Comments on: Signals of churnalism? http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/03/02/signals-of-churnalism/ A conversation. Mon, 21 May 2012 12:30:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Churnalism.com Reveals Press Release Copy in News Stories | Martin Moore http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/03/02/signals-of-churnalism/#comment-18037 Churnalism.com Reveals Press Release Copy in News Stories | Martin Moore Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:18:06 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=13263#comment-18037 [...] People have tracked down churnalism about eye-catching new products (such as "Baby Gaga," ice cream made with breast milk), about new research findings from universities (for example, on the "protective properties of green tea"), about new police initiatives (e.g., the recruitment of teenagers by police to prevent cyber-bullying), about the "happiest time of the week" (7:26 pm on a Saturday, says a poll sponsored by a multivitamin company), and about the prose of Jane Austen (which might not be all hers after all, according to an Oxford study). People have pointed us to stores of press releases like www.eurekalert.org and www.alphagalileo.org so we can build up a bigger bank of comparisons. And there have been discussions about what might constitute "signals of churnalism." [...] [...] People have tracked down churnalism about eye-catching new products (such as “Baby Gaga,” ice cream made with breast milk), about new research findings from universities (for example, on the “protective properties of green tea”), about new police initiatives (e.g., the recruitment of teenagers by police to prevent cyber-bullying), about the “happiest time of the week” (7:26 pm on a Saturday, says a poll sponsored by a multivitamin company), and about the prose of Jane Austen (which might not be all hers after all, according to an Oxford study). People have pointed us to stores of press releases like http://www.eurekalert.org and http://www.alphagalileo.org so we can build up a bigger bank of comparisons. And there have been discussions about what might constitute “signals of churnalism.” [...]

]]> By: PR Agency http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/03/02/signals-of-churnalism/#comment-18036 PR Agency Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:34:11 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=13263#comment-18036 I think the concept of the site is fantastic, if you're having work done for you then it's a good way of checking that you're getting something original. It might push journalists to think harder about what they're writing, instead of falling back on clichés as a safety net. But of course there will be problems with certain things that can only be phrased a finite number of ways. It serves as a good indication of originality though! I think the concept of the site is fantastic, if you’re having work done for you then it’s a good way of checking that you’re getting something original. It might push journalists to think harder about what they’re writing, instead of falling back on clichés as a safety net. But of course there will be problems with certain things that can only be phrased a finite number of ways. It serves as a good indication of originality though!

]]> By: Paul Bradshaw http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/03/02/signals-of-churnalism/#comment-18035 Paul Bradshaw Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:44:15 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=13263#comment-18035 Like you say, it's a point I make in the post: the exercise was to identify potential RSS feeds that could be used with the Churnalism.com API to find specific instances where the majority of text was copied. So there would be no "wrongly suggesting that articles are churnalism" - the RSS feed would not be seen by anyone. Like you say, it’s a point I make in the post: the exercise was to identify potential RSS feeds that could be used with the Churnalism.com API to find specific instances where the majority of text was copied. So there would be no “wrongly suggesting that articles are churnalism” – the RSS feed would not be seen by anyone.

]]> By: Paul Bradshaw http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/03/02/signals-of-churnalism/#comment-18034 Paul Bradshaw Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:41:49 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=13263#comment-18034 You'd have to ask the Media Standards Trust, but I see no reason why not. You’d have to ask the Media Standards Trust, but I see no reason why not.

]]> By: David http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/03/02/signals-of-churnalism/#comment-18033 David Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:39:43 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=13263#comment-18033 I can see why you'd want to use potential phrases as possible signs of churnalism, but none can possibly be proof of churnalism. Looking at the list of phrases, only 'a survey said' would probably be proof of churnalism. I know you've made this point, but if the purpose of flagging up churnalism is to improve journalism overall, wrongly suggesting that articles are churnalism when they are not will only make it harder for people to take the concept seriously. I can see why you’d want to use potential phrases as possible signs of churnalism, but none can possibly be proof of churnalism. Looking at the list of phrases, only ‘a survey said’ would probably be proof of churnalism. I know you’ve made this point, but if the purpose of flagging up churnalism is to improve journalism overall, wrongly suggesting that articles are churnalism when they are not will only make it harder for people to take the concept seriously.

]]> By: Donovan Hide http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/03/02/signals-of-churnalism/#comment-18032 Donovan Hide Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:47:53 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=13263#comment-18032 There are two interesting problems: Finding news articles which are derived from press releases. Finding the press release from which these news articles were derived. These problems can be short-cutted if you have the original press release. Put it into churnalism.com and you get the news articles. However, if you don't, how do you find the likely articles? Your keyphrase approach is one technique. Another might be to put every news article through the search process and find the sets of articles which have common windows of text. From this subset find the windows which are common to all the articles and you have very likely part of the text which made up the original press release. These sections are then ideal Google fodder for finding the press release itself. Just append the terms "press release" to the query. You can do this manually by looking for quotes which look like they came from a "spokesman". This is something that could very well be automated. It seems users of churnalism.com have very strong hunches that some articles are press release derived and they use the article as the search text. Perhaps this is something that should be encouraged! Cheers, Donovan. There are two interesting problems:

Finding news articles which are derived from press releases.
Finding the press release from which these news articles were derived.

These problems can be short-cutted if you have the original press release. Put it into churnalism.com and you get the news articles. However, if you don’t, how do you find the likely articles? Your keyphrase approach is one technique. Another might be to put every news article through the search process and find the sets of articles which have common windows of text. From this subset find the windows which are common to all the articles and you have very likely part of the text which made up the original press release. These sections are then ideal Google fodder for finding the press release itself. Just append the terms “press release” to the query. You can do this manually by looking for quotes which look like they came from a “spokesman”. This is something that could very well be automated.

It seems users of churnalism.com have very strong hunches that some articles are press release derived and they use the article as the search text. Perhaps this is something that should be encouraged!

Cheers,
Donovan.

]]> By: Jo Badge http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2011/03/02/signals-of-churnalism/#comment-18031 Jo Badge Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:41:34 +0000 http://onlinejournalismblog.com/?p=13263#comment-18031 Hadn't seen Churnalism - what a great site. I do a lot of work on student plagiarism in higher education, so interesting to see how this site gives a good demonstration of recycling of information online. When students copy from news articles, you can never be sure that the course highlighted by Turnitin (plagiarism detection software) is the source that the student used as it's obvious there is so much recycling of news stories from press releases. Would your idea looking at signals therefore also compare articles to each other to find those which had copied from each other? (i.e. closer matches to on another than to the original press release). Hadn’t seen Churnalism – what a great site. I do a lot of work on student plagiarism in higher education, so interesting to see how this site gives a good demonstration of recycling of information online. When students copy from news articles, you can never be sure that the course highlighted by Turnitin (plagiarism detection software) is the source that the student used as it’s obvious there is so much recycling of news stories from press releases. Would your idea looking at signals therefore also compare articles to each other to find those which had copied from each other? (i.e. closer matches to on another than to the original press release).

]]>