusting the News in a Digital Age prepares readers to deal with changes to news and information in the digital environment. It brings to light the fact that journalism is about treating the public as citizens first, and consumers of information second. This important text: Reveals how to use critical thinking to handle the never-ending flow of information Contains ethical dilemmas to help sharpen critical thinking skills Explains how to verify sources and spot frauds Looks at the economic and technological conditions that facilitated changes in communication Written for students of journalism and media studies, Trusting the News in the Digital Age offers guidance on how to hone critical thinking skills needed to discern fact from fiction.

In order to improve global understanding of emerging safety threats linked to digital developments, UNESCO commissioned this research within the Organization's on-going efforts to implement the UN Inter-Agency Plan on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, spearheaded by UNESCO. The UN Plan was born in UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), which concentrates much of its work on promoting safety for journalists.

Journalists and Confidential Sources explores the fraught and widespread reliance by journalists on anonymous sources, whistleblowers, and others to whom they owe an obligation of confidentiality. It examines the difficulties afflicting such relationships; analyses the deteriorating "right to know" and freedom of expression frameworks; and explores solutions and reforms. The book discusses key Australian and international source protection ethics rules, statutes, court cases, law enforcement actions, and case studies. It highlights weakness in journalists’ professional practice codes governing confidentiality obligations; discusses inadequate journalistic appreciation of the importance of establishing clear terms and conditions underpinning confidentiality obligations; and identifies shortcomings in the law governing source protection. The book argues that despite source protection being widely recognised as an important ideal, source protection is under sustained assault, thereby undermining public access to information, and democracy itself. The work focusses on Australia but takes into account source protection in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. This timely contribution to the global discussion on the subject will greatly interest journalists, scholars, educators, and students especially in the areas of media law and policy, journalism, media and communication studies, and public relations; the legal fraternity; and anyone who communicates with journalists.

The news media play a vital role in keeping the public informed and maintaining democratic processes. But that essential function has come under threat as emerging technologies and changing social trends, sped up by global economic turmoil, have disrupted traditional business models and practices, creating a financial crisis. Quality journalism is expensive to produce - so how will it survive as current sources of revenue shrink? Funding Journalism in the Digital Age not only explores the current challenges, but also provides a comprehensive look at business models and strategies that could sustain the news industry as it makes the transition from print and broadcast distribution to primarily digital platforms. The authors bring widespread international journalism experience to provide a global perspective on how news organizations are evolving, investigating innovative commercial projects in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, South Korea, Singapore and elsewhere.

Theoretically grounded and using quantitative data spanning more than 50 years together with qualitative research, this book examines investigative journalism’s role in liberal democracies in the past and in the digital age. In its ideal form, investigative reporting provides a check on power in society and therefore can strengthen democratic accountability. The capacity is important to address now because the political and economic environment for journalism has changed substantially in recent decades. In particular, the commercialization of the Internet has disrupted the business model of traditional media outlets and the ways news content is gathered and disseminated. Despite these disruptions, this book’s central aim is to demonstrate using empirical research that investigative journalism is not in fact in decline in developed economies, as is often feared.

This publication offers a groundbreaking look at recent evolutions in media freedom, independence, pluralism and journalist safety. These areas are explored in depth in each region and with respect to gender and global media. The overarching trend observed throughout the study is one of disruption brought on by technology and to a lesser extent the global economic crisis, with mixed results for freedom of expression and media development. World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development is a key resource for governments, the media, academia, the private sector and civil society, and is an essential read for anyone interested in the contemporary media environment.

Journalism is being transformed by the digital revolution. Journalists working for media organisations are having to file and update stories across multiple platforms under increasing time pressures. Meanwhile, anyone with sufficient literacy skills and access to the internet can aspire to practise journalism, and many are doing so. And yet journalism in any form still depends for its legitimacy on the observance of ethical principles and practices. For example, it has to maintain a commitment to telling the truth, and to minimise deception and betrayal; deal with conflicts of interest; protect sources and their confidences; know how to report on traumatised and vulnerable people; and know when to respect privacy. Journalism Ethics for the Digital Age covers all these areas and more. It traces the ethics of journalism from their origins in philosophy to the new challenges brought about by digital technology, with practical examples to show how ethical values and principles can play out in the real world. An invaluable tool for ethical decision-making, this is a book for professional journalists and citizen journalists, for students in the disciplines of journalism, media, communications, and applied ethics, and for the engaged reader everywhere.