Shop Talk

The panelists discuss a US Supreme Court ruling on whether people can record Illinois police officers performing their duties in public.

The AP reports the high court went along with a lower court ruling that found the state’s anti-eavesdropping law violates free speech rights when used against people who make audio recordings of law enforcement officers.

The panelists talk about the future of journalism, focusing on one particular start up that has enjoyed some success.

An article in Columbia Journalism Review labels This Land Press as “…perhaps the best for-profit local journalism startup in the country…” The article said This Land is on pace to turn a profit by next spring, just a couple years after it started.

The panelists talk about the challenges journalists face when so many public relations specialists are working to put their own spin on events.

The panelists discuss news coverage of the results of the 2012 presidential election.

Much of the discussion centers around Republican consultant and Fox commentator Karl Rove’s insistence on election night that Fox was jumping the gun by declaring President Barack Obama had won Ohio and thus earned enough electoral votes to be re-elected.

The panelists credit Fox for sticking with its projections – which proved to be correct. Ultimately reporting won out over partisan spin.

The panelists talk about a study that found Americans used nearly every news platform available in the weeks before the November 6 election.

The study was done by the Pew Research Center.  It said the biggest gains came on the Internet – both to the websites of traditional news sources and those native to the web. Television was found to be the most useful source of campaign news.

The panelists discuss an experiment at the University of Toronto to turn experts into journalists rather than journalists into experts.