Journalism

The consumer series will be distributed across all Hearst Television stations and platforms.

As many parts of the journalism world shrank, fact-checking grew. According to the 2019 Duke University Reporters’ Lab census, 44 fact-checking organizations existed five years ago; there are 195 now.

Network news digital chiefs discuss the challenges of getting their services to users on the go.

ABC Owned Television Stations has won 2019’s Innovator Award, the top honor in TVNewsCheck’s Social Media Excellence Awards, for its Localish collective of highly engaging digital shorts. One secret: an indispensible “wow” moment in every video.

Fox News is considering launching a live linear feed of Fox Nation, its year-old subscription OTT platform that features a mix of original and repurposed shows for streaming and some live events.

The very concept of a “justified” killing — in police terminology, a “good shoot” — betrays the paradox inherent in police communications: A police department exists to protect the public and to protect itself, but can it ever really do both? In relaying information about a crime in which an officer may have been at fault, brand management becomes a priority. Victims — who more often than not are black — have long listened to police with skepticism, expecting misinformation about themselves and their communities. Journalists have struggled to tell the whole story.

Caroline Patrickis, digital reporter for Sinclair’s WJLA Washington, is the winner of TVNewsCheck’s Social Media Excellence Award for media talent. Her uncanny knack for capturing moving and meaningful stories in short Facebook videos has led to millions of shares.

Hank Price: “With the unfortunate demise of print, leading television groups are making an even stronger commitment to local investigations. They are doing this with a full understanding of the financial costs. Why? Because they are in the journalism business. That means putting the well-being of the communities they serve first, no matter the cost or political pressure.”

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has sued CNN for more than $435 million in a defamation suit filed on Tuesday in Virginia. The 47-page lawsuit opened by calling CNN “the mother of fake news” that was “eroding the fabric of America” and claimed that the network published a “demonstrably false hit piece” about Nunes on Nov. 22.

Despite Fox’s apparent misgivings about the practice, Jeanine Pirro and other Fox hosts and paid contributors have attended Republican fundraisers and stumped for GOP candidates in recent weeks. The practice, apparently routine at Fox News, is unusual elsewhere; most news organizations prohibit their employees from such participation on the grounds that it compromises the independence of the organization. A Fox spokeswoman said the network “has addressed the issue with its contributors and hosts, as well as third-party agents, such as book publicists, who book events.”

Bloomberg Media is dropping TicToc as the name of its two-year-old social-media news service, rebranding it as “QuickTake by Bloomberg.” The move comes as the media company preps the launch of an over-the-top streaming news channel in 2020, with the new QuickTake group merging its TicToc and longer-form digital video teams for a total staff of 80 dedicated to internet video.

The Los Angeles ABC Owned Television Station, winner of TVNewsCheck’s Social Media Excellence Award for large market stations, aims to “dial in to the information people are going to need” on Facebook. Its high engagement there reflects efforts to connect with the market’s sizeable Hispanic viewership and its deft management of topic-specific Facebook Groups.

Want to get around a regulation that limits who can own a daily newspaper? Just make it a less-than-daily newspaper.