Digital Journalism WebQuest

The Columbia Journalism Review often publishes pieces titled "The Best and Worst of Journalism of..." which can be either monthly or yearly roundups of the best and worst of media. The lists are a helpful resource for both professionals in the industry who are seeking to do better as well as student journalists who are still learning the tricks of the trade. The "worst" list typically calls out reporters or publications that made a seemingly small error that made big waves in the news industry and in the general population. For example, the July 2016 post included the fact that many print publications featured a very large photo of Bill Clinton right under their headlines about Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman ever nominated by a major political party, which many interpreted as diminishing Mrs. Clinton's accomplishment. 

The goal of this WebQuest is to come to a better understanding about how reporters and editors make critical news deicisons and how these decisions can be reproduced by other organizations while also garnering significant attention from consumers online. 

You will be divided into small groups of "reporters." Your task is to scour the Columbia Journalism Review for something on the "worst of journalism" list that could have been done differently. After analyzing the Columbia Journalism Review's criticisms, you will come up with criticisms of your own and document your plan of action for correcting the mistake(s) in a short paragraph. Next, you will need to look for reactions on the Web. Social media outbursts are inevitable in the event of newspaper errors in our modern digital age of journalism. Not only can you find consumer reactions online, you can also find examples of news organizations that may have commented on the error or simply covered the same subject in a different manner. You will use Storify to collect a series of social media posts and explain how they contribute to your analysis of the coverage the Review commented on. 

Finally, you will use preexisting coding knowledge, gained from Codecademy, to build a webpage that highlights your findings and the changes you would make if you could. Refer back to Codecademy if you need help writing the code for this webpage, which should be simple in design. 

By the end of this exercise, you should come to understand how reporters decisions -- whether as small as word choice or as large as Bill Clinton's photo under a headline about Hillary -- come to impact the news industry and its consumers. You will also gain a better understanding of how the Columbia Journalism Review serves as a vital resource for both students striving to master the craft of journalism and the professionals who believe they have mastered it but always have more to learn. Finally, you will come away from this assignment with the understanding that websites like the Columbia Journalism Review serve as a "checks and balances" system for the news industry by praising great work, calling out what needs improvement and publishing guidelines and anecdotes with the goal of constantly improving the media landscape.

You are a reporter at a news publication. After reading the Columbia Journalism Review, you notice that they included an article from one of your reporters in this month's "Worst of Journalism" column. You and a team of reporters are now going to review the original publication and determine (1) what could have been done better, (2) how consumers reacted on social media and (3) how you can present your findings to the newsroom using a new webpage. Keep in mind, the Review does not always call out particle pieces, but may instead comment on how a publication left out facts, skewed a story, or misrepresented a portion of the population. So, you may not be redoing a whole story but may instead be determining what could have been improved upon in the original writing. 

1) Visit the Columbia Journalism Review (cjr.org) and enter the phrase "the best and worst of journalism" in the search box. In your group, review the search results. Choose one article from one of the "worst of journalism" lists and discuss what could have been done better.

2) Write at least paragraph about how your editorial team would re-do this story if it were possible to go back in time and start over.

3) Analyze how consumers reacted to the piece and how the same subject was covered by other news outlets. Try searching hashtags and key words on social media. Use Storify (storify.com) to create a blog post with at least six items that show consumer reaction and/or exemplary coverage by other organizations. 

4) Consider the analysis you just completed along with the paragraph you wrote about how you would redo the story if it were possible. Write a new headline, lead and three bullet points that would be included in the new story given all of this reflection. Use your knowledge from Codecademy (codecademy.com) to construct a single webpage that includes the new headline, lead and bullet points, as well as a link to the original story. 

5) Present your reflection, findings and new webpage to your fellow reporters (our class) for feedback.

Parts 1 and 2: The written paragraph about how your newsroom could have done better should show adequate discussion of the topic as well as a critical analysis in line with the Columbia Journalism Review's post about your organization's coverage. 

Part 3: The Storify component of this project should include at least six posts from social media as well as brief descriptions that explain how each post contributes to your team's understanding of where your organization may have gone wrong. 

Part 4: The webpage you create, based on preexisting knowledge from Codecademy lessons, should demonstrate that your group has analyzed the news and drawn new conclusions about the subject. 

Part 5: Your group should present your findings as if you are presenting to a newsroom, therefore leaving room for questions, feedback and even disagreement with your plan for renewed coverage of this subject. 

Congratulations! You have successfully evaluated a piece of journalism, utilized social media to understand where consumers stood on the issue, made a simple webpage and presented your findings to your newsroom. Going forward, be sure to approach the news with a critical eye. Always ask yourself if the story could have been done any differently -- what if the reporter had changed just one word, asked the question differently, or done more research? How would the social media reaction have changed? How would similar coverage by other organizations be different? 

As the most basic tenet of journalism tells us, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." Always check it out.