Journalism: resources for study and practice

Since the presidential election of 2016 the impact of fake news stories, especially those amplified through repetition in social media, has been recognized as a serious threat to an informed public. Here are some ways to learn and take action:

• Reputable news organizations publish statements of journalism ethics such as these from the Society of Professional Journalists, The New York Times and National Public Radio.
• The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism hosted a panel discussion titled "Separating Fact from Fantasy: Is Fake News Undermining the Truth?" on January 19, 2017. The school published this article; C-SPAN offers the full video here.
• First Draft News provides "practical and ethical guidance in how to find, verify and publish content sourced from the social web." Their resources page offers verification tools useful for journalists and news consumers.
• Snopes, FactCheck.org and PolitiFact are fact-checking organizations which examine questionable claims made by public figures.
• EU vs Disinformation addresses Russian efforts to use disinformation to influence European politics.
• El País Hechos blog debunks inaccurate and deliberately false news items. In Spanish.

For many more links concerning fake news, see the library's Real News/Fake News guide.

• The tutorials offered by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism's Advanced Media Institute advise on the tools and skills used in multimedia journalism.

• The free learning tools at Newseum Ed include modules about media literacy, journalism history and freedom of the press. Free registration required for full access.

• The Journalist's Resource website from the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy offers research on current news topics, data sources and tip sheets on tools.

• The Global Investigative Journalism Network's website pulls in information from its nonprofit member organizations. It compiles accounts of real-world conditions for journalists working in foreign countries, guidelines on handling difficult situations and advice about legal defense.

Also available online from Oxford Reference (UCB access only)

CJR Issues v. 0 (1961) - v. 34 no. 6 (March 1996) available online from ProQuest Periodicals Archive Online (UCB access only)

For journalism published by newspapers and their associated websites, the library has access to a great number of databases which compile content from multiple publishers. They generally fall into two categories: databases built by acquiring the files of articles written on computers in recent decades up to today, and databases built by scanning page images of newspapers from older pre-digital years. The former will not provide an image of how the article looked in a print publication, and may lack photos and other illustrations. In both categories of databases the years and issues included will vary from title to title.

Databases with articles from recent years include:

The historical databases include:

For television news, documentary film and sound recordings, consult the web page of the Media Resources Center. Some media can be streamed to computers within the UC Berkeley Internet domain, but much of the collection is in physical format and must be used in the Center.