James Bennet thinks it's time for a new term to describe journalism's current big trend: "Why make a ripping yarn or an eye-popping profile sound like something you have to file to the IRS?" Bennet writes for the Atlantic. But in CJR, Naomi Sharp quotes New Yorker editor David Remnick: "I think it's fantastic that the first law of evangelical Web theology, that no one would read anything long on the Web, has been overturned thoroughly."
Science writing news
The European Journalism Centre is registering students for a free five-week online course, scheduled for early 2014, in the fundamentals of using data in journalism. The course includes modules on the skills required to do data journalism. how to find data for stories, how to use spreadsheets and statistics to find patterns in data, basic cleanup techniques for "dirty data" sets, and using infographics and interactive presentations to tell the resulting stories.
The Huffington Post's Emily Swanson has bad news on public trust in scientists and science writers, but Faye Flam says that survey missed the middle ground: "There's no reason people should have blanket trust in journalists," Flam writes. "They should expect us to be clear and complete so they can follow the logic and evidence behind any given claim we're presenting. But the poll doesn't appear to offer anything along these lines as an answer."
Not much, writes Steve Almond in response to a reader's question about another writer's apparent reuse of his own work. As long as no one's legal rights to the work were infringed by its appearance elsewhere, the reuse "feels like more of a victimless misdemeanor," Almond says. "Am I suggesting that the writer in question did nothing wrong? Actually, if the editors in question knew he was using the same piece for both venues and didn’t object, then yeah, I guess I am."
Rebecca Rego Barry writes in Fine Books Magazine about a California auction house's offering of letters from Jack London, in one of which the author cajoles his editor into a slightly higher fee: "I couldn't see why an article ten times stronger plus my name was not worth five cents a word," London wrote. Two other letters in the group include some advice from London on managing "the threads of the plot" and a query to an authors' group in search of advice on rates.
It might not protect you and your sources from the NSA's high-powered surveillance efforts, but this article from Poynter's Jeremy Barr could help you head off accidental disclosures and casual snooping. At the top of Barr's list is PGP encryption for email. Also, "in addition to encrypting your email, many web security experts recommend using Tor to browse anonymously, encrypting your hard drive and setting up a Virtual Private Network to help protect your identity."
From Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview.org here's the worst of the worst of the year's health news releases. Highlights include a pitch for Dr. Paul's Piggy Paste, a cure-all for unsightly toenails; a dentist's press release on an epidemic of "Bulldog Face" and its health implications; various items touting "chlorogenic acids" or "ashwagandha," and of course, the story of how Oreo cookies may be as addictive as cocaine. More from Paul Raeburn.
A Mizzou graduate student talked to six narrative journalists, including Amy Harmon of the New York Times, who wrote about work on genetically modified oranges: "I like just being an observer in people's lives, and getting them to trust me, and writing stuff that's kind of intimate and trying to understand how these science issues are playing out in people's lives, up close." Also interviewed were Anne Hull, Lane DeGregory, David Finkel, Tom Hallman, and Chris Jones.
A book's cover is the face it shows the world and an important part of its marketing, designer Kimberly Glyder says in an interview with author Therese Walsh about the cover for Walsh's novel The Moon Sisters: "My job is to be more evocative rather than specific," Glyder says. "We’re trying to get book buyers to pick up a book in a store or 'click' on the book online. What may work as a literal interpretation of the writing is sometimes not commercially viable."